Playing with Metaphors: A Methodology to Design Video Games for Learning Abstract Programming Concepts

Tipo de publicación: Conference Paper

Publicado en: Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Innovation & Technology in Computer Science Education

Autores
  • Hidalgo-Céspedes, Jeisson
  • Marín-Raventós, Gabriela
  • Lara-Villagrán, Vladimir

Investigadores del CITIC asociados a la publicación
Dr. Jeisson Hidalgo-Céspedes
Dra. Gabriela Marín Raventós
Dr. Vladimir Lara Villagrán

Proyecto asociado a la publicación
Proyecto sombrilla

Palabras claves
  • learning
  • metaphor
  • programming language
  • video game
Resumen

Learning to program a computer is a difficult task for many Computer Science students. Constructivism theory states that learning is unavoidably done through association of new concepts with existing ones. In order to learn abstract programming concepts, like memory indirection and execution threads, students must build them upon life experience concepts. We hypothesize that easing the association process by using metaphors, and letting students program them directly through video games, can foster learning of abstract concepts. We propose a methodology to design video games under this principle, and provide an example using metaphors for difficult abstract programming concepts.

DOI BIBTEXT

Datos bibliográficos
Cita bibliográfica
Playing with Metaphors: A Methodology to Design Video Games for Learning Abstract Programming Concepts