1997 Volume 21 Issue 2 Pages 93-105
Effects of media and learner collaboration on children's programming education are discussed in this paper. Specifically, we compared two kinds of media, or programming tools; one applying a GUI using a mouse, and the other applying tangible blocks for building a program. In terms of learner collaboration, we compared individual versus group learning. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were carried out in the experiments. Children using blocks solved more problems and achieved higher scores in posttests. In addition, they showed vigorous verbal interaction, which led them to more sophisticated problem solving. In individual learning, however, no significant difference between the two media was found. These results show that the human interface in learning media affects the organization of learning activities.
