When the new programming language Pascal was developed in the 1970's, Walter Gander did not like it because because many features which he appreciated in prior programming languages were missing in Pascal. For example the block structure was gone, there were no dynamical arrays, no functions or procedures were allowed as parameters of a procedure,…

Although Machine Learning (ML) has already become part of our daily lives, few are familiar with this technology. Thus, in order to help students to understand ML, its potential, and limitations and to empower them to become creators of intelligent solutions, diverse courses for teaching ML in K-12 have emerged. Yet, a question less considered is…

Over its short disciplinary history, computing has seen a stunning number of descriptions of the field's characteristic ways of thinking and practicing, under a large number of different labels. One of the more recent variants, notably in the context of K-12 education, is "computational thinking", which became popular in the early 2000s,…

This paper introduces constructivist dialogue mapping (CDM), a new type of concept mapping. CDM encodes what people learn during a non-goal directed learning activity. CDM is a practical means to outline the mini theories users fluidly construct as they explore open-ended learning environments. To demonstrate the method, in this paper we use CDM…

eLearning is fast progressing scientific field proposing novel and specific approaches in a range of domains. It is well established practice in universities, schools and organizations for delivering interactive, adaptive and flexible training, taking advantage of contemporary and emerging technologies. Informatics is a continuously evolving…

Content personalization in educational systems is an increasing research area. Studies show that students tend to have better performances when the content is customized according to his/her preferences. One important aspect of students particularities is how they prefer to learn. In this context, students learning styles should be considered, due…

The development of computational thinking is a major topic in K-12 education. Many of these experiences focus on teaching programming using block-based languages. As part of these activities, it is important for students to receive feedback on their assignments. Yet, in practice it may be difficult to provide personalized, objective and consistent…

Social networks are progressively being considered as an intense thought for learning. Particularly in the research area of Intelligent Tutoring Systems, they can create intuitive, versatile and customized e-learning systems which can advance the learning process by revealing the capacities and shortcomings of every learner and by customizing the…