On-line learning environment for teaching the LOGO programming language

Abstract

Learning the first steps in programming is one of the key activities in the area of educational computing. Although a lot of different programming languages and environments have arisen in the past years, many of the modern ones being completely visual, the LOGO programming language is still considered one of the most elaborate and most widely used for learning the first steps in programming for the children in elementary education. In this paper we present an educational programming environment based on the LOGO programming language implemented entirely as a web application. Using only a web browser the users can access the web application where they can learn the LOGO programming language by writing LOGO programs, executing them and instantly observing the output of the execution in the browser. The code editor and the interpretation of the LOGO code are implemented in JavaScript and the output is drawn on HTML5 canvas element so that complete processing is performed client side. The code editor is aware of the LOGO syntax and provides syntax highlighting, auto completion and programming help in the form of tooltips. The web page promotes the “learning by doing” approach to LOGO learning. It contains explanations of the basic LOGO instructions and set of predefined tasks for user exercise. The tasks are in the form of target drawing and the user is requested to write the LOGO program that will produce the requested drawing. The system also keeps a record of the user activities and his progress.