Assessments by Students of the Faculty of Teacher Education on Three Computer Programs Aimed at Child Programmers

Postoje mnogi programi koji mogu pomoći učenicima nižih razreda osnovne škole da se na jednostavan i zanimljiv način upoznaju s osnovnim konceptima programiranja, a neki od njih ne zahtijevaju učenje posebne sintakse koja učenicima u toj dobi čini programiranje teškim. Cilj ovoga rada bio je procijeniti neke programe namijenjene učenicima nižih razreda osnovne škole koji služe za učenje osnovnih koncepata programiranja. Ispitanici su procjenjivali programe Terrapin Logo, Scratch i Kodu. Za potrebe istraživanja kreiran je upitnik koji je služio za ispitivanje stavova ispitanika o navedena tri programa te je davao konačnu ocjenu ispitanika o ispitivanim programima. Dobiveni su odgovori analizirani, a rezultati su pokazali da ispitanici smatraju da su sva tri ispitivana programa adekvatna za poučavanje programiranja učenika nižih razreda osnovne škole, pri čemu je besplatni program Scratch dobio najveću prosječnu ocjenu, odnosno ispitanici su smatrali da je najprikladniji za korištenje u nastavi u nižim razredima osnovne škole.There are many programs which can help pupils in the lower grades of primary school to familiarise themselves with the basic concepts of programming in simple and interesting ways, and some of them do not require learning a specific syntax that makes programming difficult for pupils of that age. The aim of this study was to evaluate some educational programs intended for teaching the basic concepts of programming to pupils in the lower grades of primary school. The participants evaluated Terrapin Logo, Scratch and Kodu programs. For the purpose of this research, a questionnaire was created and used to examine the participants’ attitudes toward these three programs and gave the final participants’ assessment of the programs. The collected data were analyzed and the results showed that the participants considered all three evaluated programs adequate for teaching programming to pupils in the lower grades of primary school. The freeware program Scratch obtained the highest average score, in other words, the participants considered that Scratch was best suited for teaching programming to pupils in the lower grades of primary school

Estudio sobre diferencias de género en las competencias y las estrategias educativas para el desarrollo del pensamiento computacional

Computational thinking is a competence that should be included in the training of every student of different educational stages, from the lower to the higher stages. However, there are fewer women that choose in their post-secondary education careers related to computer science. Therefore, this article analyzes the main initiatives of teaching the computational thinking, and also the gender gap in computer education. In order to know strategies of computational thinking and the gender differences which were found; it has been made a study about the opinions of teachers, judges, referees and volunteers of the national educational robotics competition FLL (First Lego League), whom was held in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 2015. The results indicate that although there are more male presence in the tournament, there are no significant gender differences in the skills related to programming and learning computational thinking, because boys and girls learn and process information fairly.El pensamiento computacional es una competencia que debería ser incluída en la formación de todos los niños y niñas de las diferentes etapas educativas, desde las iniciales hasta las superiores. Sin embargo, cada vez son menos mujeres las que desarrollan esta capacidad porque no eligen en sus estudios superiores las carreras que se relacionan con la informática. Por ello, este artículo analiza las principales iniciativas de la enseñanza del pensamiento computacional, así como la brecha de género existente en la enseñanza de la informática. Para conocer las estrategias de enseñanza de pensamiento computacional y las diferencias de género halladas, se ha efectuado un estudio sobre las opiniones del profesorado, jueces, árbitros y voluntariado en la competición nacional de robótica educativa FLL (First Lego League) celebrada en Santa Cruz de Tenerife en 2015. Los resultados indican que, aunque hay mayor presencia masculina en el torneo, no hay diferencias significativas de género en las habilidades relacionadas con la programación y el aprendizaje del pensamiento computacional, pues chicos y chicas procesan y aprenden información equitativamente

Extendable framework for graphical block programming systems

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2007.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-61).Graphical programming systems have been built to lower the threshold to programming for beginners. However, because these systems were designed to make programming more accessible to novices, they were developed with narrower intentions for their users and applications. For example, in StarLogo TNG, a graphical block programming environment, users may create games and simulations, but they cannot use this same system to create programs that can automate their computer processes, like the text-based scripting system AppleScript. Application developers can create their own programming systems, but doing so can take a significant amount of time to design and implement. This thesis describes an extendable framework called OpenBlocks that enables application developers to build and iterate their own graphical block programming systems by specifying a single XML file. Application developers can focus more on the design of their systems instead of oil the details of implementation. The design and implementation of OpenBlocks are described, along with a user study conducted to test its usability and extendability.by Ricarose Vallarta Roque.M.Eng