This article is a commentary essay that uses the connected learning framework (Ito et al., 2013) as a lens to explore the relationship between making, coding, and critical literacy in the context of literacy teacher education. Critical literacy theorists have argued that it is important to understand the perspective and positionality of an author…

Pat Yongpradit is the director of education at Code.org. He leads all education efforts, including professional development and curriculum creation, and he builds relationships with school districts. Pat joined "Educational Horizons" to talk about why it is important to teach computer science--even for non-computer science teachers. This…

This article distills a discussion about the goals, mechanisms, and effects of three environments which aim to support the acquisition and development of computing concepts (problem solving and programming) in pre-University and non-technical students: Alice, Greenfoot, and Scratch. The conversation started in a special session on the topic at the…

In this paper the influence of the learning context is considered when learning to program. For the purposes of this study, the lectures, study process, previous knowledge or teaching experience and tests comprised the learning context. The article argues that students' experiences of the learning context have important implications for teaching…

Discusses computational tools for learning programming and describes a system that was developed to help university students acquire the capability to model computational problems independently of a specific programming language. User-system interaction is explained; and system architecture is described, including specification acquisition, a…

Describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a computer-assisted learning (CAL) package called CLEM (CORE Learning Environment for Modula-2) that was developed in Great Britain for teaching the Modula-2 programming language to first-year college students. Topics discussed include interactivity, flexibility, ease of use, student…

Discusses the issue of education versus training in computer science based on the author's personal experiences. Highlights include early uses of computers, learning programming languages, initial computer-assisted instruction, the use of courseware, Web-based instruction that will need both education and more practical training, and realizing the…

Discussion of how to teach programming skills to novice programmers focuses on the use of a program animator that uses a copies model of recursion to teach the recursive function. Various mental models are reviewed; testing the recursion animator is described; and possibilities for further research are suggested. (12 references) (LRW)

This paper describes how the TI-92+ calculator can be valuable in illustrating basic and advanced programming concepts in introductory computer science courses. Descriptions of the scope of the curricula for the courses in which the TI-92+ is used are provided. The TI-92+ programming language is particularly useful in demonstrating the progression…

Examines possible reasons for a gender bias toward males and against females studying computing at the secondary school level in Scotland. Recommendations for improvement are provided for the following areas: (1) access to the curriculum, (2) course design, (3) teachers' attitudes and teaching styles, (4) language, (5) assessment issues, and (6)…