November 7, 2007
Alexander Repenning
AgentCubes: Raising the Ceiling of End-User
Development in Education through Incremental 3D
Abstract
Now that we have end-user programming environments
capable of empowering kids with no programming background to build games in a
matter of hours, a new quest for raising the ceiling of end-user development
is emerging. Environments not only focusing on programming, but also including
rich media such as 3D, could work as compelling tools for introducing information
technology at the K-12 level, addressing even the problem of dwindling numbers
of computer science student enrollments at universities. The new challenge is
raising the ceiling without raising the threshold. Based on our experience with
AgentSheets, which has been used worldwide for computational science and game
design applications, we created a new authoring tool called AgentCubes. This
article discusses the notion of Incremental 3D as a design approach for media-rich
end-user development with low threshold and high ceiling in education.
bio:
Alexander Repenning is a computer science professor at the University of Colorado,
visiting the University of Lugano, and the founder of AgentSheets Inc. Repenning’s
research interests include education, end-user programmable agents, and artificial
intelligence. He has worked in research and development at Asea Brown Boveri,
Xerox PARC, Apple Computer, and Hewlett Packard. Repenning is the creator of
the AgentSheets simulation and game-authoring tool. He has taught game design
nationally at Stanford, the MIT Media Lab, and University of Colorado as well
as internationally in Europe and Japan. His work has received numerous awards
including the Gold Medal from the mayor of Paris for “most innovative
application in education of the World Wide Web” and “best of the
best innovators” by ACM. Repenning is an advisor to the National Academy
of Sciences, the European Commission, the National Science Foundation, The
Japanese Ministry of Education and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development.
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