Alice is a programming environment that allows students to learn basic computer science while creating animated movies and simple video games where students control the behaviors of 3D objects and characters in a virtual world.
Alice: (1) Visible Data, and No Syntax! (2) Creating Movies and Games as a Motivation for Programming
In Alice, students construct programs by dragging and dropping tiles that represent words in a programming language; Alice removes the possibility for syntax errors, a common source of frustration for beginning programmers. Students can watch their programs execute, which enables students to see where they have made mistakes. Unlike many programming environments for novices, Alice allows students to gain experience with all the programming constructs typically taught in programming courses.
The Alice gallery contains more than 700 characters and objects (2008?)
The Alice approach:
- Uses 3D graphics to engage students
- Has a “smart” drag-and-drop editor that prevents syntax errors
- Appeals to wide audience: Storytelling (young women, minority students), Interactive computer games (young men), Not threatening; Alice builds students’ confidence
Key Alice features:
- Makes objects something students can see and relate to
- Has a java syntax mode to ease the transition to C++/Java/VB.net
Uebrigens, Why is it called Alice?
First of all, it's not an acronym: Alice isn't A.L.I.C.E, and it doesn't stand for anything. The team named the system "Alice" in honor of Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. This honors a man who was both a great author of children's literature and a great mathematician. Just like the people who built Alice, Lewis Carroll was able to do the really complex technical stuff (high level mathematics and logic), but he knew that the most important thing was to be able to make things simple and fascinating to a learner.
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