Maria José Marcelino

A review of games designed to improve introductory computer programming competencies

Learning computer programming is not simple for many students. They have to develop several complex skills to be able to understand programs and, more important, to create programs that solve problems. This means it is important that students have a high motivation level, so that they engage in that work and do not get frustrated with the natural errors they will make in this process. Digital games are often used in educational contexts to attract and retain students. In literature and on the web, we can find many games related strategies that aim to support learning in introductory computer programming courses. One of these strategies is the using games approach: asking students to play games that include problems that must be solved in order to progress. This paper presents a list of 40 games classified by type and highlights the skills and topics supported by them. We hope this work helps teachers to choose games as part of their teaching strategies, as alternative or complementary exercises to their students.

Adding Space and Senses to Mobile World Exploration

This chapter focuses on adding spatial and sensory information to mobile technologies to augment the affordability of mobile world exploration by primary school children. It starts by analyzing the significance of space and senses in childrens literacy and mobile learning applications. The opportunities and constraints associated with the use of mobile technologies for the exploration of senses and space within primary school learning activities are explored. The experience of the SchoolSenses@Internet project that designed a mobile application for creating georeferenced multisensory messages within a classroom collaborative environmental activity is described, highlighting the goals, development, and implementation processes. A study carried out over an academic year to investigate how children use GPS-equipped mobile phones to explore, create, and share multisensory geographic information is presented and analyzed to evaluate the use of mobile technology in environmental education and to assess learning achievements. The design and implementation process of the application is outlined, and the lessons learned are identified and summarized in the chapter.

Using a computer-based interactive system for the development of basic algorithmic and programming skills

Student failure and commonly expressed difficulties in programming disciplines suggest that traditional approaches are not the most appropriate for many students. In this paper we present SICAS, a learning tool designed to help students in the development of basic algorithmic and programming skills. With SICAS students can design, simulate, test and compare algorithms for proposed problems. We also report some evaluation findings, current changes and future extensions of the tool.

H-SICAS, a handheld algorithm animation and simulation tool to support initial programming learning

Mobile devices, like PDAs and smart phones, are small, cheap and light machines capable of being used anytime anywhere. These and other characteristics make them very attractive from an educational point of view. As they have become more and more common and widespread, a crescent interest in developing software applications for them has raised too. Indeed, at present, we find quite easily many applications for them in various areas, including education. However, this is not yet the case for the area of programming learning. Programming learning can be quite difficult for the novice learner and during the years several approaches and tools have been proposed. Some were developed for desktop environments while others for Web-based environments. With the emergence of mobile devices it seems that the next step will include them. This led us to the development of H-SICAS, a handheld algorithm animation and simulation tool. This tool can be used to support initial stages of programming learning, using a procedural approach, and is based on SICAS, a desktop tool developed to achieve similar objectives that has been used with our students with some success. However, this involved several adaptations to be accomplished.

Learning Computational Thinking and scratch at distance

Learning Computational Thinking concepts by all has gained quite importance in last years. Scratch is also one of the most used products to promote it worldwide. Yet, most teachers face difficulties when using it in the classroom with their students. With this idea in mind we developed and run a distance education course under the Project of Distance Education of the University of Coimbra specially designed for elementary school teachers to learn both Computational Thinking concepts and Scratch via an e-learning course using Moodle as a Learning Management System. In this paper we describe this first experience of teaching and learning online, the results obtained and also our future work about this course. Results of this first experience showed that it was possible for the trainees to learn Computational Thinking concepts and Scratch programming and also to develop useful products for their classroom practice using this modality of teaching and learning. As such, a second edition of the course is already planned to take place shortly. The design and implementation of a distance education course.The course is about CT and Scratch programming.The course is for elementary school teachers.

SimulCol A Collaborative Educational Modeling Simulation Tool

SimulCol is an asynchronous collaborative continuous modeling tool for generic systems allowing learners spread in anytime and anywhere to develop models in group. Model building can be abridged if done in group. However, many times, students are not physically together. Still they need to work collectively. That is what SimulCol provides, along with teacher tools to follow studentspsila work.

Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment through a Learning Analytics Model in a Casual Serious Game for Computer Programming Learning

Teachers have used games as a support tool to engage students in learning tasks. As they often record student’s performance as learning progresses, it is interesting and useful to discuss how that information can be used to assess learning and to improve the learning experience. For instance, teachers can use that information to give personalized attention in classes and the game can use it to provide challenges of the “right” difficulty. In computer programming learning, games can provide an alternative way to introduce concepts and, mainly, to practice them. This paper proposes a model to identify the students’ progress considering their performance in programming tasks. The model is demonstrated by an implementation in a casual computer programming serious game. We illustrate how this game could use this model to personalize its challenges.

Learning Analytics Model in a Casual Serious Game for Computer Programming Learning

Games have been used by teachers as a support tool to engage students in learning tasks. As they often record student’s performance as learning progresses, it interesting and useful to discuss how that information can be used to assess learning and to improve the learning experience. For instance, teachers can use that information to give personalized attention in classes. In computer programming learning, games can provide an alternative way to introduce concepts and, mainly, to practice them. This paper proposes a model to identify the students’ progress considering their performance in programming tasks. The model is demonstrated by an implementation in a casual computer programming serious game.

A proficient high level programming program as a way to overcome unemployment among graduates

Unemployment has been a major concern in recent years. This is particular true for young people and in the case of Portugal for youngsters with a Higher Education degree. In this paper we describe the program “Acertar o Rumo”, a two years program to reconvert unemployed graduates in Engineering and Exact and Natural Science in experienced Java programmers. Particularly, we focus on the Programming courses of the program, where the two main programming paradigms, the procedural and the object-oriented, as well as principles and technologies for developing enterprise systems were taught. We describe the main methodologies and approaches followed and report the very positive results obtained with the first edition of the program till now. We finish the paper by proposing some recommendations and improvements for further editions.

The distance learning course on computer networks at the university of Coimbra

this article presents a description and characterization of the first edition of the course on Computer Networks promoted by the Special Project for Distance Learning of the University of Coimbra. It establishes a brief comparative analysis of the course on Computer Networks and other similar courses coming up with some conclusions that can be useful for a better understanding of the strategies for planning and developing the course on future editions.