{"id":{"repo_id":"mit","oai_identifier":"oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/139229"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/mit/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/139229","repository":{"repo_id":"mit","name":"MIT","base_url":"https://dspace.mit.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Designing and Testing a Mobile Creative Coding Application for Children","abstract":"Children are becoming increasingly engaged with applications on mobile phones. They use mobile apps to socialize, communicate, and play games. There is an opportunity to channel this familiarity and fascination with mobile phones in order to introduce children to computational thinking and creative expression. Towards that end, the Lifelong Kindergarten (LLK) Group is designing a free mobile application that will provide a motivating, creative, and accessible way for children to learn how to code through creating interactive animations that they can send to friends and family. This thesis identifies key design questions and challenges involved in the design of this new coding platform for children, reviews the strategies other mobile applications have employed in addressing related design challenges, and introduces a variety of solutions that our research team has developed, along with their affordances and limitations. This thesis also presents an analysis of data from conducting playtests and semi-structured interviews, and suggests lessons learned for other designers of mobile coding applications for children.","abstract_html":"Children are becoming increasingly engaged with applications on mobile phones. They use mobile apps to socialize, communicate, and play games. There is an opportunity to channel this familiarity and fascination with mobile phones in order to introduce children to computational thinking and creative expression. Towards that end, the Lifelong Kindergarten (LLK) Group is designing a free mobile application that will provide a motivating, creative, and accessible way for children to learn how to code through creating interactive animations that they can send to friends and family. This thesis identifies key design questions and challenges involved in the design of this new coding platform for children, reviews the strategies other mobile applications have employed in addressing related design challenges, and introduces a variety of solutions that our research team has developed, along with their affordances and limitations. This thesis also presents an analysis of data from conducting playtests and semi-structured interviews, and suggests lessons learned for other designers of mobile coding applications for children.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Green, Rachel A."],"institution":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology","degree_name":"Master","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Rusk, Natalie","Resnick, Mitchel"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-06","date_published":"2021-06","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:20:46Z","subjects":[],"languages":[],"rights":["In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted","Copyright MIT"],"rights_urls":["http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/139229","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Rusk, Natalie","Resnick, Mitchel"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Green, Rachel A."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2022-01-14T14:58:01Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2022-01-14T14:58:01Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2021-06"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master","Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted","Copyright MIT"]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/139229"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Children are becoming increasingly engaged with applications on mobile phones. They use mobile apps to socialize, communicate, and play games. There is an opportunity to channel this familiarity and fascination with mobile phones in order to introduce children to computational thinking and creative expression. Towards that end, the Lifelong Kindergarten (LLK) Group is designing a free mobile application that will provide a motivating, creative, and accessible way for children to learn how to code through creating interactive animations that they can send to friends and family. This thesis identifies key design questions and challenges involved in the design of this new coding platform for children, reviews the strategies other mobile applications have employed in addressing related design challenges, and introduces a variety of solutions that our research team has developed, along with their affordances and limitations. This thesis also presents an analysis of data from conducting playtests and semi-structured interviews, and suggests lessons learned for other designers of mobile coding applications for children."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["M.Eng."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Designing and Testing a Mobile Creative Coding Application for Children"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Rusk, Natalie","Resnick, Mitchel"],"dc:contributor.department":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science"],"dc:creator":["Green, Rachel A."],"dc:date.accessioned":["2022-01-14T14:58:01Z"],"dc:date.available":["2022-01-14T14:58:01Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2021-06"],"dc:description.abstract":["Children are becoming increasingly engaged with applications on mobile phones. They use mobile apps to socialize, communicate, and play games. There is an opportunity to channel this familiarity and fascination with mobile phones in order to introduce children to computational thinking and creative expression. Towards that end, the Lifelong Kindergarten (LLK) Group is designing a free mobile application that will provide a motivating, creative, and accessible way for children to learn how to code through creating interactive animations that they can send to friends and family. This thesis identifies key design questions and challenges involved in the design of this new coding platform for children, reviews the strategies other mobile applications have employed in addressing related design challenges, and introduces a variety of solutions that our research team has developed, along with their affordances and limitations. This thesis also presents an analysis of data from conducting playtests and semi-structured interviews, and suggests lessons learned for other designers of mobile coding applications for children."],"dc:description.degree":["M.Eng."],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/139229"],"dc:publisher":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"],"dc:rights":["In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted","Copyright MIT"],"dc:rights.uri":["http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/"],"dc:title":["Designing and Testing a Mobile Creative Coding Application for Children"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master","Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:20:46Z"}