This article reports on the outcomes from the "e-scape Primary Scientific and Technological Understanding Assessment Project" (2009-2010), which aimed to support primary teachers in developing valid portfolio-based tasks to assess pupils' scientific and technological enquiry skills at age 11. This was part of the wider…

In this article, the main characteristics of the educational browser YADBrowser are described. One of the main objectives of this project is to define new languages and object models which facilitate the creation of educational applications for the Internet. The fundamental characteristics of the object model of the browser are also described.…

One of the major issues related to teaching an introductory programming course is the excessive amount of time spent on the language's syntax, which leaves little time for developing skills in program design and solution creativity. The wide variation in the students' backgrounds, coupled with the traditional classroom (one size-fits-all) teaching…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the efficiency, precision, and validity of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) could be improved by assessing confidence differences in knowledge that examinees possessed. We proposed a novel polytomous CAT model called the confidence-weighting computerized adaptive testing (CWCAT), which combined a…

In a study of the types of problems encountered by students that led them to seek assistance, Robins et al. [2006] found that the most common problems were related to trivial mechanics. The students in this study worked by themselves on their programming exercises. This article discusses a replication of the Robins et al. study in which the…

Pair programming, as part of the Agile Development process, has noted benefits in professional software development scenarios. These successes have led to a rise in use of pair programming in educational settings, particularly in Computer Science 1 (CS1). Specifically, McDowell et al. [2006] has shown that students using pair programming in CS1 do…

The use of digital elevation models, which represent the surface of the earth by a matrix of heights, has proved an ideal introductory topic for developing both the matrix-handling and computational skills of undergraduate mathematicians. This article looks at the solving of an easily understandable, but not necessarily simple problem: given a…

SystemC is a system-level design and simulation language based on C++. We've been using SystemC for computer organization and design projects for the past several years. Because SystemC is embedded in C++ it contains the powerful abstraction mechanisms of C++ not found in traditional hardware description languages, such as support for…

This article provides an overview of the challenges in implementing a game development course with limited resources in computing curricula. An approach to a holistic game development course is outlined in terms of its organization, software, and instructional methods. The course had 23 students enrolled in its first offering and was…

Game-based learning is becoming popular in the academic discussion of Learning Technologies. However, even though the educational potential of games has been thoroughly discussed in the literature, the integration of the games into educational processes and how to efficiently deliver the games to the students are still open questions. This paper…

University courses about computer programming usually seek to provide students not only with technical knowledge, but also with the skills required to work in real-life software projects. Nowadays, the development of software applications requires the coordinated efforts of the members of one or more teams. Therefore, it is important for software…

StarLogo The Next Generation (TNG) enables secondary school students and teachers to model decentralized systems through agent-based programming. TNG's inclusion of a three-dimensional graphical environment provides the capacity to create games and simulation models with a first-person perspective. The authors theorize that student learning of…

Few beginners find learning to program easy. There are many factors at work in this phenomenon with some being simply inherent in the subject itself, while others have more to do with deficiencies in learning methods and resources. As a result, many programming environments, software applications, and learning tools have been developed to address…

No longer can courseware providers deal with one homogeneous target group, one learning form and possibly one pedagogical approach. Instead they must develop a broad range of courseware, each serving its specific target group, each adjusted to a specific learning and teaching form, each appealing to its own learning and teaching scenario, and each…

When asked about individual perceptions of "technology," 68% of Americans primarily equate the term to the computer. Although this perception under represents the true breadth of the field, the statistic does speak to the ubiquitous role the computer plays across many technology disciplines. Software has become the building block of all major…