Comics, Programming, Children, and Narratives

Studies of how 10 to 11 year old children understand eventbased program descriptions based on comic strips showed that narrative interpretations of such programs were common. A narrative perspective was taken both when using paper prototypes and computer prototypes, but was stronger on paper than on the computer. While a narrative model of programming can interfere with the creation of non-linear simulation-oriented programs, a classroom study showed that the children were able to use a narrative perspective on programming to create story-based games with interactive agents. Thus, visual event-based programming could be an alternative to hypertext authoring for the creation of interactive stories where a dynamic content is considered important.