Hand and Mind: What Gestures Reveal about Thought. David McNeill. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1992. 416 pp.

Hand and Mind: What Gestures Reveal about Thought

Classroom assessment techniques : a handbook for collegeteachers / Thomas A. Angelo, K. Patricia Cross

This chapter explains the meaning of basic terms and concepts related to expert systems, describes the architecture and functions of an expert system, and the conditions under which the building or purchase of an expert system is feasible. The benefits and disadvantages attached to the use of expert systems will be analysed. Also included are a description of the tools and methods used for building expert systems plus the criteria used to evaluate and compare these tools. Finally the reader will gain an understanding of the difficult process of knowledge acquisition and an awareness of the legal implications of the use of expert systems.

Expert systems

Historically, the development of computer systems has been primarily a technology-driven phenomenon, with technologists believing that "users can adapt" to whatever they build. Human-centered design advocates that a more promising and enduring approach is to model users' natural behavior to begin with so that interfaces can be designed that are more intuitive, easier to learn, and freer of performance errors. In this paper, we illustrate different user-centered design principles and specific strategies, as well as their advantages and the manner in which they enhance users' performance. We also summarize recent research findings from our lab comparing the performance characteristics of different educational interfaces that were based on user-centered design principles. One theme throughout our discussion is human-centered design that minimizes users' cognitive load, which effectively frees up mental resources for performing better while also remaining more attuned to the world around them.

Human-centered design meets cognitive load theory: designing interfaces that help people think

As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research.

/pdf/introductory-programming-a-systematic-literature-review-3yllvt7k18.pdf

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

Computer science instructors frequently teach using slides displayed with a computer and a data projector. This has many advantages, e.g., ability to present prepared materials and ease of switching the display to a development environment during mid-presentation. However, existing computer-based presentation systems severely limit flexibility in delivery, hindering instructors' extemporaneous adaptation of their presentations to match their audiences. One major limitation of computer-based systems is lack of support for high-quality handwriting over slides, as with overhead projectors and other manual presentation systems. We developed and deployed Classroom Presenter, a Tablet PC-based presentation system that (1) combines the advantages of existing computer-based and manual presentation systems and (2) builds on these systems, introducing novel affordances. Classroom Presenter has been used in 25 Computer Science courses at three universities. In this paper we describe the system, summarize results from its deployment, and detail several novel uses of the system by instructors in computer science courses.

/pdf/experiences-with-a-tablet-pc-based-lecture-presentation-5si7su2ykw.pdf

Experiences with a tablet PC based lecture presentation system in computer science courses

Digital inking systems are becoming increasingly popular across a variety of domains. In particular, many systems now allow instructors to write on digital surfaces in the classroom. Yet, our understanding of how people actually use writing in these systems is limited. In this paper, we report on classroom use of writing in one such system, in which the instructor annotates projected slides using a Tablet PC. Through a detailed analysis of lecture archives, we identify key use patterns. In particular, we categorize a major use of ink as analogous to physical gestures and present a framework for analyzing this ink; we explore the relationship between the ephemeral meaning of many annotations and their persistent representation; and we observe that instructors make conservative use of the system's features. Finally, we discuss implications of our study to the design of future digital inking systems.

/pdf/a-study-of-digital-ink-in-lecture-presentation-3h8yifw5iz.pdf

A study of digital ink in lecture presentation

Eliciting student participation in large college classes is difficult yet critical to learning This paper describes a design experiment with the Classroom Feedback System (CFS), a computer-mediated system for promoting class interaction We delineate challenges to interaction based on successive background and pilot studies CFS addresses these challenges by enabling students to post annotations (e g, More Explanation) directly on lecture slides The instructor sees the annotations in real time Evidence from a large lecture study shows that CFS enhances interaction by addressing challenges to interaction

/pdf/promoting-interaction-in-large-classes-with-computer-2n61o78nk2.pdf

Promoting Interaction in Large Classes with Computer-Mediated Feedback

There is great interest in understanding and influencing students' attraction to computing-related majors. This qualitative study is based on interviews with 31 students enrolled in introductory programming courses at two public universities in the United States. This paper presents a model of five factors that influence student decisions to major in CS and elaborates on our grounded theory analysis of one of these factors: how students assess their CS-related ability. We describe how students measure their ability in terms of speed, grades, and previous experience and how students make interpretations and decisions based upon these measurements. We found that students' interpretations were influenced by experiences in their environments and beliefs about ability as being fixed or malleable.

Deciding to major in computer science: a grounded theory of students' self-assessment of ability

There has been much research on the benefits of active and collaborative learning and on its use in computer science courses. As classroom technology becomes more prevalent it is natural to develop systems that support the use of these techniques. We have developed such a system as an extension to Classroom Presenter [2], a Tablet PC-based presentation system. In our system students (or groups of students) are equipped with tablet computers and at various points during the lecture, are asked to solve a problem or respond to a question. Students respond by writing their solution on the tablet and submitting it wirelessly to the instructor. The instructor can view all student responses, select one or more to display to the class, and annotate responses with ink as they are being displayed. Student responses can be saved for review after lecture by the instructor or made available electronically to the students. In this paper we describe the system and our initial experiences using the system in two classes (CS1 and Computer Ethics) at the University of San Diego in Fall 2003.

/pdf/preliminary-experiences-with-a-tablet-pc-based-system-to-3rnpqhh0yg.pdf

Ruth Anderson

Papers

Experiences with a tablet PC based lecture presentation system in computer science courses

A study of digital ink in lecture presentation

Promoting Interaction in Large Classes with Computer-Mediated Feedback

Deciding to major in computer science: a grounded theory of students' self-assessment of ability

Preliminary experiences with a tablet PC based system to support active learning in computer science courses