Programming With Alice

Resources - Learning To Program With Alice
By Wanda P.Dann
Stephen Cooper
Randy Pausch

Programming as a course,in this book was taken to a different level with the concept of keeping things simple.Introductory programming has always been a frustrating course for many students,and with regards to the topic in mind(Teaching kids How To program) it would even be more difficult.
The Alice system represents a breakthrough in teaching object-oriented computing.In Alice objects are visible,because they are represented as three-dimensional human,animals,furniture,etc. Computation is displayed via animations making it interesting in passing the idea of programming to students. Programming using Alice system takes an innovative approach to the subject.
A student in programming course should learn algorithmic thinking and expression,which is expressing in a logical way how an object can perform a task. Abstraction as a major part of programming explains learning how to communicate complex ideas simply and to decompose problem logically. One basic idea that is obvious in programming is that problem can be solved in different ways but all getting the same goal/results. Its also important to note that since they are many ways to solve a problem, Some are inherently better than others.

The approach allows students to author on screen movies and games,in which the concept of an object is made tangible ans visible. In Alice on screen,on-screen objects populate a 3D micro world.Students create programs by dragging and dropping program elements(is/then statements,loops,variables,etc.) in mouse-based editor that prohibits syntax errors.The Alice system provides a powerful,modern programming environment that supports methods, functions variables, parameters, recursion,arrays, and events.