Most people living in the information society enjoy the benefits of
computer programming. Many Koreans are and will be the end-users of
personal computers. This will boost the the number of end-user programmers
gradually and continuously. Many oversea...
Most people living in the information society enjoy the benefits of
computer programming. Many Koreans are and will be the end-users of
personal computers. This will boost the the number of end-user programmers
gradually and continuously. Many overseas and domestic
ICT curriculums are also emphasizing the importance of programming.
Combined with the operational methods of application software
based on simple functionalities, such curriculums pursue education
for the higher and advanced power of thought. Such pursuits
include problem-solving capability and logical thinking. In pursuit of
such things, various kinds of programming environments are being developed
for general computer users for easy learning. Squeak eToys
is the educational programming language based on Squeak Smalltalk.
Centered on Squeak eToys, the programming education was conducted
for people from schools or the other fields out of schools. In this programming
education, various limitations in terms of instruments and
environments and other relevant problems were found, calling for a
systemic analysis on such limitations and problems. In programming
for the educational environment which used educational programming
language, there was interaction beyond the instrumental aspect. The
problems generated in each interaction were analyzed in terms of usability.
Moreover, this study extracted the usability factors suitable for
programming education by analyzing the usability framework that has
been used as the existing qualitative assessment. Then the usability
framework that takes the interactions in the educational programming
environment into consideration was developed. Through the new usability
framework, programming education using Squeak eToys was
assessed, and usability-related problems were analyzed systematically.
This study presented the direction and line to improve the analyzed
usability problems, and directly improved some problems .