Learnable Computing with Kodu?

This paper looks at an afterschool program’s use of a tool called Kodu Game Lab to introduce middle-school students to basic elements of programming. It investigates the unique design of Kodu’s visual programming interface, and asks how learners think computationally with unique visual programming representations. To do so, it analyzes data from a programming challenge presented to middle-school program participants, and argues that the economy of activity embedded in Kodu’s interface design shapes and structures participants’ understandings of basic programming concepts in particular ways.