An AR/TUI-supported Debugging Teaching Environment

Abstract

This paper presents research on the potential application of Tangible and Augmented Reality (AR) technology to computer science education and the teaching of programming in tertiary settings. An approach to an AR-supported debugging-teaching prototype is outlined, focusing on the design of an AR workspace that uses physical markers to interact with content (code). We describe a prototype which has been designed to actively scaffold the student's development of the two primary abilities necessary for effective debugging: (1) the ability to read not just the code syntax, but to understand the overall program structure behind the code; and (2) the ability to independently recall and apply the new knowledge to produce new, working code structures.