<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">For everyone’s information…<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">All the best,</div><div class="">Don Slater</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" class="">
<div class="moz-forward-container"><br class="">
<i class=""><span style="font-size:16.0pt" class="">Call for Participation</span></i><p class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size:21.0pt" class="">Blocks and Beyond: Lessons
and Directions <br class="">
for First Programming Environments</span></b></p><p class=""><span style="font-size:16.0pt" class=""><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://cs.wellesley.edu/blocks-and-beyond" target="_blank" class="">http://cs.wellesley.edu/blocks-and-beyond</a></span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size:17.0pt" class="">Thursday, October 22, 2015,
Atlanta, GA</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size:13.5pt" class="">A satellite workshop of the 2015
IEEE Symposium<br class="">
on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size:12.5pt" class=""><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://sites.google.com/site/vlhcc2015" target="_blank" class="">https://sites.google.com/site/vlhcc2015</a></span></p>
<h2 class=""><span style="font-family: Times;" class="">Scope and Goals</span></h2><p class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Times;" class="">Blocks
programming environments represent program syntax trees as
compositions of visual blocks. This family of tools includes Alice, Scratch, <a href="http://Code.org" class="">Code.org</a>'s Blockly lessons, App Inventor, Snap!,
Pencil Code, Looking Glass, etc. They have introduced
programming and computational thinking to tens of millions,
reaching people of all ages and backgrounds.</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Times;" class="">Despite
their popularity, there has been remarkably little research on
the usability, effectiveness, and generalizability of
affordances of these environments. The goal of this workshop
is to begin to distill testable hypotheses from the existing
folk knowledge of blocks environments and identify research
questions and partnerships that can legitimize, or discount,
pieces of this knowledge. It will bring together educators and
researchers who work with blocks languages and members of the
broader VL/HCC community interested in this area. We seek
participants with diverse expertise, including, but not
limited to: design of programming environments, instruction
with these environments, the learning sciences, data
analytics, usability, and more.</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Times;" class="">The
workshop will be a generative discussion that sets the stage
for future work and collaboration. It will include participant
presentations and demonstrations that frame the discussion,
followed by reflection on the state of the field and smaller
working-group discussion and brainstorming sessions.</span></p>
<h2 class=""><span style="font-family: Times;" class="">Suggested Topics
for Discussion</span></h2>
<ul type="disc" class="">
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Who uses blocks
programming environments and why?</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Which features of
blocks environments help or hinder users? How do we know?
Which of these features are worth incorporating into more
traditional IDEs? What helpful features are missing?</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">How can blocks
environments and associated curricular materials be made
more accessible to everyone, especially those with
disabilities?</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Can blocks
programming appeal to a wider range of interests (e.g., by
allowing connections to different types of devices, web
services, data sources, etc.)?</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">What are the best
ways to introduce programming to novices and to support
their progression towards mastery? Do these approaches
differ for for learners of computing basics and for makers?</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">What are the
conceptual and practical hurdles encountered by novice users
of blocks languages when they face the transition to text
languages and traditional programming communities? What can
be done to reduce these hurdles?</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">How can we best
harness online communities to support growth through
teaching, motivating, and providing inspiration and
feedback?</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">What roles should
collaboration play in blocks programming? How can
environments support that collaboration?</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">In these
environments, what data can be collected, and how can that
data be analyzed to determine answers to questions like
those above? How can we use data to answer larger scale
questions about early experiences with programming?</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">What are the
lessons learned (both positive and negative) from creating
first programming environments that can be shared with
future environment designers?</span></li>
</ul>
<h2 class=""><span style="font-family: Times;" class="">Submission</span></h2><p class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Times;" class="">We
invite two kinds of submissions:</span></p>
<ol start="1" type="1" class="">
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">A 1 to 3 page
position statement describing an idea or research question
related to the design, teaching, or study of blocks
programming environments.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">A paper (up to 6
pages) describing previously unpublished results involving
the design, study, or pedagogy of blocks programming
environments.</span></li>
</ol><p class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Times;" class="">All
submissions must be made as PDF files to the <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=blocksbeyond2015" target="_blank" class="">Easy Chair Blocks and Beyond workshop
submission site</a>.</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Times;" class="">Because
this workshop will be discussion-based, rather than a
mini-conference, the number of presentation/demonstration
slots are limited. Authors for whom presentation or
demonstration is essential should indicate this in their
submission.</span></p>
<h2 class=""><span style="font-family: Times;" class="">Important Dates</span></h2>
<ul type="disc" class="">
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <strong class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">24 Jul. 2014:</span></strong><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class=""> Submissions due.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <strong class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">14 Aug. 2015:</span></strong><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class=""> Author
notification.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <strong class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">4 Sep. 2015:</span></strong><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class=""> Camera ready
copies due.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <strong class=""><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">22 Oct. 2015:</span></strong><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class=""> Workshop in
Atlanta.</span></li>
</ul>
<h2 class=""><span style="font-family: Times;" class="">Organizers</span></h2>
<ul type="disc" class="">
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Franklyn Turbak
(chair), Wellesley College</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">David Bau, Google</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Jeff Gray,
University of Alabama</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Caitlin Kelleher,
Washington University, St. Louis</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Josh Sheldon, MIT</span></li>
</ul>
<h2 class=""><span style="font-family: Times;" class="">Program Committee</span></h2>
<ul type="disc" class="">
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Neil Brown,
University of Kent</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Dave Culyba,
Carnegia Mellon University</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Sayamindu
Dasgupta, MIT</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Deborah Fields,
Utah State University</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Neil Fraser,
Google</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Mark Friedman,
Google</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Dan Garcia,
University of California, Berkeley</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Benjamin Mako
Hill, University of Washington</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Fred Martin,
University of Massachusetts Lowell</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Paul
Medlock-Walton, MIT</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Yoshiaki
Matsuzawa, Aoyama Gakuin University</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Amon Millner,
Olin College</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Ralph Morelli,
Trinity College</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Brook Osborne,
<a href="http://Code.org" class="">Code.org</a></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Jonathan
Protzenko, Microsoft Research</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Ben Shapiro,
Tufts University</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Wolfgang Slany,
Graz University of Technology</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style=""> <span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Times" class="">Daniel Wendel,
MIT</span></li>
</ul>
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