Franc Jakoš, Osnovna šola Janka Glazerja Ruše, Osnovna šola Selnica ob Dravi, Mirko Đukić, Zavod Antona Martina Slomška, Škofijska Gimnazija Antona Martina Slomška, Dr. Domen Verber, FERI – Fakulteta za elektrotehniko, računalništvo in informatiko

Teaching programming to beginners represents a challenge for teachers.Students soon lose the will to make progress and solve difficult problems. Collaborative learning has been recognized as a method that can help to achieve better results if the collaboration is administered at the right time, that’s whenthe problem istackled.

This paper describes and analyzes the initial meetings of pupils with virtual multiuser environments that support collaborative learning. This encounter was enabled  through educational game ” Aladdin and his flying carpet “, which was modelled after the Lightbot 2.0 which also enables learning about programming concepts without prior knowledge of syntactic rules. Our aim was to combine attractiveness and motivational power of simulated virtual environments and educational power of learning through the game.

We have prepared a software distribution Aladin_Opensimulator_0.7.6.1, which contains the game and all the necessary pre-configured tools that allow teachers to easily start and use simulation in the classroom. We have also prepared a website, where instructions on how to operate the simulation are accessible, explanation of educational game operations and activities for teaching programming.

All participants accepted educational game very well. They are willing to tackle tasks if the game is fair and works relatively satisfactory. They quickly understand “in world” building and assembling programs with Scratch4Opensim and transfer of generated code in a virtual environment. Solving life’s problems further motivates them to learn.