Early-Childhood Computer-based Testing: Effects of a Digital Literacy Intervention on Student Confidence and Performance

Early-childhood digital students grow up in a fast-evolving age of technology requiring them to use and create with technologies and demonstrate core content knowledge. Although third grade students are mandated to master a new language of standardized testing, a large percentage must also learn a language of technology to complete new computer-based tests to measure content mastery. Krashen (1982) defines high affective filter as negative emotional/motivational factors interfering with understanding and cognition. This high affective filter reduces confidence and negatively impacts measuring content mastery on new computerbased tests. Two third grade classrooms at a high-poverty metropolitan school participated in a quasi-experimental study to measure the effects of a digital literacy intervention on computerbased testing confidence and student performance in social studies and mathematics. The intervention group participated in a digital literacy intervention developing keyboarding and coding skills. The control group participated in a mock digital intervention. Both participant groups received computer-based pretests and posttests in social studies and mathematics, and both groups completed Technology-Use Baseline and computer-based testing (CBT) confidence surveys after each pretest and posttest. A comparison of means was used to analyze change between pretest and posttest. Regression analysis and ANOVA were used to determine any v significant relationships between CBT-Confidence, student performance and digital literacy intervention variables. The study results found a significant relationship with a change in student performance and computer-based testing confidence in social studies but not mathematics. There was also a direct, positive significant relationship with the coding intervention and change in computerbased testing confidence in social studies but not mathematics. The researcher suggests that mode of technology integration within the two classrooms impacted the research study. The research study suggests that learner-centered technology integration within the social studies classroom positively impacted the research study when comparing the teacher-centered technology integration within the mathematics classroom. Research study suggests that school leaders consider providing teacher professional development opportunities for learner-centered technology integration (Chow et al., 2012, Considine et al., 2009). Future research could include larger sample population, using the same teacher to teach both subjects, and implementing longitudinal study to track student performance on standardized testing

Computer Science in the Elementary Classroom: The Basics

Computer Science is often ranked with Nuclear Physics or Biochemical Engineering; people understand it is an academic discipline, but have no desire to study or learn anything about it. With the introduction of Arkansas Computer Science Standards in the elementary classroom, many teachers wonder how to satisfy these and to do so without full knowledge of computer science and alongside all the other demands they must meet in the classroom. This paper covers my interest in computer science and why it is needed in elementary schools, specifically in Arkansas. It also incorporates the standards, including a chart of all the standards with suggestions about how they can be taught, followed by some full lesson plans written during my research

Developing Computational Thinking with Educational Technologies for Young Learners

This article aims to provide an overview of the opportunities for developing computational thinking in young learners. It includes a review of empirical studies on the educational technologies used to develop computational thinking in young learners, and analyses and descriptions of a selection of commercially available technologies for developing computational thinking in young learners. The challenges and implications of using these technologies are also discussed

Strategies and Algorithms of Sudoku

This paper discusses different strategies for the game of Sudoku and how those strategies relate to other problem solving techniques while also attempting to use those other techniques in a way that improves the strategies for Sudoku. This includes a thorough analysis of the general algorithm and an algorithm that is formed by the Occupancy Theorem and Preemptive Sets. This paper also compares these algorithms that directly relate to Sudoku with algorithms to similar combinatorial problems such as the Traveling Salesman problem and more. With the study of game theory becoming more popular, these strategies have also been shown to help students in various ways in the classroom. To understand Sudoku on a deeper level, this paper demonstrates ways to model a puzzle by using permutation matrices and different symmetries

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY BY USING PUZZLES

The objectives of the research are: (1) to know to what extent of the students’ vocabulary mastery improvement by using puzzle in the sixth grade students’ class (2) to identify the class situation when puzzles are implemented in the sixth grade students’ class of SD Negeri Sidoharjo 2, Sragen of the academic year 2011/2012. The study is a classroom action research that is carried out in two cycles from March 9th to March 30rd 2012. The subject of the research is the students of the sixth grade that consist of 29 students, 18 males and 11 females. The data were in the form of qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data were collected by interview, questionnaire, students’ diary, and field note, while quantitative data were collected by test (pre test and posttest). The qualitative data are analyzed by using Burn method, analyzing action research data consisting of assembling, coding, comparing, building interpretation, and reporting the outcomes while quantitative data are analyzed by using descriptive statistic method. The research finding shows that the use of puzzle improves the students’ vocabulary mastery in four aspects and English class situation The objectives of the research are: (1) to know to what extent of the students’ vocabulary mastery improvement by using puzzle in the sixth grade students’ class (2) to identify the class situation when puzzles are implemented in the sixth grade students’ class of SD Negeri Sidoharjo 2, Sragen of the academic year 2011/2012. The study is a classroom action research that is carried out in two cycles from March 9th to March 30rd 2012. The subject of the research is the students of the sixth grade that consist of 29 students, 18 males and 11 females. The data were in the form of qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data were collected by interview, questionnaire, students’ diary, and field note, while quantitative data were collected by test (pre test and posttest). The qualitative data are analyzed by using Burn method, analyzing action research data consisting of assembling, coding, comparing, building interpretation, and reporting the outcomes while quantitative data are analyzed by using descriptive statistic method. The research finding shows that the use of puzzle improves the students’ vocabulary mastery in four aspects and English class situatio

