HOW ICT TEACHERS FEEL ABOUT TEACHING: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN GREECE AND INDONESIA

The issue of Computer Science entering schools first appeared during the ’60s. The first academic Computer Science Department was founded during this decade at Purdue University and was followed by a second one at Stanford University. As far as the other levels of educational systems are concerned the wide introduction of computers into schools started during the ’80s. This paper refers to a comparative small scale qualitative research that took place between two countries: Greece and Indonesia. It compares Greek and Indonesian Computer Science teachers’ views on whether the Computer Science (or ICT or Computing or Informatics) course improves students’ lives and could in general assist in teaching. Both Greece and Indonesia have included the course of Information and Communication(s) Technologies (ICT) in the curricula of their primary and secondary education levels. Data were collected through interviews (semi-structured and e-mail ones). We interviewed eleven (11) Greek and twenty (20) Indonesian Computer Science (or ICT or Computing or Informatics) teachers. For each country we carefully studied participants’ answers, we categorized and analyzed them in order to obtain reliable results. Then we compared the two countries’ results so as to find similarities and differences between them. After this comparison we drew the conclusion that the points of view of teachers coming from the two aforementioned countries are almost the same. Participants declared that they see teaching as a positive procedure and that they also consider ICT (or Computer Science or Computing or Informatics) course as important for their pupils’/students’ lives. Article visualizations

Numerical Analysis at the National Bureau of Standards

In 1946/47, Dr. E. U. Condon (1902–1974), the fourth director of the National Bureau of Standards, arranged for the organization of a Division of Applied Mathematics, under the leadership of Dr. John H. Curtiss. A principal objective of this division was the development of the mathematics appropriate for the automatic digital computing machines then being constructed. An account is given here of some of the activities in numerical analysis carried out by that division in its first 25 years

The Crusader and the Dictator: An Exploration of Ideology and Neurodivergence in Contemporary Technology Practice

A common theme in public discourse is the recognition that technology in general, and digital technology specifically, has an enormous impact on the everyday lives of people from all walks of modern life, in almost every corner of the globe. This thesis interrogates the connection between neurodivergence—the presence of neurological variations considered outside the cognitive norm— and individualistic ideology within the information technology industries. Through the biographies, substantial record of activities, public statements, and writings surrounding two influential figures in the contemporary practice of computer science, Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds, it conducts an investigation into this convergence and its resulting impact on the surrounding culture

Examining the technology acceptance model and its influence on individuals’ willingness to accept commercial wind farms

This study involved exploration of the acceptance of proposed commercial wind farm construction in rural township areas in the Thumb area of Michigan. The primary objective of the study was to conduct an exploratory analysis to gain an understanding of how residents perceive proposed wind farms in their own communities. This involved examining the influence of perceived usefulness and intent to use on individuals’ acceptance of wind farms in their communities. It also involved exploration of the extent to which personality factors, technophobia, and age moderate these relationships. The study had a cross-sectional research design and relied on a survey to collect data from a convenience sample of 163 individuals. The survey was exposed to people 4,522 times across all methods of promotion. Sampling targeted those who owned or rented property in Tuscola, Huron, and Sanilac Counties, which formed the focus of the study. Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed that independent variables corresponding to perceived usefulness, technophobia, environmental factors, and education were significantly correlated with the dependent variable corresponding to acceptance of wind farms. Independent variables corresponding to property ownership, gender, and age and the Big Five factors of Openness and Conscientiousness were not significantly correlated with the dependent variable. None of Openness, Conscientiousness, technophobia, or age moderated any of the correlations. These results may help guide leaders of municipalities and organizations proposing wind farms to improve communication of wind farm proposals to community member

