Program animation

Leading team

• Prof. Mordechai (Moti) Ben-Ari
• Prof. Erkki Sutinen
• Dr. Niko Myller
• Dr. Andres Moreno

Project members

• Gil Ebel
• Dr. Ronit Ben-Bassat Levy

Summary

The project developed and investigated Jeliot, a system for automatic animation of computer programs. The project was a collaboration of the Weizmann Institute of Science and the University of Joensuu in Finland. Research showed that novices learning computer programming were better able to understanding programming constructs. Teachers who were asked to adopt the system demonstrated four behaviors: 1. Adapting the system and integrating it into their own style of teaching, 2. Using the system “by-the-book” as when they were taught the system, but without integrating it into their teaching, 3. Rejecting the use of the system, claiming that it did not help the students, 4. Dissonance brought about by feeling that they lacked control over the system.

project website

Links for further reading

• Ronit Ben-Bassat Levy. Teaching Computer Science with Animation: Attitudes and Ways of Experiencing, 2009. (PHD Thesis)
• Ronit Ben-Bassat Levy. The Use of Animation as an Educational Tool, 2002. (MSC Thesis)
• R. Ben-Bassat Levy, M. Ben-Ari, P.A. Uronen. (2003). The Jeliot 2000 program animation system. Computers & Education 40(1), 1–15.
• R. Ben-Bassat Levy, M. Ben-Ari. (2009). Adapting and merging methodologies in doctoral research. Computer Science Education, 19(2), 51–67.
• N. Myller, R. Bednarik, M. Ben-Ari, E. Sutinen. (2009). Extending the engagement taxonomy: Software visualization and collaborative learning. ACM Transactions on Computing Education, 7:1–7:27.
• M. Ben-Ari, R. Bednarik, R. Ben-Bassat Levy, G. Ebel, A. Moreno, N. Myller, E. Sutinen. A decade of research and development on program animation: The Jeliot experience.Journal of Visual Languages and Programming 22 (2011) 375-384.
• R. Ben-Bassat Levy, M. Ben-Ari, P.A. Uronen. (2000). An extended experiment with Jeliot 2000. First Program Visualization Workshop. Porvoo, Finland, 131–140.
• A. Moreno, N. Myller, E. Sutinen, M. Ben-Ari. (2004). Visualizing programs with Jeliot 3. Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces, Gallipoli, Italy, 373–376.
• G. Ebel, M. Ben-Ari. (2006). Affective effects of program visualization. Second International Computing Education Research Conference. Canterbury, UK, 1–5.
• R. Ben-Bassat Levy, M. Ben-Ari. (2007). We work so hard and they don’t use it: Acceptance of software tools by teachers. Twelfth SIGCSE Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. Dundee, UK, 246–250.
• M. Ben-Ari. (2008). The effect of the Jeliot animation system on learning elementary programming. Fourth Greek Conference on the Didactics of Informatics. Patras, Greece.
• R. Ben-Bassat Levy, M. Ben-Ari. (2008). Perceived behavior control and its influence on the adoption of software tools. Thirteenth SIGCSE Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. Madrid, Spain, 169–173.
• R. Ben-Bassat Levy, M. Ben-Ari. (2009). A survey of research on the Jeliot program animation system. Fourth Annual Chais Conference on Instructional Technologies Research: Learning in the Technological Era.
• M. Ben-Ari, N. Ragonis, R. Ben-Bassat Levy. (2002). A vision of visualization in teaching object-oriented programming. Second Program Visualization Workshop. HornstrupCentret, Denmark, 83–89.
• M. Ben-Ari, N. Myller, E. Sutinen, J. Tarhio. (2002). Perspectives on program animation with Jeliot. Software Visualization: International Seminar. Dagstuhl Castle, Germany, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2269, 31–45.

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