An Embodied, Augmented Reality Coding Platform for Pair Programming

增强现实（AR）允许通过将计算机生成的对象“添加”到现实世界中来增强或增强现实世界。例如，一家服装店可以使用AR技术让顾客在购买衣服之前“看到”衣服穿在自己身上的样子。加州大学圣地亚哥分校的这个项目将使用AR来创建一个环境，学生可以在AR环境中练习结对编程。结对编程是一种软件开发技术，在这种技术中，两个程序员在一个工作站上一起编写同一段代码。戴上增强现实头盔，学生们将能够在三维空间中使用熟悉的手势，如指向和抓取，来操作一段代码。使用AR编程环境，让学生沉浸在他们的代码中，将产生更直观和协作的计算体验，这将吸引对编程缺乏信心的学习者，同时支持他们的计算思维能力的增长。将开发一个以人为中心的AR编码平台，用于创建三维资产、艺术品和计算逻辑。该平台将是一个合并的数字/物理工作空间，其中代码的空间表示、交互输出和用户编辑活动同时定位。在佩戴AR头显时，学习者将在真实空间中操纵虚拟代码块来组装程序，并通过评估他们创建的表示来调试代码。该方法将建立在成功的视觉学习技术（如Scratch）的可访问性和游戏感的基础上，但将利用三维物理世界中的感知、行动和社会互动的常规模式。其目标是增加传统上在计算机科学教育和职业道路上代表性不足的群体的参与和兴趣，包括女性和一些少数民族学生，他们往往对stem相关能力表现出相对于其他学生较低的信心。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Augmented reality (AR) allows the real world to be enhanced, or augmented, by computer-generated objects that are “added” to the real world. For example, a clothing store may use AR to allow a customer to “see” how clothes would look on them before they are purchased. This project at University of California San Diego will use AR to create an environment in which students can practice pair programming in an AR environment. Pair programming is a software development technique in which two programmers work together at one workstation, on the same piece of code. Wearing AR headsets, students will be able to manipulate, in three-dimensional space, using familiar gestures such as pointing and grabbing, a piece of code. The use of a AR programming environment, that immerses students in their code, will result in a more intuitive and collaborative computing experience that will engage learners with low confidence in programming, while supporting growth in their computational thinking abilities.A human-centered AR coding platform will be developed for the creation of three-dimensional assets, artwork, and computational logic. This platform will be a merged digital/physical workspace where spatial representations of code, interactive outputs, and user editing activities are simultaneously located. While wearing AR headsets, learners will manipulate virtual code blocks in real space to assemble programs, and they will debug their code by evaluating the representations that they create. The approach will build on the accessibility and sense of play in successful visual learning technologies (e.g., Scratch), but will leverage regular patterns of perception, action, and social interaction in the three-dimensional physical world. The goal is to increase participation and interest in groups traditionally underrepresented in the educational and career pathways of computer science, including females and some minority students, who often exhibit lower confidence in STEM-related abilities relative to other students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.