SBIR Phase I: Teaching Programming from the Browser: A Serious Business with Fun Rewards

拟议的小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段研究的目标是通过Web应用程序提供一个创新的编程环境，并证明这种编程环境的有效性。拟议的努力应该产生具体的市场证据：(I)有可能提供对3-8年级的教育工作者和学生有吸引力的内容，满足技术教学中规定的目标和标准；以及(Ii)将这种内容作为网络应用程序交付到典型的课堂计算机上是可行的。美国的学校面临着一个难题，即必须为学生提供足够的技术背景，同时又没有足够的时间和资源来使这种培训成为可能。这项研究的商业化战略有两个方面：(I)通过向学校提供高质量的教育内容来提高品牌知名度和思想共享；(Ii)从面向13岁以下人口的十大目的地网站获得主要收入来源，该网站为儿童提供更多的娱乐性和建设性的校外活动。所有内容都将向用户免费开放。这项拟议的研究的目的是将基本编程作为有趣的、创造性的经济学、数学和科学方法课程计划的一部分来教授，学生和教师都认为技术编程活动在正常学习范围内。通过利用网络作为交付平台，这项研究使任何学校或个人都可以访问互联网上的技术教育。这项拟议的研究有机会在一个被许多最近的政策报告确定为我们国家迅速出现的危机的领域获得社会收益：教育我们的孩子掌握适当水平的技术流利，并为他们为未来几十年的劳动力做好适当的准备。

The objective of the proposed Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I research is to deliver an innovative programming environment via Web-application and to prove the effectiveness of this programming environment. The proposed effort should result in concrete market evidence that: (i) it is possible to deliver content that appeals to educators and students for grades 3-8 that meets stated goals and metrics in the teaching of technology; and (ii) delivery of such content as a Web-application onto typical classroom computers is practical. U.S. schools are faced with the conundrum of having to provide students with an adequate technical background, while having limited time and resources to make such training possible. The commercialization strategy of the research is two-fold: (i) to increase brand awareness and mind-share through the delivery of high-quality, educational content to schools; and (ii) to derive a primary revenue stream from a top-ten destination site for the under-13 demographic that delivers additional, entertaining and constructive activities to children for out-of-school use. All content will be free to users. It is the aim of the proposed research to teach basic programming as part of a fun, creative lesson plans in economics, math, and scientific methods, where both student and teacher see the technology programming activity as within the normal scope of learning. By utilizing the Web as a delivery platform, the research makes technology education accessible to any school or individual with access to the Internet. The proposed research has the opportunity for societal gains in an area that has been identified in numerous recent policy reports as a fast emerging crisis for our nation: educating our children to an appropriate level of technical fluency and properly preparing them for the workforce of the coming decades.