It represents a universally applicable attitude and skill set everyone, not just computer scientists, would be eager to learn and use.

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Computational Thinking 計算論的思考

Computing is being introduced into the curriculum in many countries. Teachers' perspectives enable us to discover what challenges this presents, and also the strategies teachers claim to be using successfully in teaching the subject across primary and secondary education. The study described in this paper was carried out in the UK in 2014 where teachers were preparing for the mandatory inclusion of Computing into the curriculum. A survey was conducted of over 300 teachers who were currently teaching Computing to elicit their perspectives on challenges and strategies. From the analysis of the data, extrinsic and intrinsic challenges were identified for both teachers and students. In addition, a variety of pedagogical strategies were recommended by teachers from their own practice. In categorising approaches taken by teaching to support students five key themes emerged: unplugged type activities, contextualisation of tasks, collaborative learning, developing computational thinking, and scaffolding programming tasks. Further investigation could support whether these strategies can alleviate the challenges of teaching and learning of Computing for students and teachers. In particular developing student resilience in Computing is seen as a challenge while not many strategies are suggested. The results of this study will be useful for teachers who are new to the teaching of Computing.

/pdf/computing-in-the-curriculum-challenges-and-strategies-from-a-3rg0jijsue.pdf

Computing in the curriculum: Challenges and strategies from a teacher's perspective

As computational thinking (CT) is being embraced by educational systems worldwide, researchers and teachers have posed important questions such as “what to teach” and “what can be learned.” These questions are universally crucial to the learning of all subjects. Nevertheless, there is no up-to-date, systematic overview of CT education for K-9 students that attempt to provide answers to these crucial questions. Thus, this systematic review presents a synthesis of 55 empirical studies, providing evidence of the development of computational thinking through programming in Scratch, one of the most popular visual block programming languages in schools. The purpose of this review is to systematically examine the CT skills that can be obtained through Scratch in K-9 based on empirical evidence. This systematic review has adopted Brennan and Resnick's (2012) framework as the basis for defining and identifying the expected CT skills in K-9. The major findings entail what computational thinking skills students in K-9 can learn through Scratch in relation to the framework mentioned above, taking the progression of learning into account. Additional CT skills that are not captured by the framework were identified including input/output, reading, interpreting and communicating code, using multimodal media, predictive thinking, and human-computer interaction. These additional CT skills are not currently presented in Brennan and Resnick's (2012) framework and can be considered as possible supplements to their framework. Furthermore, the paper discusses the difficulties regarding assessment and the progression of the identified skills, as well as problems with study designs. Finally, the paper sets out suggestions for future studies based on the current research gaps.

A systematic review of learning computational thinking through Scratch in K-9

universities. But, it is not enough to offer computing summer camps and hope that students like them. The camps should be effective by some measure, such as broadening participation by underrepresented groups and/or increasing learning. Summer camps should also be financially sustainable, so that institutions can continue to offer them regularly. The summer camps at Georgia Tech have become effective and financially sustainable. This paper presents the rationale for our camps, the evaluation results that demonstrate positive attitude changes and increases in learning, and the business model that makes them financially sustainable. It also reports on the evaluation results from seven other colleges and universities in Georgia that offered computing summer camps during the summer of 2011 with assistance from Georgia Tech.

Effective and sustainable computing summer camps

People are increasingly turning to online resources to learn to code. However, despite their prevalence, it is still unclear how successful these resources are at teaching CS1 programming concepts. Using a pretest-posttest study design, we measured the performance of 60 novices before and after they used one of the following, randomly assigned learning activities: 1) complete a Python course on a website called Codecademy, 2) play through and finish a debugging game called Gidget, or 3) use Gidget's puzzle designer to write programs from scratch. The pre- and post-test exams consisted of 24 multiple choice questions that were selected and validated based on data from 1,494 crowdsourced respondents. All 60 of our novices across the three conditions did poorly on the exams overall in both the pre-tests and post-tests (e.g., the best median post-test score was 50% correct). However, those completing the Codecademy course and those playing through the Gidget game showed over a 100% increase in correct answers when comparing their post-test exam scores to their pre-test exam scores. Those playing Gidget, however, achieved these same learning gains in half the time. This was in contrast to novices that used the puzzle designer, who did not show any measurable learning gains. All participants performed similarly within their own conditions, regardless of gender, age, or education. These findings suggest that discretionary online educational technologies can successfully teach novices introductory programming concepts (to a degree) within a few hours when explicitly guided by a curriculum.

