Abstract:

Four types of knowledge are needed to acquire computer programming skills: basic mathematical knowledge, understanding of the usage of the integrated development environment (IDE), learning the syntax of the chosen programming language, and transforming the solution into the program's logic. Novice programmers have the most difficulties with the fourth type of knowledge, that is, with creating their algorithms for different kinds of problems. During the development of the logic of the algorithms, students have three types of control structures available: sequences, selections, and iterations. They have to combine these control structures to create the program's logic, which might sometimes be challenging. When students start to learn the basics of programming, mobile coding games might help them understand how to use the control structures. This article reviews few mobile games (Lightbot Hour, Code Adventures, DinoCoding, AlgoRun Free) that can be used to introduce algorithmization and programming. In these mobile games, children have to solve exciting tasks to control the movement of a character. The games use iconic representations of instructions to develop codes quickly by arranging various types of icons in the correct order. In this paper, we compare the implementation of the control structures in these games, as well. Furthermore, we compare the structure of the codes created in these games to the structure of the codes in the C programming language. Finally, we draw our conclusions and summarize the possibilities of using these mobile coding games in education.

Keywords:

Teaching programming, algorithmization, gamification.