Major: Transactive Narrative: An Inclusive Game-Based Programming Context

这项研究将为Quest Atlantis(QA)开发和研究一个基于叙事的编程环境，以提高全球学校和课后中心的技术流畅性和创造力。QA是一个非常成功的多用户虚拟环境，全世界有20,000多名儿童的教师正在使用它来支持有意义的内容学习。遵循系统的创造性方法，这个项目将开发一个基于叙事的编程环境，学生可以在这个环境中为同龄人开发原创的互动故事。使用设计工具包开发个性化的项目，学生将学习基本的计算机科学编程概念和技能，同时开发故事算法，同时追求创造性和开放式的目标，如设计虚拟空间叙事。支持学生使用创新的编程工具构建交互式叙述，这是对计算机科学教育的重大贡献。这项研究将导致开发支持人类创造力的新技术。10-15岁的中小学生将学习基本的计算机科学编程概念和技能，如控制结构、变量、函数和调试，同时开发故事算法，同时追求创造性和开放式的目标，如设计一个具有他们自己选择的叙事的虚拟空间。创建这些互动故事的许多机制、支持大范围影响的用户基础以及多用户虚拟引擎已经存在。这项研究将开发叙事脚手架、教学资源和用户界面，将这些工具放在用户手中。新的Quest Atlantis编程叙事工具包将向所有当前的QA用户提供，并将推广到快速增长的用户群，以最大限度地扩大公共分发。此外，这项研究将有助于研究界更广泛地认识到两个重要原则。首先，用叙事来激发创造性工作是一种有价值和广泛适用的方法。其次，创造力最好体现在活跃的社交网络中。该项目以独特的方式描述了儿童活动的特点，特别适合新千年：协作性、分布性、谈判性和批判性。事实上，社会层面不仅涉及介绍或出版互动产品，而且还涉及围绕作品的批判性接受和讨论，有助于作品的合法性和质量，进而有助于社区及其参与与计算机编程和互动叙事写作有关的实践。

This research will develop and study a narrative-based programming environment for Quest Atlantis (QA) to enhance technological fluency and creativity in schools and after-school centers across the globe. QA is a highly successful multiuser virtual environment being used by teachers with over 20,000 children worldwide to support meaningful content learning. Following a systems approach to creativity, this project will develop a narrative-based programming environment from which students can develop original transactive stories for peers. Using the design toolkit to develop personalized projects, students will learn fundamental computer science programming concepts and skills as they develop story-algorithms while pursuing creative and open-ended aims such as designing virtual space narratives. Supporting students in structuring interactive narratives with innovative programming tools represents a substantial contribution to computer science education. The research will lead to the development of new technologies to support human creativity. Elementary and middle school children age 10-15 will learn fundamental computer science programming concepts and skills, such as control structures, variables, functions, and debugging as they develop story-algorithms while pursuing creative and open-ended aims such as designing a virtual space with narratives of their own choosing. Many of the mechanisms for creating these interactive stories, the user base to support wide-scale impact, and the multi-user virtual engine already exist. This research will develop the narrative scaffolding, the pedagogical resources, and the user interface to place these tools in the hands of the user. The new Quest Atlantis Programming Narrative Toolkit will be made available to all current QA users and will be promoted to the fast growing user-base to maximize public distribution. In addition, the research will contribute to wider awareness in the research community of two important principles. First, employing narrative to stimulate creative work is a valuable and broadly applicable method. Second, creativity is best framed within an active social network. This project characterizes the children's activity in terms uniquely suited to the new millennium: collaborative, distributed, negotiated, and critical. Indeed, the social dimension involves not simply the presentation or publication of the interactive products, but the critical reception and discussion around the work, contributing to the legitimacy and caliber of the work and, in turn, to the community and their engagement in practices relating to computer programming and interactive narrative composition.