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2787622.2787709

Comparing the Effectiveness of Online Learning Approaches on CS1 Learning Outcomes

We discuss a study conducted during a summer program for middle school girls that emphasized possible future careers that rely on computer technology. During the weeklong camp middle school girls created an original computer project, visited campus computer labs and listened to invited speakers - all with computer technology as the central theme. This paper discusses the program, girls' reactions to their experiences, and the projects they created during the summer camp.

Exploring careers while learning Alice 3D: a summer camp for middle school girls

In this paper we describe a set of computing activities that were used in an outreach enrichment program for middle school girls. The computing activities used a combination of scaffolded exam-ples and minimalist workbooks to introduce and support interaction with computational thinking (CT) concepts, including problem solving, abstraction and basic computational vocabulary. We describe the activities briefly, followed by a discussion of the girls' experiences, drawing primarily from interviews conducted at the end of each activity.

Using scaffolded examples to teach computational thinking concepts

A partially distributed team is a virtual team, in which two or more co-located subteams use communication technology to collaborate across distance. Due to factors such as globalization and mergers, an increasing number of IT projects are conducted in partially distributed teams (PDTs). However, students lack experience in how to work effectively in such situations. This field study involved more than 500 students from seven U.S. and seven international universities, working together in PDTs. Through the lens of the Fit-Appropriation Model, quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted regarding three emergent communication structures (hub-and-spoke, moderate network, and high-network) Findings indicate significant differences in terms of communication technology usage and self-reported learning outcomes. The communication structures differed along two appropriation dimensions -- inclusivity and adaptiveness -- which mediated learning outcomes.

Learning to Work in Partially Distributed Teams: An Analysis of Emergent Communication Structures and Technology Appropriation

For most educators, especially those who teach computing or other technical subjects, changes to existing software applications are a common occurrence. However, for educators who are just entering the workforce or being encouraged to update their teaching activities to include new applications, the task of finding an appropriate application for a subject or grade level can be daunting. Educators are constantly exposed to new technologies and updates to applications already in use in their classrooms. This paper offers a review and discussion of options that may help with the selection problem. The discussion is not intended to be exhaustive but rather to provide a starting point in the discussion of applications currently being used by educators today. Every application can look 'cool' or 'fun' at a conference; however, knowing the concepts it supports and whether it will work with one's current hardware and software resources is critical in making new adoption decisions. As an aid to this, the discussion in this paper offers several conceptual distinctions that may be useful, as well as information about the platforms that best support the different applications.

Computer applications for the classroom: a review

A partially distributed team (PDT) consists of two or more subteams that are separated geographically. In a PDT, members of a given subteam are co-located, but they collaborate with members of geographically distant subteams. PDTs are commonplace across diverse IT settings, including outsourcing, off-shoring, and distributed organizations. Often the distance separating subteams spans multiple time zones that encompass diverse cultures and countries, as in the case of global software development teams. Findings are presented from a large-scale international PDT project involving IT students from 13 universities. Quantitative analysis of three emergent communication structures adopted by PDTs show significant differences in terms of both procedural (i.e., awareness and coordination) and socio-emotional (i.e., shared identity and trust) team interaction variables as well as perceptions of team performance. Furthermore, a qualitative analysis shows that inclusive leadership behaviors and the use of inclusive media and software positively impact team interaction processes and performance.

https://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1405&context=amcis2009

Heidi C. Webb

Papers

Exploring careers while learning Alice 3D: a summer camp for middle school girls

Using scaffolded examples to teach computational thinking concepts

Learning to Work in Partially Distributed Teams: An Analysis of Emergent Communication Structures and Technology Appropriation

Computer applications for the classroom: a review

Communication Structures in Partially Distributed Teams: The Importance of Inclusiveness