Teaching with Greenfoot and the Kinect – A Novel Way to Engage Beginners

The Microsoft Kinect is a sensor module that allows accurate tracking of humans moving in front of it. Greenfoot is an introductory Java programming environment that makes it easy to create animated graphical projects.

By combining Greenfoot and the Kinect students can write programs where the user’s body is used for input. Users interact with games by waving their hands, jumping, running, dancing, .... These kinds of programs are incredibly good fun and engage target groups who would not normally be interested in programming.

The workshop is aimed at teachers of introductory programming courses (high school/university) who have some programming experience and want to incorporate new kinds of projects into their teaching. Laptop recommended but not required. Kinect hardware will be provided.