Block-based Affordances

Through analyzing novices playing a program-to-play constructionist video game, we identify four distinct usages of the programming language: (

1. 1) serving as a means for expressing ideas to the computer,
2. (2) providing a record of previously articulated intentions,
3. (3) acting as a source of ideas for construction, and
4. (4) mediating the meaning-making process.

In formulating our framework for categorizing the ways that novices use block-based languages, we looked to the literature and found two distinct dimensions along which mediational roles differ that could lead to a productive classification that fit our emerging findings.

Table 1. The 2x2 matrix situating the four roles Block-based programming language primitives play in supporting novices.

Table 1. The 2x2 matrix situating the four roles Block-based programming language primitives play in supporting novices.

	Generative	Interpretive
External (Communicative)	Means for expression	Record of previously expressed intentions
Internal (Cognitive)	Source of Ideas	Resource used in meaning-making

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