A regression analysis of elementary students’ ICT usage vis-à-vis access to technology in Singapore

This paper explores the relationship among ICT infrastructure (i.e., computing devices and Internet), one-to-one computing program and student ICT activities in school. It also looks into the differences of how ICT is being used in the teaching of English, mathematics and science at the elementary school level in relation to the availability of computing devices, Internet connection and one-to-one program. A total of 360 Grade 5 students from three schools (120 students from each school) in the western part of Singapore participated in a questionnaire adapted from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) ICT Familiarity Component for Student Questionnaire regarding students’ ICT use. One of the participating schools has implemented a school-based one-to-one computing program for all its students for the past nine years, with the school providing the necessary computing devices for all its Grade 1 to 3 students and a student computer ownership program to encourage all its Grade 4 students to procure their own computing devices to be used till completion of elementary education at Grade 6. The regression analyses suggest that how ICT is being used plays a more significant role in predicting the frequency of ICT use for the various subject areas than ICT infrastructure and one-to-one computing program. Further analysis also reveals that one-to-one computing program and availability of computing devices have a significant interaction effect on the frequency of ICT usage for English but not for mathematics and science—the presence of computing devices seem to have an impact for the usage of ICT for English but not the other two subject areas. The findings concur with earlier studies that there are differences in frequency and how ICT is being used in the teaching of English, mathematics and science.     

A Microcomputer Laboratory‐‐From Fundamentals to Interrupts and Queues

A microcomputer laboratory for juniors majoring in computer science was developed. It enables them to observe fundamental behavior of a computer by directly giving instructions to the CPU using a programmable diode array. The laboratory also includes experiments to synthesize a small microcomputer, with which advanced subjects such as interrupt processing and queue data structure usage are studied. As an application, a primitive interrupt‐driven graphics editor has been designed and implemented. Various circuit components were mounted on three panels, which facilitate for the students to construct required circuits. A personal computer has been used for software development.     

Impact of Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research in Mathematics and Biology on the Development of a New Course Integrating Five STEM Disciplines

Funded by innovative programs at the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Richmond faculty in biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and computer science teamed up to offer first- and second-year students the opportunity to contribute to vibrant, interdisciplinary research projects. The result was not only good science but also good science that motivated and informed course development. Here, we describe four recent undergraduate research projects involving students and faculty in biology, physics, mathematics, and computer science and how each contributed in significant ways to the conception and implementation of our new Integrated Quantitative Science course, a course for first-year students that integrates the material in the first course of the major in each of biology, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, and physics.     

Learning Environments and Learning Styles: Non-traditional Student Enrollment and Success in an Internet-based Versus a Lecture-based Computer Science Course

Colleges and universities are increasingly using information technologies to enhance the learning environment. Many educational institutions offer Internet-based on-line courses in an effort to meet the educational needs of students. The primary goal of this research was to determine if there is a relationship between students' preferred learning environment (i.e. face-to-face or on-line) and their learning style. The secondary goal was to determine if there were any differences in the academic success of students in the face-to-face versus on-line sections. Participants were adult (ages 22+ years), non-traditional computer science students given the option to take a face-to-face lecture-based or an on-line Internet-based computer science course. Results revealed that computer science students in the face-to-face learning environment were more likely to have the Assimilator learning-style, whereas computer science students in the on-line Internet-based learning environment were more likely to have the Converger learning-style. Student academic success did not reliably differ as a function of learning environment selection. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of learning style characteristics of computer science students, learning styles and gender differences and implications of student academic success in on-line vs face-to-face environments. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Teaching Visual Design Principles for Computer Science Students

Computing has become highly visual as interactive programs become increasingly prevalent. Computer science students need to be able to create effective visual displays as part of interface implementation. This paper describes a course covering graphic design topics relevant to computer science students. In this course, students learn the basic visual elements, the visual organizational principles and how to use them in the context of the digital page. The other topics of this paper are the presentation of course information to the computer science student, the implementation of the course information as praxis, course project construction, and a method for critiquing student projects. Curriculum Integration will also be discussed as a feature towards achieving a seamless and collaborative experience.     

