Chris Hancock

Abstract

Flogo is a new programming language designed to facilitate children’s programming of robot behaviors. Flogo’s "live" interface and visual dataflow representation are intended to make programs more understandable, accessible and modifiable. This presentation reports three themes that have surfaced in exploratory research: Temporal structure emerges as an important conceptual domain; Real-time visual feedback introduces a new kind of learning about programs, which might be called "Gibsonian" learning; Episodes of successful tinkering prompt reflection on the nature and value of tinkering-friendly programming languages.