JeCo: Combining Program Visualization and Story Weaving

2008

The novel concept of collaborative program visualization combines individually oriented cognitive tools with a collaborative environment. The concept is based on the socio-cultural constructivism in which collective actions are in the key role. In this context the learning process is acculturation into an established community of practice where the subjective feelings and knowledge of the participants is transformed into commonly accepted knowledge of the community. This process is supported by the environment called JeCo that supports both synchronous and asynchronous collaborative tools. Users of this new platform will collaborate in developing programs and solving together different programming tasks. The platform structure is the result of the union of two already developed tools: Woven Stories, which provides the collaborative environment, and Jeliot 3, which animates the programs.

Informatics in Education

In this paper, we present an open-source program visualization tool, Jeliot 3. We discuss the design principles and philosophy that gave rise to this successful e-learning tool and to several other related environments. Beside Jeliot 3, we introduce three different environments, BlueJ, EJE, and JeCo that use Jeliot 3 as a plug-in to allow visualization of the program code. Another system, FADA, is a tool that was derived from Jeliot 3 but serves for different pedagogical goals. A community of users and developers of these projects has been created and supported, that allows for global and iterative improvements of the Jeliot 3 tool. This way, both academic research and feedback from the user community contribute to the development. We compare the presented approach of the tool development to some of the current tools and we discuss several instances evidencing a particular success.

Algorithms, 2010

Both learning how to program and understanding algorithms or data structures are often difficult. This paper presents three complementary approaches that we employ to help our students in learning to program, especially during the first term of their study. We use a web-based programming task database as an easy and risk-free environment for taking the first steps in programming Java. The Animal algorithm visualization system is used to visualize the dynamic behavior of algorithms and data structures. We complement both approaches with tutorial videos on using the Eclipse IDE. We also report on the experiences with this combined approach.

2004

JIVE (Java interactive software visualization environment) is a system for the visualization of Java coded algorithms and data structures. It supports the rapid development of interactive animations through the adoption of an object oriented approach. JIVE introduces several significant innovations such as a distributed architecture able to separate transparently the visualization activity from the underlying communication needed to support it. Therefore, it becomes possible to use JIVE in a variety of scenarios ranging from debugging algorithms to software visualization in virtual classrooms environments. Moreover, JIVE uses a zoomable user interface for representing algorithms: seamless visualization of both small and large data sets is achieved by using semantic zooming. Finally, JIVE comes with a collection of already animated data types including data structures provided by the Java standard library

Jeliot 3 visualizes the execution flow of a Java program by showing the current state of the program (e.g., methods, variables, and objects) and animations of expression evaluations and loops. Jeliot 3 evolved from a previous version called Jeliot 2000. The new version was

Journal of Universal Computer Science, 2005

Computer Programming learning is a difficult process. Experience has demonstrated that many students find it difficult to use programming languages to write programs that solve problems. In this paper we describe several educational computer tools used successfully to support Programming learning and we present a global environment which integrates them, allowing a broader approach to Programming teaching and learning. This environment uses program animation and the Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) paradigm.

A set of eleven categories of learning activities is presented in this study which could be performed by the students using the tools of the well-known educational software Storytelling Alice that is dedicated for the learning of programming by novices. Specifically, eleven categories of learning activities that could be performed within Storytelling Alice were formed, namely: (i) Free creative activities, (ii) Creating a specific story, (iii) Multiple solution tasks, (iv) Experimentation within working Storytelling Alice projects, (v) Modification of working Storytelling Alice projects, (vi) Working on a complete Storytelling Alice story and a correct but incomplete part of its code, (vii) Working on a complete Storytelling Alice story and a mixed form of its code, (viii) Working with a complete Storytelling Alice story and an incorrect part of its code, (ix) Working with the complete code of a Storytelling Alice story and predicting its output, (x) Black-box activities, and (xi) Collaborative learning activities. The aforementioned categories of learning activities can be used in the computer science classroom to support novices in learning programming within Storytelling Alice.

2010

We describe a pedagogic tool called JIVE (Java Interactive Visualization Environment) for clarifying the dynamic behavior of Java programs. The tool has the following main goals: provide clear visualizations of execution state and call history, with varying levels of granularity; show method calls within object contexts; support declarative queries over executions; and, support forward and reverse stepping. JIVE employs extensions of UML object and sequence diagrams to represent execution state and call history. While these diagrams are normally used as design-time specifications, their use for depicting run-time behavior helps close the gap between design and execution. We illustrate the use of JIVE for understanding typical data structure operations. JIVE has been tested in programming language courses for the past three years.

Computer Science Education, 1998

Systems and methodologies have been developed to improve the learning and practice of programming. We examine the kinds of support tools that have been developed to date, and we discuss their role in meeting the needs of beginning students. We begin with a literature review to summarize the actual difficulties involved in learning the tasks of program development. A comprehensive survey of environments developed to support the learning of problem solving and programming follows, covering programming environments, debugging aids, intelligent tutoring systems, and intelligent programming environments. A careful analysis of these systems uncovers the limitations that have prevented them from accomplishing their goals.