Playing a Computational Thinking Game using Hand Gestures

Abstract

The concern on promoting the development of Computational Thinking (CT) in children has increased over the years. Games are recognized as a good strategy for presenting CT and for engaging children to the learning of its concepts. Hand gestures are a form of interaction widely used in video-games. However, few studies have been conducted to investigate how children feel and interact when using hand gestures in the context of learning tools. And this number decrease in studies about CT learning. In this paper, we explore the feedback of 29 children about their interaction by using hand gestures in a game to stimulate the CT which we called CT game. We also compare this type of interaction to touch. Additionally, we examine how both, hand gestures and touch, can impact on accomplishing of the goals of the game phases. Our findings revealed the children kept more engaged when using hand gestures, and consequently, this affected their concentration on the game purpose.