Drag-and-Drop Programming Tool Alice Updated

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 12/16/13

The developers of Alice have introduced a new version of their free drag-and-drop development tool as well as an online tutorial to help young students learn how to perform object-oriented programming.

Created at Carnegie Mellon University, Alice is a 3D programming environment that lets the user create animations and simple video games. The new version, Alice 2.4, is intended for students in lower grades; another edition, Alice 3.1, is primarily geared to learners in higher grade levels and universities.

The new version was released to coincide with this month's international "Hour of Code," which ran Dec. 9 through 15 during Computer Science Education Week. That event is intended to introduce students as young as 6 to the basic concepts of computer science, demystify code, and show kids that they can become developers. The initiative is backed by multiple online self-guided tutorials that can be run on a browser, tablet or smartphone or used "unplugged" in classrooms without computers.

The Alice project has contributed an Hour of Code tutorial specifically using the new version. In the lesson, students learn how to set up scenes using characters and props and write program code for creating the animation of the characters within the scene.

The new version of Alice includes multiple feature tweaks and bug fixes, but the biggest change is the addition of characters from the Garfield comic strip, which can be used within the programs created by the students.

Wanda Dann, director of the Alice Project, said Alice is used in more than 15 percent of colleges and universities and has become a "popular teaching tool" in secondary schools. She said she expects the addition of Garfield, which appears in 2,100 newspapers around the world, to extend that reach to new students.

At the higher education level, Alice has been adopted by faculty at Penn State Schuylkill campus and the Georgia Institute of Technology, among others.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • laptop displaying a phishing email icon inside a browser window on the screen

    Phishing Campaign Targets ED Grant Portal

    Threat researchers at cybersecurity company BforeAI have identified a phishing campaign spoofing the U.S. Department of Education's G5 grant management portal.

  • multiple computer monitors connected by glowing blue lines in a network grid

    Gartner Forecasts Increased Spending on Desktop as a Service as Cost Optimization, Sustainability Drive Adoption

    Gartner's 2025 Magic Quadrant for Desktop as a Service reveals that while secure remote access remains a key driver of DaaS adoption, a growing number of deployments now focus on broader efficiency goals.

  • stylized figures, resumes, a graduation cap, and a laptop interconnected with geometric shapes

    OpenAI to Launch AI-Powered Jobs Platform

    OpenAI announced it will launch an AI-powered hiring platform by mid-2026, directly competing with LinkedIn and Indeed in the professional networking and recruitment space. The company announced the initiative alongside an expanded certification program designed to verify AI skills for job seekers.

  • young man in a denim jacket scans his phone at a card reader outside a modern glass building

    Colleges Roll Out Mobile Credential Technology

    Allegion US has announced a partnership with Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) and Denison College, in conjunction with Transact + CBORD, to install mobile credential technologies campuswide. Implementing Mobile Student ID into Apple Wallet and Google Wallet will allow students access to campus facilities, amenities, and residence halls using just their phones.