To Infinity and Beyond: Fostering Knowledge-Building Communities to Inspire Children to Code in Augmented Reality

Abstract

This paper introduces an extension of Capybara, a single-player augmented reality (AR) mobile application designed for children to interact with a virtual capybara character through drag-and-drop code. To better capture a "low floor, high ceiling'' paradigm of learning, we extended Capybara to simulate a multi-player "remixing'' experience. Specifically, users can now interact with a second user's character and remix (e.g., view, copy, and modify) their code within their own character. Our implementation intended to emulate a peer learning experience akin to a "knowledge-building community,'' where peers help each other to construct knowledge together. To assess our extension, we conducted study sessions across fifteen participants aged 10-15 from Central New Jersey. Participants engaged with the application and subsequently shared their sentiments and reflections on the new features. Our findings indicated that remixing successfully strengthens the "low floor, high ceiling'' experience by fostering a sense of "infinite'' exploration where children encounter novel ideas through another character's code. However, we recognize potential challenges such as the emergence of creative echo chambers due to realistic social and geographic limitations inherent in AR. Furthermore, our study underscores that social interaction in AR is at the forefront for how children desire to collaborate in Capybara, and therefore educational value should revolve around these interactions. In addition, we recommend examining strong incentives and rewards to motivate users to share their code and grow a sustainable knowledge-building community in AR.