Thinking in Objects and their Collaboration: Introducing Object-Oriented Technology

Although many professionals in education believe that an ‘objects first’ approach is the best method of introducing object-oriented technology, there is no common agreement on how to start such courses. Current study programs often begin by teaching a chosen object-oriented programing language, where students are confronted by a large amount of syntactical detail. Instead of focusing on the basics of object-oriented technology, namely objects and their collaborations, difficulties in handling the details of the programing language lead to a very scattered knowledge of object-oriented concepts. This is dangerous, as learners are left with a set of unconnected knowledge fragments. Approaches which embed different knowledge fragments in an overall knowledge view are known as “cognitive apprenticeship” approaches. The main idea of cognitive apprenticeship is continuous practice. We present a learning environment for introducing object-oriented technology in upper secondary schools based on cognitive apprenticeship. We use a visual programing language to away from the details and provide tool support to aid practice. We present the learning sequencewhich is used and show the impacts it makes on the course structure in our experiment in the chosen object-oriented programming language The Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula IEEE Computer Society.     

Raisonnements arithmétiques et algébriques dans un contexte de résolution de problèmes: difficultés rencontrées par les futurs enseignants

Le problème de l'articulation entre les raisonnements arithmétiques et raisonnements algébriques nous renvoie entre autres au rapport que l'enseignant – ou le futur enseignant – entretient lui-même a priori avec ces modes de traitement, une telle relation ayant une incidence sur les choix didactiques qui seront éventuellement posés par cet intervenant en regard d'une introduction à l'algèbre dans un contexte de résolution de problèmes. Une expérimentation, visant à mettre en évidence si les futurs enseignants peuvent établir ou non une dialectique entre ces deux modes de raisonnements dans le contexte particulier de la résolution de problèmes, a été conduite auprès de trois groupes de futurs enseignants (164 sujets); des entrevues individuelles et dyadiques réalisées auprès de quelques sujets pointent leurs difficultés dans le passage d'un mode de traitement à l'autre. Dans le présent article, sont relatées les résistances rencontrées spécifiquement dans le passage à l'algèbre. ABSTRACT. The problem of articulation between arithmetic teaching and algebra teaching concerns among other things the relationship the teacher or pre-service teacher has with the knowledge to be taught (relation au savoir), which produces an impact on the choices that he makes concerning the approaches they are to favour in an introductory algebra context. Three groups of future teachers (164 students) were questioned with a view to analyzing to what extent these students were able to shift back and forth between these two methods within the particular context of problem solving. Interviews on either an individual basis or in a dyad format were conducted with a number of subjects, and have served to bring out their difficulties in articulation between these two fields. Only the difficulties observed in the transition from arithmetic to algebra are presented in this article.     

Discourses on information ethics: The claim to universality

An important question one can ask of ethical theories is whether and how they aim to raise claims to universality. This refers to the subject area that they intend to describe or govern and also to the question whether they claim to be binding for all (moral) agents. This paper discusses the question of universality of Luciano Floridi’s information ethics (IE). This is done by introducing the theory and discussing its conceptual foundations and applications. The emphasis will be placed on the ontological grounding of IE. IE’s claims to universality will be contrasted with those raised by discourse ethics. This comparison of two pertinent ethical theories allows for a critical discussion of areas where IE currently has room for elaboration and development.