MOOSE Crossing

Ages	10, 11, 12
FieldActivity	Empowered Learner, Computational Thinker, Creative Communicator, Global Collaborator
Purpose	Мини-язык для обучения
Visual_Text_Blocks	Текст
Dimension	2D
Openness	Открытый
Address
Ancestors	Logo
Descendants	Scratch
ActiveNow	Project is closed
Remixing?	Yes

MOOSE Crossing is a networked programming environment built for children. It is an adapted text-based MUD (multi-user dungeon) in which children can use an objectoriented scripting language to create spaces and characters that inhabit a textual world. Children often create spaces and characters similar to those found in text adventure games such as castles complete with secret passages that other children can explore. Once their projects are completed, any child in the MOOSE Crossing environment can interact with them. In addition, the environment allows children to view the scripts controlling any object or character in the environment and chat with children that are currently logged onto MOOSE Crossing. In general, children work alone on projects but one child will often use another child’s project as an example. Children may also ask another user for help or advice. The MOOSE Crossing community has provided a source of help, role models, and positive feedback for users of the system as they create their own projects.

См. Брукман:

• Bruckman, A.S.: MOOSE crossing : construction, community and learning in a networked virtual world for kids. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1997).
• Bruckman, A. (1998). Community support for constructionist learning. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 7(1–2), 47–86. https://www.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/papers/journal/cscw.html

Bruckman focused on principles for creating meaningful online communities for learning programming at earlier ages:

• Maximize each individual’s opportunities for creative expression and active participation.
• Assume that average people are smarter and more creative than what is typically assumed.
• Encourage users to be creators of content, and maintain quality by enforcing a minimal set of community standards.
• Develop an infrastructure for community support for learning.

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1.Guzdial, M.

Programming environments for novices. Computer science education research. 127–154 (2004).

MOOSE Crossing (by Amy Bruckman) again tuned Logo to a particular domain and task, but a social one rather than a scientific or academic task. MOOSE Crossing is a shared, textual, virtual reality. Students sign on to MOOSE with specialized client software and explore a world created by peer students (all under 12 years old)| and extend the world themselves. Students might create specialized rooms where everything said in the room is turned into Pig Latin, or specialized objects like pet dragons that follow their owners around. Students move around, control their world, and interact through Logo-like commands. These commands can then be strung together in procedures such that the dragon \wags its tail" (i.e., displays the words \dragon wags its tail" to all those in the same room of the virtual space) when the dragon is \pet" (i.e., some user in the same room types \pet the dragon.") The turtle is replaced with text describing the student-created world

Bruckman made several changes in the language for MOOSE, based on the expe- rience of years of work in Logo and her concern about making the language accessible to novice programmers. For example, she decided to remove the distinction between the name and the value of the variable. Variables were simply known by name, and whether the value or name was being accessed was determined by context, as in more traditional programming languages. Bruckman used the design principle of \Prefer intuitive simplicity over formal elegance" in make this tradeo® [6]. She made sim- ilar tradeo®s elsewhere in her language. Where say ``Hi there! How is your project coming? was acceptable in MOOSE, so was say Hi there! How is your project coming? in recognition that students had di±culty with syntax like matching quotes.