The authors take a critical language pedagogy approach to examining a 2011 controversy over disparaging comments towards Mexicans made by commentators of the British Broadcasting Corporation's automotive show Top Gear. In particular, they focus on the characterization of groups and individuals according to their nationality and examine the…

With the current curriculum focus on correlating classroom problem solving lessons to real-world contexts, are LEGO robotics an effective problem solving tool? This present study was designed to investigate this question and to ascertain what problem solving strategies primary students engaged with when working with LEGO robotics and whether the…

Video and computer games have become an important area of study in the field of education. Games have been designed to teach mathematics, physics, raise social awareness, teach history and geography, and train soldiers in the military. Recent work has created computer games for teaching computer programming and understanding basic algorithms. …

The increasing popularity of television shows featuring paranormal investigations has led to a renewed enthusiasm in ghost hunting activities, and belief in the paranormal in general. These shows typically feature a group of investigators who, while claiming to utilize proper scientifically correct methodologies, violate many core scientific…

Programming courses have always been a difficult part of an Information Systems curriculum. While we do not train Information Systems students to be developers, understanding how to build a system always gives students an added perspective to improve their system design and analysis skills. This teaching tip presents CFC (Comment-First-Coding)--a…

In the information systems field there are numerous programming languages that can be used in specifying the behavior of concurrent and distributed systems. In the literature it has been argued that a lack of pragmatic and semantic consideration decreases the effectiveness of such specifications. In other words, to simply understand the syntactic…

PatternCoder is a software tool to aid student understanding of class associations. It has a wizard-based interface which allows students to select an appropriate binary class association or design pattern for a given problem. Java code is then generated which allows students to explore the way in which the class associations are implemented in a…

This study aimed to investigate the impact of using Short Message Service (SMS) as learning support tool on students' learning in an introductory programming course. In addition, the study examined students' perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of the use of SMS as a learning support tool in their class. The participants in this study…

Computing science students amass years of programming experience and a wealth of factual knowledge in their undergraduate courses. Based on our combined years of experience, however, one of our students' abiding shortcomings is that they think there is only "one correct answer" to issues in most courses: an "idealistic"…

Miss Jessie was hired because she was bilingual, but she was placed in a class where most of the children did not speak English or her home language of Spanish. The children spoke Arabic, Korean, or Polish most of the time. Where does she start? Early childhood educators across the United States are asking similar questions. Teachers often report…

Computer programming is considered an important competence for the development of higher-order thinking in addition to algorithmic problem solving skills. Its horizontal integration throughout all educational levels is considered worthwhile and attracts the attention of researchers. Towards this direction, an exploratory case study is presented…

This study investigates whether a visual programming environment called Etoys could enable teachers to create software applications meeting their own instructional needs. Twenty-four teachers who participated in the study successfully developed their own educational computer programs in the educational technology course employing cognitive…

Computer Science (CS) is a relatively new disciple and how best to introduce it to new students remains an open question. Likewise, the identification of appropriate instructional strategies for the diverse topics that constitute the average curriculum remains open to debate. One approach considered by a number of practitioners in CS education…

For a period, in the run up to the election (2007-2008) and the months after the election, the name "Obama" signified hope for millions, not just in America but across the world. As the hope turned to disappointment, the financial crisis deepened and the Arab Spring renewed a call for a "humanity" that could transcend the differences of nations…

As a fifth-grade mathematics teacher, the author tries to create authentic problem-solving activities that connect to the world in which his students live. He discovered a natural connection to his students' real world at a computer camp. A friend introduced him to Alice, a computer application developed at Carnegie Mellon, under the leadership of…