Object-oriented Programming thru Video Games,
TIDE 184, Fall 2009

Day and time: T 5-6:15, Newcomb 402
Professor Harry Howard
Office hours: T 3-5, W 4-5 & by appointment
322D Newcomb Hall

862-3417
www.tulane.edu/~howard/TIDE184/

Rationale

Today’s students have grown up in a multimedia world – and to motivate them, instructors must relate students’ classroom experience to that world. The Alice 3D programming environment is a teaching tool for such students. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to teach introductory object-oriented computer programming with a more engaging, less frustrating experience. It makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. In Alice, 3D objects (e.g., people, animals, and vehicles) populate a virtual world, and the student's task it to create a program to animate the objects. With Alice's interactive interface, students can drag and drop graphic tiles to create a program, where the instructions correspond to standard statements in a production oriented programming language, such as Java, C++, and C#. Alice allows students to immediately see how their animation programs run, enabling them to easily understand the relationship between the programming statements and the behavior of objects in their animation. By manipulating the objects in their virtual world, students gain experience with all the programming constructs typically taught in an introductory programming course.

Goal

For the student to learn the basic principles of object-oriented computer programming using Alice.

Objectives

For you to demonstrate your attainment of the goal of the course, you will perform the following tasks:

  1. Class discussion. Because the TIDE course meets only once a week, you are expected to attend every session and to come to class prepared to go over the readings assigned. (50%)
  2. Final project. On the last day of class you will present to the class a project that shows what you have learned during the course. (50%)

Code of Academic Integrity

“The integrity of Newcomb-Tulane College is based on the absolute honesty of the entire community in all academic endeavors. As part of the Tulane University community, students have certain responsibilities regarding work that forms the basis for the evaluation of their academic achievement. Students are expected to be familiar with these responsibilities at all times. No member of the university community should tolerate any form of academic dishonesty, because the scholarly community of the university depends on the willingness of both instructors and students to uphold the Code of Academic Conduct. When a violation of the Code of Academic Conduct is observed it is the duty of every member of the academic community who has evidence of the violation to take action. Students should take steps to uphold the code by reporting any suspected offense to the instructor or the associate dean of the college. Students should under no circumstances tolerate any form of academic dishonesty.” For further information, point your browser at http://college.tulane.edu/honorcode.htm.

Violations of the Academic Honor Code will not be tolerated in this class. I will rigorously investigate and pursue any such transgression.

Students with disabilities who need academic accommodation should:

Fall 2009 Schedule

Text: Learning to Program with Alice, Brief Edition.
Wanda P Dann, Stephen Cooper, and Randy Pausch (2007) Prentice Hall

Date Day
Topic
 ppt mp3
Aug 25
Day 1
Introduction to the course; §1.1 Introduction to Alice
powerpoint icon
mp3 icon
Aug 31
   Lecture by Junot Diaz at 7:00pm in McAlister Auditorium
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Sept 1
Day 2
Reading project book discussion
 
 
Sept 8
Day 3
§1.2 Alice Concepts; Tips & Techniques 1: Special Effects
 
 
Sept 15
Day 4
§2.1 Scenarios and Storyboards
 
 
Sept 22
Day 5
§2.2 A First Program
 
 
Sept 29
Day 6
§3.1 Built-in Functions and Expressions
 
 
Oct 6
   AWAY
 
 
Oct 13
Day 7
§3.2 Simple Control Structures; Tips & Techniques 3: Engineering Look and Feel
 
 
Oct 20
Day 8
§4.3 Class-level Methods and Inheritance
 
 
Oct 27
Day 9
Tips & Techniques 4: Visible and Invisible Objects
    
Nov 3
Day 10
Tips & Techniques 5: Events
    
Nov 10
Day 11
Presentation of final project
 
 
Go back to Harry Howard's home page
Started 9-Sept-2008; last update 15-Sep-2009 . HH