Functions are all around us, disguised as actions on concrete objects. Composition of functions, too, is all around us, because these actions can be performed in succession, the output of one serving as the input for the next. In terms of Gray and Tall's (2001) "embodied objects" or Lakoff and Nunez's (2000) "mathematical idea…

This article presents a methodology for developing learning objects for web-based courses using the IMS Learning Design (IMS LD) specification. We first investigated the IMS LD specification, determining how to use it with online courses and the student delivery model, and then applied this to a Unit of Learning (UOL) for online computer science…

The Sunday, August 1, 1993 edition of the "Washington Post" featured the headline: "Indians, Foreigners Build Silicon Valley in Bangalore." In the article, Bangalore, a city of more than four million people, was described as "an island of relative affluence and social stability in this ancient land." Multinational…

This article describes the design and delivery of a compulsory course in packaged software at vocational schools in Taiwan. A course website was devised and deployed to supplement learning activities in the traditional classroom. A series of quasi-experiments was conducted with innovative instructional designs, that is, web-enabled problem-based…

The need for professional programmers in embedded applications has become critical for industry growth. This need has increased the popularity of embedded software design courses, which are resource-intensive and space-limited in traditional real lab-based instruction. To overcome geographic and time barriers in enhancing practical skills that…

Discusses teacher certification courses in computer education focusing on syllabus development and structure, involvement of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and course aims (including knowledge of computer uses in education). Also discusses pilot projects involving the new certification scheme. Additional information can be found in February 1981…

This article presents how the fast expansion of information technology industry in eastern Slovakia is putting a strain on its labor supply. Suddenly, computer-science graduates have become one of the former Eastern Bloc's greatest assets, attracting multinational technology companies hungry for skilled programmers, technicians, and engineers.…

Learning to program is difficult for novices, even for those undergraduates who have majored in computer science. The study described in this paper has investigated the effects of game strategy and preference-matching on novice learners' flow experience and performance in learning to program using an experiential gaming activity. One hundred and…

The defectiveness of the effectiveness of the Hungarian general education revealed in the PISA survey appears in the higher education as well. The "Introduction to Informatics" subject has one of the lowest exam results among the students of the College of Nyíregyháza majoring in Computer Program Designer and Teacher of Computer Science.…

This paper describes a practical experience of adapting the teaching of a course in Computer Technology (CT) to the new demands of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). CT is a core course taught in the first year of the degree program Technical Engineering in Management Computing in the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of A…

In this study half of 52 sixth graders learned to program in MSWLogo and the other half in Drape. An analysis of students' test scores revealed that Drape (an iconic language) seemed to have a steeper learning curve than MSWLogo (a textual language). However, as students gradually became more familiar with either language, the difference in…

The evaluation of intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) is an important though often neglected stage of ITS development. There are many evaluation methods available but literature does not provide clear guidelines for the selection of evaluation method(s) to be used in a particular context. This paper describes the evaluation study of DEPTHS, an…

Students can practice skills and acquire knowledge by doing coursework. However, in conventional coursework activities, each student is assigned the same exercises, without considering learners' diversity. Moreover, students typically have difficulty in receiving assistance for completing their exercises after class. Therefore, some students…

Natural computing is a terminology used to describe computational algorithms developed by taking inspiration from information processing mechanisms in nature, methods to synthesize natural phenomena in computers, and novel computational approaches based on natural materials. The virtual laboratory on natural computing (LVCoN) is a Web environment…

BIT BY BIT is an encryption game that is designed to improve students' understanding of natural language processing in computers. Participants encode clear words into binary code using an encryption key and exchange them in the game. BIT BY BIT enables participants who do not understand the concept of binary numbers to perform the process of…