Advocates discussion of self-motivation and its importance with computing majors, suggests wide reading in computing as a way to encourage majors to promote their own self-motivation and interest, and offers specific reading suggestions. (10 references) (MKR)

Information is presented on 63 doctoral programs and more than 150 master's degree and 6-year programs in the fields of educational and instructional technology and 82 graduate programs in educational computing. A brief description of each program includes the mailing address, a contact person, degrees offered, and information on faculty and…

This paper is based on a study into the social and ethical implications of computer education in secondary schools in Queensland (Australia). The relationship between computer technology and philosophy is discussed; three curriculum orientations are described--(1) vocational, (2) liberal, and (3) socially critical; and a socially critical…

Engineering students accessed assignments during cooperative education work placements via a website and interacted with faculty and students via e-mail or conferencing software. A virtual reflection seminar was conducted throughout the work term rather than afterward, resulting in greater integration of co-op and academic experiences. (SK)

A joint project involved students in the United States and Europe in cooperative design of computer software. The Internet-based project encountered some difficulties in scheduling, time difference, and lack of agreement on a programming language; however, the international cooperation was valued by participants. (SK)

A new approach to information science, activity theory emphasizes the centrality of practice as doing and activity and foregrounds setting and context as essential orienting concepts. It can provide information science with a rich, unifying, and heuristically valuable vocabulary and conceptual framework that will facilitate the continual…

An approach to the teaching and learning of high school computer science (CS) to and by educationally disadvantaged students (EDS) is described, as well as the implementation of six pedagogical principles in two learning environments developed for Israeli schools. Following a brief description of the main characteristics of EDS classes and a…

Astrobiology is a relatively new field of study in science, one that has found a home in the curriculum of many major universities. It is a multidisciplinary field that draws participants from a range of scientific specialties: geology, physics, chemistry, engineering, computer science, and of course biology and astronomy. At the middle level, it…

This article traces the historical development of the boundaries around computer software and hardware. On one hand, the author documents ongoing discussions about the technical equivalence of hardware and software. On the other hand, he accounts for the stubborn persistence of these terms as markers for two distinct spheres of technology,…

The paper presents a study of novice difficulties with range conceptions in loop design. CS2 students were asked to solve four related enumeration tasks, which required various loop boundary specifications. The student solutions varied considerably in conciseness and efficiency. The solution diversity reveals significant differences in range…

This paper describes an exercise in determining the cognitive difficulty of the assessment tasks in six computing courses within an Information Technology (IT) degree, importing Bloom's taxonomy from the field of educational psychology as an analytical framework. Three of the six courses comprise a Programming stream and three a Data…

The research reported here investigates variation in first year university students' early experiences of learning to program, with a particular focus on revealing differences in how they go about learning to program. A phenomenographic research approach was used to reveal variation in how the act of learning to program may be constituted amongst…

The topic of random numbers is investigated in such a way as to illustrate links between mathematics, physics and computer science. First, the generation of random numbers by a classical computer using the linear congruential generator and logistic map is considered. It is noted that these procedures yield only pseudo-random numbers since…

This work presents innovative cybernetics (feedback) techniques based on Bayesian statistics for drawing questions from an Item Bank towards personalized multi-student improvement. A novel software tool, namely "Module for Adaptive Assessment of Students" (or, "MAAS" for short), implements the proposed (feedback) techniques. In conclusion, a pilot…

The Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside has developed and implemented an innovative, multidisciplinary undergraduate curriculum in Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics (MBB). The objective of the MBB program is to give students a hands-on facility with molecular biology theories and laboratory techniques, an…