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
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
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
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