Teach Programming concepts with Alice 3D

One of my favourite blogs, downloadsquad just posted about a 3D animation program that can teach kids programming.

It’s like welcoming LOGO to the 21st century. Alice is a Java based 3D toolkit which serves as an excellent foundation for teaching youngsters the basics of programming. The Alice 3D Authoring system is developed and maintained by the Stage3 Research Group at Carnegie Mellon University

Through a simple drag-and-drop interface you can build all sorts of animation by attaching object methods to events, giving clear visual feedback in the form of the animations you build, but also stealthily teaching simple modern programming techniques. Even the only slightly nerdy kids you know will fall in love with animating characters while learning valuable lessons along the way.

Takes you back to writing simple programs in BASIC but, with a whole new modern twist. Alice is a hefty download, at 115MB, and you’ll need Java installed as well. Still, it’s free, educational and just the perfect thing for a rainy spring day. Take the jump to see some shots of Alice’s user interface.

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