Extending the Classroom through Second Life

Second Life is a three-dimensional (3D) electronic environment where members can socialize, hold virtual meetings, or conduct economic transactions. Utilizing virtual environments like Second Life is believed to provide educators with a new medium for teaching and information dissemination that bypasses the normal boundaries associated with traditional online and face-to-face interactions. This unique platform not only provides educators with traditional online teaching conventions but also allows for simulated social interactions, which are essential to student-teacher relations in the classroom. This paper presents a series of field trials and focuses on one recent case study of the integration of Second Life into an introductory computer course. The benefits, lessons learned and effective practices of integrating the technology are provided. The case study findings are supplemented with results from student surveys. The study found that the integration of Second Life activities improved students’ learning experience. Furthermore, students participated in the Second Life activities in the case study showed higher learning motivation and better performance. Limitations of this study and future research directions are also provided

Scenarios of Building Information Modelling-Based Design Education in Architecture Schools

Due to the rapid development of computer technologies and trends in digital design, including building information modeling (BIM) and its diffusion into architectural design practice, it was necessary to introduce BIM into architectural curricula in order to prepare students for practice. This article therefore aims to identify scenarios for teaching BIM to architecture students worldwide. To achieve this objective, a thematic analysis of BIM teaching experiences in several selected academic institutions was conducted. The data studied included published articles and official university websites dealing with BIM teaching. A theoretical framework for BIM education was determined, comprising two aspects: pedagogical methods for BIM education and specifications for BIM courses in architecture programs. The document identified several scenarios for teaching BIM in multidisciplinary or architecture-specific courses. BIM teaching can be offered as part of a single course integrated with other courses, or as a separate course. It may be taught as part of related or unrelated courses. Related courses can be organized in parallel with an academic semester, or over several semesters. In addition, there are different types of input to project-based BIM teaching, such as a new design project, the results of a previous design course or an actual project. These scenarios can serve as a reference for universities wishing to integrate BIM into their programs

Improving a New Digital Content Creation Line of Study in Adult Education College

The topic of the research is digitalization and digital competence frameworks and competence in the digitalized world and programming. Research methods in the thesis are the qualitative research, the review of literature and case study. Used methods in case study are interviews, questionnaire and observation. Research group in the case study are the new Digital Content Creation line of study students. The new Digital Content Creation line of study was designed according to the Digital Competence Framework 2.0 from European Commission. With the questionnaires, students evaluated their digital skills in the beginning of the studies, in the middle of the study year and at the end of the studies. Review of literature was made in researching digitalization and digital frameworks and competence in digitalization and programming. The goal of the action research process was to improve the Digital Content Creation line of study curriculum and programming teaching. According to interviews, the students think that their digital skills have improved very much during the study year. Students have gained good basics to begin to learn more about programming. As a conclusion according to the research and the case study, basic civic skills that everyone should master are determined. Determined skills are: understanding technology, digital tools, privacy and security, communicating through digital technologies, problem solving, updating digital skills, computational thinking, searching and filtering digital information and giving specific instructions

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

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

Personalization, Cognition, and Gamification-based Programming Language Learning: A State-of-the-Art Systematic Literature Review

Programming courses in computing science are important because they are often the first introduction to computer programming for many students. Many university students are overwhelmed with the information they must learn for an introductory course. The current teacher-lecturer model of learning commonly employed in university lecture halls often results in a lack of motivation and participation in learning. Personalized gamification is a pedagogical approach that combines gamification and personalized learning to motivate and engage students while addressing individual differences in learning. This approach integrates gamification and personalized learning strategies to inspire and involve students while addressing their unique learning needs and differences. A comprehensive literature search was conducted by including 81 studies that were analyzed based on their research design, intervention, outcome measures, and quality assessment. The findings suggest that personalized gamification can enhance student cognition in programming courses by improving motivation, engagement, and learning outcomes. However, the effectiveness of personalized gamification varies depending on various factors, such as the type of gamification elements used, the degree of personalization, and the characteristics of the learners. This paper provides insights into designing and implementing effective personalized gamification interventions in programming courses. The findings could inform educational practitioners and researchers in programming education about the potential benefits of personalized gamification and its implications for educational practice

Game-Based Learning, Gamification in Education and Serious Games

The aim of this book is to present and discuss new advances in serious games to show how they could enhance the effectiveness and outreach of education, advertising, social awareness, health, policies, etc. We present their use in structured learning activities, not only with a focus on game-based learning, but also on the use of game elements and game design techniques to gamify the learning process. The published contributions really demonstrate the wide scope of application of game-based approaches in terms of purpose, target groups, technologies and domains and one aspect they have in common is that they provide evidence of how effective serious games, game-based learning and gamification can be

Metacognition and Reflection by Interdisciplinary Experts: Insights from Cognitive Science and Philosophy

