Simultaneous multiple representation editing environment for primary school education

Modern approaches to introductory Computer Science education utilize block-based programming languages heavily, which poses a problem, as students latter have to switch to textual programming languages for real-world programming. We present the Poliglot environment that aims to smooth this transition by presenting the program simultaneously in both notations, and allows editing in either one. The environment features an educational programming language, Limpid, which we developed for this project. We evaluated it using a preliminary user study on primary school students. The responses were encouraging and we also noted a spontaneous shift from block to text-based programming.