Designing for programming as joint performances among groups of children

Research on computer programming usually views the interactions as mostly cognitively based, with focus on concepts such as memory, perception and conceptual understanding. However, the current trend towards embodied and social perspectives on interaction provides an alternative way of looking at interactive processes, instead emphasising aspects such as social and physical performance with and around technology. We have explored a range of activities and tools that explicitly address these aspects in programming, with a specific focus on children’s making of own computer games and simulations. We exemplify this work through three different situations where tools and activities are used by children as recourses for building of interactive systems, while at the same time allowing for bodily action in negotiation of design ideas. We discuss how situations like these may provide directions for new technologies for programming as well as methodological developments in the area of interaction design.