Learners at the Wheel

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of programming environments which are freely available for use by novice programmers, particularly children and young people. What is interesting about these environments is the level of sophistication that they offer in terms of their development and support features, but also the motivating and engaging contexts that they provide, where programming is a means to a creative end rather than an end in itself. Furthermore, these environments can no longer be considered independent of their broader context of use, where the social and collaborative aspects of learning play a crucial role. This article considers five such environments: Scratch, Alice, Looking Glass, Greenfoot and Flip, examining their characteristics, and investigating the opportunities they might offer to educators and learners alike. It suggests that their learner centredness plays an important role in their appropriation and use. By looking at changes in the development of such languages and environments, the article considers the implications for both research and for education, particularly in light of the current computational thinking agenda.