The Other Two Rs in the Discrete Mathematics Course

Independent of the content and placement of the discrete mathematics course in the computer science curriculum, a common goal is to improve the students’ ability to read and communicate mathematical or technical material. This paper describes a teaching format for the discrete mathematics course that fosters this goal. Instead of lecturing, the instructor responds to questions and asks questions over material the students have read. In periodic problem sessions, student groups polish and present problem solutions for the rest of the class to critique. This approach not only improves the technical reading and communication skills of the students, but involves students more actively in the total learning process.     

关于离散数学教学改革的思考

离散数学是计算机科学与技术专业的一门重要基础课,搞好本课程的教学,不但能为学生学好后续课程奠定坚实的数学理论基础,而且有利于培养学生的计算机数学思维,并且在进一步的学习和工作中适应本学科专业的发展。本文结合教学实践,就当前离散数学教学存在的问题以及教学改革思路作了较为深入的分析。     

任务驱动教学法在高职专业课教学中的应用——以高职单片机原理与应用课程为例

单片机原理与应用课程是高职工电类专业一门重要的课程。为改变传统教学方法存在的弊端,在该课程中引入基于工作过程的任务驱动教学法,使学生"做中学",老师"做中教",教师不仅要"授之以鱼",更强调"授之以渔",促进学生创新能力与全面素质的提高。     

面向计算机专业的“通信原理”课程教改探索与实践

通信原理是信息大类专业的核心课程之一。在为计算机专业的学生讲授该课程的过程中,针对学科设置要求和学生需求,进行了一系列教学改革探索与实践,有效地提高了教学质量,提升了学生学习的效果。从如下几个方面进行了教改探索与实践:课程教材选择、教学内容与教学体系设计、教学手段、学生考核方式等。通过这些教改措施,有效地提高了学生对该专业课的学习主动性,并激发了他们对该课程进一步的研究兴趣,培养了创新能力和科学思维方式,取得了良好的教学效果和实践成效。     

A Course in Social and Ethical Issues in Computing

In recent years many computer science educators have struggled with the problem of how to include instruction on social and ethical issues in the computing curriculum. This article describes one approach to solving this problem. It outlines a course called Perspectives in Computing that the author has taught for junior and senior computer science majors. One unifying theme of the course is that computers alter human relationships‐‐they create relationships that would not have existed otherwise and they change existing relationships. The course both examines the nature of those relationships and studies the ethical dimensions of the computer's impact. A second unifying theme is that computing as a discipline affirms a set of professional values. The course attempts to help students discern those values and to develop a thoughtful critique of them.     

Classroom Attrition in Computer Science

Students drop out of university courses for a multitude of reasons. Whatever the cause, the costs of an unsuccessful attempt to complete a course are significant to student and university alike. This paper examines student attrition in computer science classes with the hope of identifying common causes and ultimately reducing the number of students dropping computer science courses. Survey data were analyzed to determine if reasons for dropping differed for various groupings of students including undergraduate/graduate, male/female, computer science major/non‐major, and service/non‐service courses.     

Student Preschool Teachers’ Experiences of Science and Its Role in Preschool

This article reports on student preschool teachers’ views of science and its role in preschool. Three cohorts of students have been given a written questionnaire with open-ended questions before and after a one-semester course including science (specifically Chemistry and Physics) in a 3.5-year preschool teacher programme in Sweden. The science content in the course is integrated with other subjects and lecturers with different subject backgrounds work together in forming an integrated and meaningful context. A phenomenographic qualitative analysis of responses to the questionnaires before and after the course is presented. The analysis indicated that many students equate science with biology (nature studies), and several did not adjust this view even though chemistry and physics were explicitly taught. Surprisingly few students were negative towards science, none after the course. However, several remain hesitantly positive. Most students described ‘what’ and ‘how’ perspectives of science, but few developed a synthesised view of science activities. However, there was a shift towards a more integrated perspective after the course. Also the quality and eloquence of the students’ responses were noticeably improved in responses given after the course. Prior expectations and implications of the results for preschool teacher education are discussed.     

