Abstract:

In our paper, we describe our research in the field of teaching programming to lower secondary blind students. We have observed suitability of three programming tools. There were two languages to program simple melodies and stories or rhymes. One of them was audio text-based programming language Alan and the physical programming language Code Jumper. In these environments, students can learn all the basic programming concepts without having to imagine how the object moves on the screen. However, it is important for the profession of programmer to be familiar with the computer screen. Therefore, we developed the Coshi text programming environment that allows to control a virtual robot in a square grid with assigned sounds. It is possible to change the audio layout and create a new microworld to solve challenges with different motivation. The programming language used in Coshi is easy with basic direction motion commands.
During verification of these environments, educational scenarios were created for several lessons. The students reacted positively to all three environments, they used all functionalities and gradually used more difficult programming concepts. We consider these tools to be particularly suitable for lower secondary blind students because they are related to block-based programming languages. Students are protected from unnecessary syntax errors, and they can concentrate on algorithms. Finally, they allow students to learn programming in a constructivist way.

Keywords:

teaching programming, blind students, programming environments, case study research.