Program-to-play video games: Developing computational literacy through gameplay

Introduction The ability to express ideas in a computationally meaningful way is becoming an increasingly important skill (National Research Council, 2010, 2011; Papert, 1980, 1993; Wilensky, 2001; Wing, 2006). diSessa (2000) argues that being able to express ideas in a computationally meaningful way can serve as the foundation of a powerful new literacy that will have widespread positive effects on society. Central to this new literacy is the ability to read, share, and express ideas in a form that a computational device can interpret and execute. Traditionally, these practices have been confined to the domain of computer science, but this view is being challenged by researchers and educators who argue that computational literacy skills are beneficial in a wide range of disciplines (Guzdial & Soloway, 2003; Wing, 2006). Part of the challenge of introducing learners to the skills foundational for computational literacy is designing learning environments that support the act of computational expression in a way that enables them to have early successes in a meaningful context. This paper presents the program-to-play approach, a design strategy for creating game-based learning environments designed to support novices in expressing ideas in a computationally meaningful way. Using RoboBuilder (Weintrop & Wilensky, 2012), we introduce the program-to-play paradigm and present data showing how this design approach scaffolds learners in developing computational literacy skills.