Rock Garden programming: Programming in the physical world

The Internet of Things (IoT) holds the promise of improved programmatic user control over domestic appliances. The developed world dominates the design of programming environments, assuming letteracy and computer literacy on the part of the programmer. In developing areas, this assumption raises the bar for novice programmers and especially pre-school children from differing socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. In general, our research aims at developing a programming environment that does not require either computer literacy or letteracy from the programmer, thereby affording the novice user the opportunity to control appliances connected to the IoT. A tangible environment can potentially remove both of these obstacles. Also of special interest to our research is giving the programmer the opportunity to craft her own tangible objects, giving the objects personalised properties. To this end we report on how well pre-school children from differing socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds were able to use a tangible programming environment consisting of direction indicator arrows, crafted from soft stone. In addition we provide examples of further objects that could be used as programming objects. Finally, we show the steps involved in constructing a tangible program with which the user can hypothetically instruct a lawn mower though the IoT.