Abstract
We assume that there are three obstacles to learn programming: 1) elements of programming languages, 2) devices of educational tools for programming and 3) user interfaces of educational tools for programming. To the best of our knowledge, there is no educational tool for programming which removes the three obstacles.
We propose a new educational tool for programming, named ManekkoDance. ManekkoDance has three features: 1) it manipulates cute a teddy bear robot and a cardboard robot, 2) it works on Android smartphones and tablets and 3) it provides a new programming language based on emoticons and Japanese. We evaluated ManekkoDance using questionary investigation in the open house of National Institute of Informatics. We collected 29 answers from high school students, 13 answers from other participants and 295 answers from mostly junior high school and high school students, then we found MannekoDance motivated them to learn programming, improved impressions of programming and helped to understand procedures, loops and conditions.