Computational Thinking, Between Papert and Wing

International audienceThe pervasiveness of Computer Science (CS) in today’s digital society and the extensive use of computational methods in other sciences call for its introduction in the school curriculum. Hence, Computer Science Education is becoming more and more relevant. In CS K-12 education, computational thinking (CT) is one of the abused buzzwords: different stakeholders (media, educators, politicians) give it different meanings, some more oriented to CS, others more linked to its interdisciplinary value. The expression was introduced by two leading researchers, Jeannette Wing (in 2006) and Seymour Papert (much early, in 1980), each of them stressing different aspects of a common theme. This paper will use a historical approach to review, discuss, and put in context these first two educational and epistemological approaches to CT. We will relate them to today’s context and evaluate what aspects are still relevant for CS K-12 education. Of the two, particular interest is devoted to “Papert’s CT,” which is the lesser-known and the lesser-studied. We will conclude that “Wing’s CT” and “Papert’s CT,” when correctly understood, are both relevant to today’s computer science education. From Wing, we should retain computer science’s centrality, CT being the (scientific and cultural) substratum of the technical competencies. Under this interpretation, CT is a lens and a set of categories for understanding the algorithmic fabric of today’s world. From Papert, we should retain the constructionist idea that only a social and affective involvement of students into the technical content will make programming an interdisciplinary tool for learning (also) other disciplines. We will also discuss the often quoted (and often unverified) claim that CT automatically “transfers” to other broad 21st century skills. Our analysis will be relevant for educators and scholars to recognize and avoid misconceptions and build on the two core roots of CT

Introducing Computational Thinking in K-12 Education: Historical, Epistemological, Pedagogical, Cognitive, and Affective Aspects

Introduction of scientific and cultural aspects of Computer Science (CS) (called "Computational Thinking" - CT) in K-12 education is fundamental. We focus on three crucial areas. 1. Historical, philosophical, and pedagogical aspects. What are the big ideas of CS we must teach? What are the historical and pedagogical contexts in which CT emerged, and why are relevant? What is the relationship between learning theories (e.g., constructivism) and teaching approaches (e.g., plugged and unplugged)? 2. Cognitive aspects. What is the sentiment of generalist teachers not trained to teach CS? What misconceptions do they hold about concepts like CT and "coding"? 3. Affective and motivational aspects. What is the impact of personal beliefs about intelligence (mindset) and about CS ability? What the role of teaching approaches? This research has been conducted both through historical and philosophical argumentation, and through quantitative and qualitative studies (both on nationwide samples and small significant ones), in particular through the lens of (often exaggerated) claims about transfer from CS to other skills. Four important claims are substantiated. 1. CS should be introduced in K-12 as a tool to understand and act in our digital world, and to use the power of computation for meaningful learning. CT is the conceptual sediment of that learning. We designed a curriculum proposal in this direction. 2. The expressions CT (useful to distantiate from digital literacy) and "coding" can cause misconceptions among teachers, who focus mainly on transfer to general thinking skills. Both disciplinary and pedagogical teacher training is hence needed. 3. Some plugged and unplugged teaching tools have intrinsic constructivist characteristics that can facilitate CS learning, as shown with proposed activities. 4. Growth mindset is not automatically fostered by CS, while not studying CS can foster fixed beliefs. Growth mindset can be fostered by creative computing, leveraging on its constructivist aspects

American pure and applied mathematics, 1940-1975

Thesis (Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS))--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-336).This study investigates the status of mathematical knowledge in mid-century America. It is motivated by questions such as: when did mathematical theories become applicable to a wide range of fields from medicine to the social science? How did this change occur? I ask after the implications of this transformation for the development of mathematics as an academic discipline and how it affected what it meant to be a mathematician. How did mathematicians understand the relation between abstractions and generalizations on the one hand and their manifestation in concrete problems on the other? Mathematics in Cold War America was caught between the sciences and the humanities. This dissertation tracks the ways this tension between the two shaped the development of professional identities, pedagogical regimes, and the epistemological commitments of the American mathematical community in the postwar period. Focusing on the constructed division between pure and applied mathematics, it therefore investigates the relationship of scientific ideas to academic and governmental institutions, showing how the two are mutually inclusive. Examining the disciplinary formation of postwar mathematics, I show how ideas about what mathematics is and what it should be crystallized in institutional contexts, and how in turn these institutions reshaped those ideas. Tuning in to the ways different groups of mathematicians strove to make sense of the transformations in their fields and the way they struggled to implement their ideological convictions into specific research agendas and training programs sheds light on the co-construction of mathematics, the discipline, and mathematics as a body of knowledge. The relation between pure and applied mathematics and between mathematics and the rest of the sciences were disciplinary concerns as much as they were philosophical musings. As the reconfiguration of the mathematical field during the second half of the twentieth century shows, the dynamic relation between the natural and the human sciences reveals as much about institutions, practices, and nations as it does about epistemological commitments.by Alma Steingart.Ph.D.in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HAST