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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Flowboard
T2 - How Seamless, Live, Flow-Based Programming Impacts Learning to Code for Embedded Electronics
AU - Brocker, Anke
AU - Schäfer, René
AU - Remy, Christian
AU - Voelker, Simon
AU - Borchers, Jan
PY - 2023/2/28
Y1 - 2023/2/28
N2 - Toolkits like the Arduino system have brought embedded programming to STEM education. However, learning embedded programming is still hard, requiring an understanding of coding, electronics, and how both sides interact. To investigate the opportunities of using a different programming paradigm than the imperative approach to learning embedded coding, we developed Flowboard . Students code in a visual iPad editor using flow-based programming , which is conceptually closer to circuit diagrams than imperative code. Two breadboards with I/O pins mirrored on the iPad connect electronics and program graph more seamlessly than existing IDEs. Program changes take effect immediately. This liveness reflects circuit behavior better than edit-compile-run loops. A first study confirmed that students can solve basic embedded programming tasks with Flowboard while highlighting important differences to a typical imperative IDE, Ardublock. A second, in-depth study provided qualitative insights into Flowboard’s impact on students’ conceptual models of electronics and embedded programming and exploring.
AB - Toolkits like the Arduino system have brought embedded programming to STEM education. However, learning embedded programming is still hard, requiring an understanding of coding, electronics, and how both sides interact. To investigate the opportunities of using a different programming paradigm than the imperative approach to learning embedded coding, we developed Flowboard . Students code in a visual iPad editor using flow-based programming , which is conceptually closer to circuit diagrams than imperative code. Two breadboards with I/O pins mirrored on the iPad connect electronics and program graph more seamlessly than existing IDEs. Program changes take effect immediately. This liveness reflects circuit behavior better than edit-compile-run loops. A first study confirmed that students can solve basic embedded programming tasks with Flowboard while highlighting important differences to a typical imperative IDE, Ardublock. A second, in-depth study provided qualitative insights into Flowboard’s impact on students’ conceptual models of electronics and embedded programming and exploring.
KW - Human-Computer Interaction
U2 - 10.1145/3533015
DO - 10.1145/3533015
M3 - Journal article
VL - 30
SP - 1
EP - 36
JO - ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
JF - ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
SN - 1073-0516
IS - 1
ER -