Alice (software)

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Alice

Basic animation of an ice skater
Author:	Carnegie Mellon University
Initial release:	1999
Latest release:	2.0 / April 5, 2005
Available language(s):	Java
Use:	Educational
License:	Original BSD
Website:	http://www.alice.org

Alice is a free open source object-oriented educational programming language with an associated development environment. Alice uses a drag and drop environment to create computer animations using 3D models. The software is developed by Carnegie Mellon to address three core problems in educational programming:^[1]

Most programming languages are designed to be usable for "production code" thus introduce additional complexity. Alice is designed solely to teach programming.
Alice is conjoined with its IDE. There is no syntax to remember. However, it supports the full object-oriented, event driven model of programming.
Most programming languages are designed around computation, whereas Alice is designed around "storytelling" and thus has greater appeal to female students.

In controlled studies at Ithaca College and Saint Joseph's University looking at students with no prior programming experience taking their first computer science course, the average grade went from a C to a B and the retention increased from 47% to 88%.^[2]

Alice 3.0 is being underwritten by Electronic Arts and will utilize character models from the The Sims 2.^[3]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ http://www.alice.org/whatIsAlice.htm
^ M. Moskal, D. Lurie, and S. Cooper, Evaluating the Effectiveness of a New Instructional Approach. In Proceedings of 2004 SIGCSE Conference, (Norfolk, VA).
^ http://www.alice.org/simsannounce.html

Learning to Program with Alice, Wanda P. Dann, Stephen Cooper, Randy Pausch: ISBN 0-13-187289-3
An Introduction to Programming Using Alice, Charles W. Herbert ISBN 1-4188-3625-7
Alice 2.0: Introductory Concepts and Techniques; Gary B. Shelly, Thomas J. Cashman, Charles W. Herbert ISBN 1-4188-5934-6