Using the Internet in the Teaching of Computer Science

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Activity59:SummaryWork

As a summary of the topic of visualization and animation, the students can be asked  to work on the following summarizing activity which integrates several aspects of  the  previous  activities.  Specifically,  the  students  are  asked  to  summarize  all  the  usages of visualization and animation with which they have became familiar so far: 

software  visualization,  algorithm  animation,  visualization-based  IDEs  and  the  Media Computation approach. They can be offered to address the following topics. 

It is recommended to guide them to base their work on the research available on  visualizations  and  animation  in  the  context  of  computer  science  education  (see  Chap. 4).

Differences  and  similarities  between  the  different  kinds  of  visualization  and 

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animation.

The pedagogical purpose(s) for which each kind of visualization and animation 

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fits.

Kind of tasks that can be given with each kind of visualization and animation tool.

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Connections between the lab-first approach and each of these applications of visu-

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alization and animation.

Reflective essay of their future use of each application in their computer science 

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teaching in the high school.

8.5

139 8.5 Using the Internet in the Teaching of Computer Science

Activity60:TheInternetasanInformationResource

The students are asked to design a lesson, which is based on the Internet as an information  resource, on some computer science topic that is learned in the high school, for example,  the history of computer science or different kinds of sorting algorithms.

After the students designed this lesson and their suggestions are presented and dis- cussed in class, a discussion takes place that focuses on what computer science topics  fit to be learned by this teaching approach.

Activity61:ExploringtheInternetThroughtheComputerScienceLens

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Stage A: Analysis of Web applications, group work

The students are asked to explore different Web applications from the perspec- tive of computer science. In other words, the students explore what computer sci- ence ideas are implemented and used in different web-based applications with which  they are familiar. They can be directed to focus on either the software design (e.g.,  the design of a profile in one of the online social networks) and/or on an algorithm  used by an online application (e.g., search in one of the search engine).

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Stage B: Presentation of the group works

While the students present their products in front of the class, it is recommended  to check whether the computer science topics selected for exploration can be inte- grated into the high school curriculum that the students will teach as high school  computer science teachers. It is reasonable to assume that even if not all topics can  be merged as a whole into the high school curriculum, some of them can be inte- grated partially. It is important to remember, though, that even just mentioning in  high school computer science classes the applications of computer science ideas in  some real Web applications, with which the pupils are familiar, can increase the  pupils’ motivation to study computer science.

Activity62:DistanceLearning

Distance learning is a vast topic that is still explored. Many questions about how to  apply  distance  learning  effectively  are  still  open.  However,  similar  to  face-to-face  teaching situations, with respect to which it is clear that active learning promotes learn- ers’ understanding (see Chap. 2), it is clear that in online learning environments in  general  and  distance  learning  environments  in  particular,  learners  should  be  active. 

This assertion is based on the fact that in distance learning situations, the face-to-face  (continued)

8

Activity62 (continued)

social interaction offered to learners in traditional teaching processes should be substi- tuted with another mechanism that enhances learners’ engagement.

We note that the activities presented in this Guide are based on face-to-face learning  and teaching situations and can be adjusted for distance learning situations, by keeping  the  Active-Learning-Based  Teaching  Model  (Chap.  2)  and  facilitating  the  different  stages of the model using an online platform.

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Stage A: Learning a new computer science topic, individual work

The instructor of the MTCS course selects an online lesson about a computer  science topic with which the students are probably not familiar. The instructor asks  the students to learn the lesson and in parallel to reflect on their learning process.

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Stage B: Class discussion

Students’ reflections are shared in front of the class. It is important to highlight  different aspects of the students’ reflection, such as: cognitive, affective, and social  ones.

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Stage C: Integration of distance learning elements into the computer science  curriculum, homework

The students are asked to review the high school computer science curriculum  they are going to teach in the future and to suggest specific places in which they will  be  able  to  integrate  some  distance  learning  elements.  Each  decision  should  be  explained and its contribution to learners’ learning of computer science should be  outlined.

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O. Hazzan et al., Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach, 143 DOI 10.1007/978-0-85729-443-2_9, © Springer-Verlag London Limited 2011