Group items tagged

In general, we teach computing by asking students to engage in the activity of professionals in the field: by programming.  We lecture to them and have them study texts, of course, but most of the learning is expected to occur through the practice of programming.  We teach programming by having students program.

After a half-century of advocacy associated with instruction using minimal guidance, it appears that there is no body of research supporting the technique. In so far as there is any evidence from controlled studies, it almost uniformly supports direct, strong instructional guidance rather than constructivist-based minimal guidance during the instruction of novice to intermediate learners.

The BlueJ environment was developed as part of a university research project about teaching object-orientation to beginners. The system is being developed and maintained by a joint research group at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, and the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. The project is supported by Sun Microsystems. The aim of BlueJ is to provide an easy-to-use teaching environment for the Java language that facilitates the teaching of Java to first year students. Special emphasis has been placed on visualisation and interaction techniques to create a highly interactive environment that encourages experimentation and exploration. BlueJ is based on the Blue system. Blue is an integrated teaching environment and language, developed at the University of Sydney and Monash University, Australia. BlueJ provides a Blue-like environment for the Java language.

Thoughts on using Prezi as a teaching tool - Ideas and reflections on the effective use of Prezi to support whole class teaching

Obviously there are a huge range of teaching approaches to novice programming across the world, but let's take the Barnes and Kolling "Objects First With Java" text book and Blue J environment . It's very popular (ranked as number 1 in three of the Amazon technical books categories for what it's worth) and used as an introductory text in many computer science departments. One of the features of this well designed textbook is that it aims to teach high level concepts as a priority over lower level language constructs. The BlueJ environment enables students to experiment with object orientation by calling methods on objects in a graphical environment. The text book encourages students to read code before they write it, and "wire in" small segments of their own code into a pre-written program. The lecture slides which come with the book give specific instruction and worked examples; students typically recieve this sort of instruction before working on small examples in the lab. In fact, working on small examples after a lecture on programming concepts is in my experience a fairly common pattern in first year instruction.

Kirschner, Sweller and Clark recommend the practices of a) providing worked examples for students to read and b) providing process worksheets which explain to students the processes they should go through when solving problems.These are both sensible suggestions but I wouldn't say they were unusual for computer science teaching. I would suggest that we tend to use a mixed bag of instructional techniques rather than basing our pedagogy on pure theory. And so therefore: we probably get our first year teaching right at least part of the time. Which is a bit of a comfort.

Introduction to Computer Science I is a first course in computer science at Harvard College for concentrators and non-concentrators alike. More than just teach you how to program, this course teaches you how to think more methodically and how to solve problems more effectively. As such, its lessons are applicable well beyond the boundaries of computer science itself. That the course does teach you how to program, though, is perhaps its most empowering return. With this skill comes the ability to solve real-world problems in ways and at speeds beyond the abilities of most humans.

“Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python” is a free book (as in, open source) and a free eBook (as in, no cost to download) that teaches you how to program in the Python programming language. Each chapter gives you the complete source code for a new game, and then teaches the programming concepts from the example.

“Invent with Python” was written to be understandable by kids as young as 10 to 12 years old, although it is great for anyone of any age who has never programmed before.

The ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education provides a forum for educators to discuss issues related to the development, implementation, and/or evaluation of computing programs, curricula, and courses, as well as syllabi, laboratories, and other elements of teaching and pedagogy.

The Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges contains the conference proceedings for each of the regional conference sponsored by CCSC. It is distributed to faculty in over 200 colleges. Past issues of the journal have included articles such as: CS Accreditation Update Putting More Science into Computer Science I Teaching Ada at the Senior Level Ethical and Professional Issues in Computing Closed Laboratories in an Entry-Level C Programming Course Computing Curricula at a Community College Conducting User-Friendly Internet Workshops Campus Data Networks: A Case Study Non-Isomorphic AVL-Trees Experiences with Scheme in a Liberal Arts Computing Course   Past issues of the Journal are archived in the ACM's Digital Library. There is open access to the CCSC archive section of the Digital Library. For your convienence, you can also access the library by conference proceeding. Note: You need an ACM account to access these documents. If you don't have one you can sign up for a free account, it is simple and easy!

CS10, The Beauty and Joy of Computing, is an exciting new course offered by the UC Berkeley EECS Dept. Computing has changed the world in profound ways. It has opened up wonderful new ways for people to connect, design, research, play, create, and express themselves. However, just using a computer is only a small part of the picture. The real transformative and empowering experience comes when one learns how to program the computer, to translate ideas into code. This course will teach students how to do exactly that, using BYOB (based on Scratch), one of the friendliest programming languages ever invented. It's purely graphical, which means programming involves simply dragging blocks around, and building bigger blocks out of smaller blocks.

The Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges contains the conference proceedings for each of the regional conference sponsored by CCSC. It is distributed to faculty in over 200 colleges. Past issues of the journal have included articles such as: CS Accreditation Update Putting More Science into Computer Science I Teaching Ada at the Senior Level Ethical and Professional Issues in Computing Closed Laboratories in an Entry-Level C Programming Course Computing Curricula at a Community College Conducting User-Friendly Internet Workshops Campus Data Networks: A Case Study Non-Isomorphic AVL-Trees Experiences with Scheme in a Liberal Arts Computing Course

All of these ideas could be part of both software engineering and computer science, but I fear—as far as I can tell—that most undergraduate degrees in computer science these days are basically Java vocational training.

CS4HS (Computer Science for High School) is a workshop sponsored by Google to promote Computer Science in high school curriculum. With a grant from Google's Education Group, colleges develop a 2 day program for local high school CS teachers that incorporates informational talks by industry leaders, and discussions on new and emerging CS curricula at the high school level. On this site, you'll find information on how to hold a CS4HS workshop at your University, information for workshop attendees, and other helpful resources. We currently offer CS4HS grants in the US, Canada, and EMEA.

Welcome to the UC-WISE module for CS10. This is where we will be hosting all of our lab guides and materials. Feel free to look around and play with the lab materials! The main website (http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10) will host the readings and the semester schedule, while the bSpace site (http://bspace.berkeley.edu) will be used for announcements and forums.

Connect With other Scratch educators online and in your area

Share Your experiences and resources you've developed

Learn How your students can create and share with Scratch

Jeliot 3 is a Program Visualization application. It visualizes how a Java program is interpreted. Method calls, variables, operation are displayed on a screen as the animation goes on, allowing the student to follow step by step the execution of a program. Programs can be created from scratch or they can be modifyed from previously stored code examples. The Java program being animated does not need any kind of additional calls, all the visualization is automatically generated. Jeliot 3 understands most of the Java constructs and it is able to animate them. Especial effort is currenlty being addressed to animate object oriented features, such as inheritance.

The Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges is a non-profit organization focused on promoting quality computer-oriented curricula as well as effective use of computing in smaller institutions of higher learning which are typically non-research in orientation. It supports activities which assist faculty in making appropriate judgments concerning computing resources and educational applications of computer technology. Because departments in smaller colleges and universities are usually small and not highly specialized, the Consortium also encourages the sharing of expertise, effective curricula and efficient technological applications. The Consortium is concerned with the advancement of major programs in both Computer Science and Computer Information Systems, and with the use of computers in the Liberal Arts and Sciences.