Interdisciplinary understanding requires integration of insights from different perspectives, yet it appears questionable whether disciplinary experts are well prepared for this. Indeed, psychological and cognitive scientific studies suggest that expertise can be disadvantageous because experts are often more biased than non-experts, for example, or fixed on certain approaches, and less flexible in novel situations or situations outside their domain of expertise. An explanation is that experts’ conscious and unconscious cognition and behavior depend upon their learning and acquisition of a set of mental representations or knowledge structures. Compared to beginners in a field, experts have assembled a much larger set of representations that are also more complex, facilitating fast and adequate perception in responding to relevant situations. This article argues how metacognition should be employed in order to mitigate such disadvantages of expertise: By metacognitively monitoring and regulating their own cognitive processes and representations, experts can prepare themselves for interdisciplinary understanding. Interdisciplinary collaboration is further facilitated by team metacognition about the team, tasks, process, goals, and representations developed in the team. Drawing attention to the need for metacognition, the article explains how philosophical reflection on the assumptions involved in different disciplinary perspectives must also be considered in a process complementary to metacognition and not completely overlapping with it. (Disciplinary assumptions are here understood as determining and constraining how the complex mental representations of experts are chunked and structured.) The article concludes with a brief reflection on how the process of Reflective Equilibrium should be added to the processes of metacognition and philosophical reflection in order for experts involved in interdisciplinary collaboration to reach a justifiable and coherent form of interdisciplinary integration. An Appendix of “Prompts or Questions for Metacognition” that can elicit metacognitive knowledge, monitoring, or regulation in individuals or teams is included at the end of the article

From Legos and Logos to Lambda: A Hypothetical Learning Trajectory for Computational Thinking

This thesis utilizes design-based research to examine the integration of computational thinking and computer science into the Finnish elementary mathematics syllabus. Although its focus is on elementary mathematics, its scope includes the perspectives of students, teachers and curriculum planners at all levels of the Finnish school curriculum. The studied artifacts are the 2014 Finnish National Curriculum and respective learning solutions for computer science education. The design-based research (DBR) mandates educators, developers and researchers to be involved in the cyclic development of these learning solutions. Much of the work is based on an in-service training MOOC for Finnish mathematics teachers, which was developed in close operation with the instructors and researchers. During the study period, the MOOC has been through several iterative design cycles, while the enactment and analysis stages of the 2014 Finnish National Curriculum are still proceeding.The original contributions of this thesis lie in the proposed model for teaching computational thinking (CT), and the clarification of the most crucial concepts in computer science (CS) and their integration into a school mathematics syllabus. The CT model comprises the successive phases of abstraction, automation and analysis interleaved with the threads of algorithmic and logical thinking as well as creativity. Abstraction implies modeling and dividing the problem into smaller sub-problems, and automation making the actual implementation. Preferably, the process iterates in cycles, i.e., the analysis feeds back such data that assists in optimizing and evaluating the efficiency and elegance of the solution. Thus, the process largely resembles the DBR design cycles. Test-driven development is also recommended in order to instill good coding practices.The CS fundamentals are function, variable, and type. In addition, the control flow of execution necessitates control structures, such as selection and iteration. These structures are positioned in the learning trajectories of the corresponding mathematics syllabus areas of algebra, arithmetic, or geometry. During the transition phase to the new syllabus, in-service mathematics teachers can utilize their prior mathematical knowledge to reap the benefits of ‘near transfer’. Successful transfer requires close conceptual analogies, such as those that exist between algebra and the functional programming paradigm.However, the integration with mathematics and the utilization of the functional paradigm are far from being the only approaches to teaching computing, and it might turn out that they are perhaps too exclusive. Instead of the grounded mathematics metaphor, computing may be perceived as basic literacy for the 21st century, and as such it could be taught as a separate subject in its own right

Exploring the use of gamification in the teaching and learning of English grammar in a private secondary school classroom in Mombasa County

Grammar is fundamental to language. Historically, approaches to teaching English grammar have undergone many changes. However, there is much disagreement as to the effectiveness of different approaches for teaching English grammar to learners since they view English grammar as boring. The world of education is today confronted with the demands of instilling digital literacy and twenty-first-century skills to all learners to function properly in the emerging fourth industrial revolution. Embracing gamification is unavoidable, especially with the emergence of millennials, whose lives are greatly influenced by digital technology and who prefer to study in a fun, engaging, and motivating environment. Thus, the focus of this study was to explore the use of gamification as a technique in teaching and learning English grammar. The study adopted a qualitative case study design and participants who were involved were 29 form two learners and 1 teacher of English in a private secondary girls’ school in Mombasa County. The data was collected using face to face semi-structured interview guide, observation, and document analysis. The collected data was analysed systematically. The study findings revealed that the use of gamification as an emergent teaching technique is not only effective in improving the teaching and learning of English grammar among ESL learners, but also serves as an invaluable tool to increasing student motivation, engagement and to instilling interest and a sense of enthusiasm towards English grammar acquisition. However, much as gamification has its own benefits, there are challenges linked with its use. In this regard, education practitioners need to have a thorough understanding of these challenges in order to effectively address them