Learning Logic Gate through 7-Gates

This game is a simple method for a student that try to learn in Logic Gates, an educational game with futuristic adventure. The only way for the player to save the digital world in this game by using Logic Gates, with Logic Gates formulas the player can make the power connection on the circuit to the digital world engine. Without knowing how Logic Gates functional will make the player losing the power for the engine to the digital world. 7 Gates Digital World is a complex genre game. The main genre for this game absolutely is an Educational Game. Although, the game developer made a complex genre for this educational game. Puzzle include in this game combined with platforms games style the player must collect all the switches in confusion platform map to go through the next portal to the next level. Educational genre in this game giving the content level completely based on the level of understanding and give the player to memorize every gates formula

The Effect of Problem-Solving Video Games on the Science Reasoning Skills of College Students

As the world continues to rapidly change, students are faced with the need to develop flexible skills, such as science reasoning that will help them thrive in the new knowledge economy. Prensky (2001), Gee (2003), and Van Eck (2007) have all suggested that the way to engage learners and teach them the necessary skills is through digital games, but empirical studies focusing on popular games are scant. One way digital games, especially video games, could potentially be useful if there were a flexible and inexpensive method a student could use at their convenience to improve selected science reasoning skills. Problem-solving video games, which require the use of reasoning and problem solving to answer a variety of cognitive challenges could be a promising method to improve selected science reasoning skills. Using think-aloud protocols and interviews, a qualitative study was carried out with a small sample of college students to examine what impact two popular video games, Professor Layton and the Curious Village and Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, had on specific science reasoning skills. The subject classified as an expert in both gaming and reasoning tended to use more higher order thinking and reasoning skills than the novice reasoners. Based on the assessments, the science reasoning of college students did not improve during the course of game play. Similar to earlier studies, students tended to use trial and error as their primary method of solving the various puzzles in the game and additionally did not recognize when to use the appropriate reasoning skill to solve a puzzle, such as proportional reasoning

Assessing Adaptive Learning Styles in Computer Science Through a Virtual World

abstract: Programming is quickly becoming as ubiquitous and essential a skill as general mathematics. However, many elementary and high school students are still not aware of what the computer science field entails. To make matters worse, students who are introduced to computer science are frequently being fed only part of what it is about rather than its entire construction. Consequently, they feel out of their depth when they approach college. Research has discovered that by teaching computer science and programming through a problem-driven approach and focusing on a combination of syntax and computational thinking, students can be prepared when entering higher levels of computer science education. This thesis describes the design, development, and early user testing of a theory-based virtual world for computer science instruction called System Dot. System Dot was designed to visually manifest programming instructions into interactable objects, giving players a way to see coding as tangible entities rather than text on a white screen. In order for System Dot to convey the true nature of computer science, a custom predictive recursive descent parser was embedded in the program to validate any user-generated solutions to pre-defined logical platforming puzzles. Steps were taken to adapt the virtual world to player behavior by creating a system to detect their learning style playing the game. Through a dynamic Bayesian network, System Dot aims to classify a player’s learning style based on the Felder-Sylverman Learning Style Model (FSLSM). Testers played through the first half of System Dot, which was enough to test out the Bayesian network and initial learning style classification. This classification was then compared to the assessment by Felder’s Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire (ILSQ). Lastly, this thesis will also discuss ways to use the results from the user testing to implement a personalized feedback system for the virtual world in the future and what has been learned through the learning style method.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Computer Science 201

Evaluating a Course for Teaching Advanced Programming Concepts with Scratch to Preservice Kindergarten Teachers: A Case Study in Greece

Coding is a new literacy for the twenty-first century, and as a literacy, coding enables new ways of thinking and new ways of communicating and expressing ideas, as well as new ways of civic participation. A growing number of countries, in Europe and beyond, have established clear policies and frameworks for introducing computational thinking (CT) and computer programming to young children. In this chapter, we discuss a game-based approach to coding education for preservice kindergarten teachers using Scratch. The aim of using Scratch was to excite students’ interest and familiarize them with the basics of programming in an open-ended, project-based, and personally meaningful environment for a semester course in the Department of Preschool Education in the University of Crete. For 13 weeks, students were introduced to the main Scratch concepts and, afterward, were asked to prepare their projects. For the projects, they were required to design their own interactive stories to teach certain concepts about mathematics or physical science to preschool-age students. The results we obtained were more satisfactory than expected and, in some regards, encouraging if one considers the fact that the research participants had no prior experiences with computational thinking