Our research focuses on the motivations to program computers through aspects of play that could appeal to girls' interests.We are designing a multiuser game that breaks some social and technical stereotypes for both girls and boys. Social interaction, strong role models, a mix of competition and cooperation, an understandable relationship between cause and effect, and a good motivation for learning how to program in the first place are important tenets of our design process.

It is useful to look at the (successful) grant proposal to the NSF submitted by Flanagan, Perlin, and Hollingshead on teaching programming literacy to kids.

Game scenarios generated by the group.

Smart Code Editor research

Links and Resources we've found useful:

Video Games, Toys, Robotic Pets & Entertainment

News story "Video games may be good for your brain?" referring to research by Daphne Bavelier at Rochester.

Kristofer Schlachter has mentioned the Gamasutra article "GDC 2002: Social Activities: Implementing Wittgenstein", which provoked three letters on response: (1), (2), (3).

Kristofer has also mentioned "The 2003 Report of the IGDA's Artificial Intelligence Interface Standards Committee"

Sveta has written an A-life perspective on Polly-world.

Some related projects:

Project name		Originator
Alice Project		Randy Pausch
Logo (now Microworlds)		Seymour Papert
Mindrover		Cognitoy
Moose Crossing		Amy Bruckman
OpenSteer		Craig Reynolds
Robocode		IBM AlphaWorks
Squeak		Alan Kay