This document is a curriculum guide for a program in computer service technology developed at Schoolcraft College, Livonia, Michigan. The program is designed to give students a strong background in the fundamentals of electricity, electronic devices, and basic circuits (digital and linear). The curriculum includes laboratory demonstrations of the…

The Science and Mathematics Education Centre (SMEC) at the Western Australian Institute of Technology offers two graduate courses: Graduate Diploma in Science Education and the Master of Applied Science (Science Education). Three distinct groups of students engaged in these SMEC programs can be identified based on their interests/expertise in…

Although group project concepts and skills have become a major component in most information systems (IS) academic programs, very little research has attempted to examine factors that may improve or undermine effectiveness of IS group projects. Accordingly, based on relevant literatures, this study develops and empirically tests a model of factors…

It has been well established in the literature that girls are turning their backs on computing courses at all levels of the education system. One reason given for this is that the computer learning environment is not conducive to girls, and it is often suggested that they would benefit from learning computing in a single-sex environment. The…

This article, based on a longitudinal, ethnographic study among engineering students, examines the interactional processes surrounding second language (L2) socialization. L2 socialization perspectives argue that the cognitive and the social are interconnected, and that learning an L2 is a process of coming to understand socially constructed…

Expert programmers possess schemas, abstractions of concrete experiences, which help them solve programming problems and lessen the load on their working memory during problem solving. Possession of schemas is a key difference between novices and experts, which is why instructors need to help students construct them. One recent tool for…

A new classification system for computing education papers is presented and applied to every computing education paper published between January 2004 and January 2007 at the two premier computing education conferences in Australia and New Zealand. We find that while simple reports outnumber other types of paper, a healthy proportion of papers…

The "Chronicle of Higher Education" recently reported that the number of doctoral degrees awarded in the U.S. rose 3.4 percent in 2004, largely because of an increase in foreign students [Smallwood (2005). Doctoral degrees rose 3.4% in 2004, survey finds. The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 9, 2005]. Currently, 20.9 percent [National…

This paper builds on previous research into teachers' conceptions of learning and teaching with an investigation of information technology academics. Using a phenomenographic approach to build a model of IT academics experiences and practice of teaching, we aimed to identify any specific issues that academics in the IT discipline face and to…

Based on their quantitative and qualitative investigations, the authors conclude that pair programming as a strategy for teaching student teachers could be made more effective through the incorporation of principles associated with cooperative learning. They substantiate this claim by referring to a literature study about the advantages and…

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are largely built on the assumption that learning is an individual process best encouraged by explicit teaching that is, on the whole, separated from social engagement with those outside the university community. This perspective has been theoretically challenged by those who argue for a social constructivist…

This learning module for a high school course in graphic communications is designed to introduce students to the Aldus Page Maker 3.0 software for desktop publishing. The module activities allow students to use the software to prepare a two-page publication. The six sections of the module are the following: module objectives, content outline,…

Common assumptions concerning the impact of computers on society fail to recognize the complexity of the social settings into which computer technology is introduced or the roles computer applications play in those settings. This paper identifies common ways of conceptualizing computing and points out their weaknesses. The author then discusses…

If computers are to be used creatively in education, they should be made available to administrators, teachers, and students. Educational Data Processing (EDP) is a means to this end. Small and poor systems can join in cooperative county, state or regional computer systems efforts such as the New England Educational Data Systems (NEEDS) in whose…

The Center for Information and Communication Sciences graduate program commenced at Ball State University in 1986 with a specific focus to train graduate students to be leaders in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry. The Center is the manifestation of a vision birthed out of creativity and resourcefulness. This study…