Introducing innovative approaches to learning in fluid mechanics: a case study

The purpose of the current article is to examine the impact of laboratory demonstrations and computer visualizations on learning in a third-year fluid mechanics course at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). As a first step, on entering the course, students were exposed to a laboratory demonstration focusing on the nature of waves. Students were subsequently taught the theory of wave mechanics in a regular class along with exercises. Finally, the computer algebra system Maple was used to simulate physical properties of the waves using the mathematical equations. The illustrations throughout the paper are examples of some of the pedagogical devices that students were exposed to during the project. The students enjoyed the demonstrations, but there are some indications that the interventions did not help to improve learning of phenomena.     

高职非计算机专业《VB程序设计》课程教学初探

Visual Basic（VB）作为一门可视化编程语言,已成为各高职院校非计算机专业基础教育课程。本文针对当前高职院校非计算机专业计算机基础教育当前状况,略微探讨VB课程的教学方法和手段。     

Greek Students’ Science‐related Interests and Experiences: Gender differences and correlations

This paper explores the science‐related interests and out‐of‐school experiences of 583 ninth‐grade Greek students. The instrument of data collection consisted of a questionnaire including items on science‐related topics that could be of interest to students and on everyday, out‐of‐school, science‐related experiences. Factor analysis yielded six distinct fields of interest and five types of science‐related experiences. Significant gender differences emerge: girls are more interested in topics related to human biology, health, and fitness, and are more familiar with using instruments and devices, seeking information about nature, and doing cuisine and handicraft; while boys are more interested in science, technology, and their social dimension, and the threatening aspects of science and technology, and tend to engage more in manual work and computer use. The results of this study indicate that there is a need for the Greek science curriculum to become more appealing to students, by integrating topics and experiences that are interesting and relevant to them.     

《计算机算法设计与分析》教学经验浅谈

计算机算法设计与分析是计算机科学的一门核心课程。通常学生在这门课程的学习中，会感到困难。作为教师，有责任引导学生学好这门课。本文根据实际教学中的体会，讨论了一些关于这门课程的教学经验。     

可视化技术在操作系统课程中的应用

操作系统原理是计算机相关专业的基础课,虽然各高校都配置了相应的实验装置和配套设施,但是效果不佳。学生只是单纯地对实验进行验证,对课程中的理论一知半解。针对这一问题,在教学中利用知识可视化技术改革教学不仅能提高学生的学习积极性,而且能加深学生对理论知识的理解。     

Two for One: Squeezing Human-Computer Interaction and Software Engineering into a Core Computer Science Course

The final report of the Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula (CC2001) suggests that an updated computer science curricula must reflect the broadening nature of our discipline. Two areas that are included in the CC2001 are software engineering (SE) and human-computer interaction (HCI). While the first inclination might be to incorporate HCI concepts into a traditional SE course, we propose a different approach. This paper outlines a project-oriented HCI course in which we are able to emphasize some SE notions in the context of HCI concepts. Our course is also a maturation class for our students because they are exposed to a number of non-programming computer science activities, including project specification, software and interface design, user testing, prototyping and use of guidelines. We include an overview of course content that illustrates our approach. We also describe our coverage of specific CC2001 knowledge units and provide some feedback data for our course.     

AN EVALUATION OF A COMPUTER SCIENCE ORIENTATION PROGRAMME

A short and intensive orientation programme was offered to a small group of students before the start of their first computer science course. During the orientation programme, students studied Karel, a simple programming language which provides pre‐programming skills for students embarking on a Pascal programming course. The programme was evaluated in terms of the assistance it gave participants in coping with the computing course. This evaluation placed emphasis on both the content of the programme and the social orientation aspects.