VCL-VCL-Enhanced Enhanced Alice for Alice for

EducationEducationICA CON 2012

Richard Lucic – Computer Science, Duke UniversitySusan Rodger – Computer Science, Duke University

DiscussionDiscussion• The Problem – Demand for CS graduates exceeds

supply

• Our Contribution – Disseminating the Alice Programming Language

• The Cloud (VCL) – Supports and enhances our efforts

MotivationMotivation

• CS BS majors decline since 2001o 50% drop in enrollment

• Many other studies show the low number of interest in CS by females and underrepresented minoritieso 11.8% femaleo 5.3% hispanico 3.6% african american

How do we Introduce and How do we Introduce and Teach Science?Teach Science?

• Physics – experiments

• Chemistry – experiments

• Biology - experiments

How do we Introduce How do we Introduce Computer Science?Computer Science?

• Write a calculator• Write a banking program• Etc…

Why Can’t the Why Can’t the Introduction of Computer Introduction of Computer Science be exciting?Science be exciting?

• Programming – it’s always beeno Solitaryo Problem solving/debugging orientedo Frustrating!

• What’s missing?o Not Getting Exciting Results

Easily, right awayo Not appealing to today’s kids

in which media and technology are a part of their life!

Bring on Alice Virtual Bring on Alice Virtual Worlds!Worlds!

• Alice iso Hands-on!o Interactive!o Exciting Results right away!

• Alice has the potential to excite kids about computer science in the same way that experiments excite kids about chemistry, physics and biology!

Alice Programming Alice Programming LanguageLanguage

• Create interactive stories or games• Learn programming in an easy way,

drag-and-drop your code• Learn computer science concepts:

o Loops, classes, methods, functions, arrays

• Developed at Carnegie Mellon Universityo Professor Randy Pausch

• Alice is free: www.alice.org

Alice Programming Alice Programming LanguagLanguagee

• Has libraries of 3D objects

• Keeps Track of objects you select

Objects Have Multiple Objects Have Multiple Parts that are moveableParts that are moveable

Alice Code is Easy to Alice Code is Easy to LearnLearn

Select Code, Drag-and-Drop code in program

Play Alice AnimationPlay Alice Animation• Chicken rises, cow turns head and talks

CompSci 4 – Alice CompSci 4 – Alice Class at DukeClass at Duke

• Lecture for 10-20 minutes

• Students work on problem with computers in pairs

• Bring students back together

Success - Alice attracts Success - Alice attracts diverse groupdiverse group

• At Duke o CompSci 4 Spring 2005

• 30 enroll (12 female + 3 African Amer.)

o CompSci 4 Fall 2006 – 2 sections• 64 students, 33 female, 7 African Amer.

o CompSci 4 Fall 2008 – 2 sections• 100 students - > 50% female

o Advertised in school paper • picture of ice skater• Web site of animations

• Integrate Alice into high school and middle schools by training teachers (six sites):

• Durham site focuses on Middle Schools in NC www.cs.duke.edu/csed/alice/aliceInSchools

Adventures in Alice Adventures in Alice ProgrammingProgramming

Durham, NC Charleston, SC

Virginia Beach, VA

Denver, CO Oxford, MS San Jose, CA

Supported by the National Science Foundation Collaborative Grant ESI-0624642, 0624654, 0624528, 0623808, 0624479 and DRL-0826661, with additional support from International Business Machines

Durham: Adventures Durham: Adventures in Alice sitein Alice site

• Summer Alice Intensive Workshopso 3-week Teacher workshop

• 35-40 teachers, mostly middle school, some high school• Only a few have every programmed before• Subjects: english, math, science, history, art, technology• Teach Alice, Develop Lesson Plans

o One-week middle school camps• Taught Alice• Time to build their own Alice worlds

o Overlap between the two

How Alice Can be How Alice Can be Used in Middle Used in Middle

SchoolsSchools

• Teacherso Examples in lectureo Make interactive quizzeso Make worlds on concepts for

students to view

• Studentso Projects (in place of a poster, a

model) o To take quizzeso To view and answer questions

about a world

Other Teacher Lesson Other Teacher Lesson PlansPlans

• Matho Finding surface areao Rate of Change and Slope

• Scienceo Create a food chaino Sun, Earth and Moon systemo Tornadoso Physics – Newton’s law of gravityo Alternative Energy

• History/Social Studieso The continents – view world and

answer questionso Animated overview of Japano Animated overview of Egypt

• Englisho Write and animate a poemo Animate a poem or scene from a

storyo Write a movie trailer

Other Teacher Lesson Other Teacher Lesson Plans (conPlans (cont)t)

Follow-upFollow-up

• Teachers use Alice during the school year• Follow-up 2-3 day workshop in the following

summero How they’ve used Aliceo Successes and issueso Project Demonstrationso Use and feedback on VCL

Cloud Computing Cloud Computing (VCL) Support for (VCL) Support for

AliceAlice

Discussions with Discussions with TeachersTeachers

• What is VCL?• How does VCL Work?• What can VCL can do for

Alice Instructors?• Hands-on Demo• Workshop Resources

VCL Impact on VCL Impact on EducationEducation

• VCL represents a transformation in the business of education -- a transformation in how education is delivered

Virtual Computing Virtual Computing LabLab

• Motivationo Shared Compute Resources (Always

On)o Custom Compute Environments (Can

be Saved and Recalled at a Later Date)o "Distributed" Educationo Increased Utilization of Hardware,

While Meeting the Needs of Teachers and Students

Value for Alice Value for Alice InstructorsInstructors

• Update one (the VCL), run many (student machines)

• Shared Libraries• Ubiquitous Access• Shared Resources, Help

Files, etc.• CIPA Compliant (per

Durham Public School District Standards)

VCL Nuts and BoltsVCL Nuts and Bolts

• Web Reservation Interface http://vcl.ncsu.edu• Account Management (Alice Workshop Block)• Individual or group reservations• Running Alice in the Cloud• Saving resources to the Cloud

Web siteWeb site• Adventures in Alice Programming www.cs.duke.edu/csed/alice/aliceInSchools