Navigating The Leading Edge: A Prototype Curriculum for Software Systems Management

This article presents a meaningful and advantageous new direction for information technology education, embodying principles for systematically optimizing the functioning of the business. Our curriculum was built on the thesis that every aspect of software systems management can be understood and described as a component of four universal, highly correlated behaviors: abstraction, product creation, product verification and validation, and process optimization. Given this, our model curriculum was structured to provide the maximum exposure to current best practice in six thematic areas, which taken together as an integrated set, makes-up the attributes that differentiate us from the other computer disciplines: Abstraction: understanding and description of the problem space Design: models for framing artifact to meet criteria 3, 4, 5, and 6 Process Engineering: application of large models such as IEEE 12207 Organizational Control Systems: SQA and configuration management Evaluation with Measurement: with an emphasis on testing and metrics Construction: professional programming languages with emphasis on reusability Our teaching strategy approaches this as a hierarchy of similar activities. In every course we require the student to define and implement all three interfaces and be able to clearly communicate this as a logically consistent model before working out the details of the solution. The focus of all understanding is top-down from the information interface. Our curriculum centers on the application of software engineering standards (such as those promulgated by IEEE) and the software process improvement, or quality standards (such as those promulgated by SEI and ISO) under the assumption that this embodies the common body of knowledge and state of best practice in software production and management. The practical realization of this is an integration of the large subject areas of: software engineering (methods, models and criteria), process and product quality management (software quality assurance and metrics), software project management (work decomposition, planning, sizing and estimating), and software configuration management. Reconciliation of project and configuration management is accomplished by cross-referencing the problems, tools, notations and solutions (through explicit identification, authorization and validation procedures). As a side agenda, we have also stressed the need for re-engineering the vast number of software products currently on the shelves. This model plus germane simulated real-world experience introduces all of the relevant principles to the student within the (currently understood) framework. It allows them to develop and internalize their own comprehensive understanding and formulate a personal model of the disciplinary body of knowledge

UAI case: An uCASE-CL model implementation

The new models of teaching and learning have their focus on technology, especially on issues related to ubiquity. The impact of ICT in education generates new learning opportunities: the mobile or ubiquitous, which open new doors to technological environments that allow students to learn at any time and place, providing, in addition, tools that give the possibility to perform collaborative work and learning. The integration of a ubiquitous virtual teaching and learning environment with collaborative work forms the Ubiquitous Computer Supported Collaborative Learning model. What has been mentioned before allowed us to understand the importance of making a specification of this model that provides the possibility of using a tool for professional use in the Software Engineering during the teaching and learning processes, including the specific activities of evaluation and monitoring of works. These tools, called Computer-Aided Software Engineering, must be an active part of the uCSCL model. This integration, forms the model proposed in our work, called uCASE-CL. A prototype of the implementation of the model was developed, which we have called UAI Case. This solution is a proposal to cover the need to have tools that can be used in the teaching of the SE, and which allow the student to acquire and strengthen the academic learning

Learning from Digital Natives: Bridging Formal and Informal Learning. Final Report

Overview This report suggests that students are increasingly making use of a variety of etools (such as mobile phones, email, MSN, digital cameras, games consoles and social networking sites) to support their informal learning within formalised educational settings, and that they use the tools that they have available if none are provided for them. Therefore, higher education institutions should encourage the use of these tools. Aims and background This study aimed to explore how e-tools (such as mobile phones, email, MSN, digital cameras, games consoles and social networking sites) and the processes that underpin their use can support learning within educational institutions and help improve the quality of students’ experiences of learning in higher education (pgs 9-11). Methodology The study entailed: (i) desk research to identify related international research and practice and examples of integration of e-tools and learning processes in formal educational settings; (ii) a survey of 160 engineering and social work students across two contrasting Scottish universities (pre- and post-1992) – the University of Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian University – and follow-up interviews with eight students across the two subject areas to explore which technologies students were using for both learning and leisure activities within and outside the formal educational settings and how they would like to use such technologies to support their learning in both formal and informal settings; and (iii) interviews with eight members of staff from across the institutions and two subject areas to identify their perceptions of the educational value of the e-tools. (pgs 24-27). Key findings • Students reported making extensive use of a variety of both e-tools (such as mobile phones, email, MSN, digital cameras) and social networking tools (such as Bebo, MySpace, Wikipedia and YouTube) for informal socialisation, communication, information gathering, content creation and sharing, alongside using the institutionally provided technologies and learning environments. • Most of the students owned their own computer or had access to a sibling or parent’s computer. Many students owned a laptop but preferred not to bring it onto campus due to security concerns and because they found it too heavy to carry about. • Ownership of mobile phones was ubiquitous. • Whilst the students’ information searching literacy seemed adequate, the ability of these students to harness the power of social networking tools and informal processes for their learning was low. Staff reported using a few Web 2.0 and social software tools but they were generally less familiar with how these could be used to support learning and teaching. There were misconceptions surrounding the affordances of the tools and fears expressed about security and invasion of personal space. Considerations of the costs and the time it would take staff to develop their skills meant that there was a reluctance to take up new technologies at an institutional level. • Subject differences emerged in both staff and student perceptions as to which type of tools they would find most useful. Attitudes to Web 2.0 tools were different. Engineers were concerned with reliability, using institutional systems and inter-operability. Social workers were more flexible because they were focused on communication and professional needs. • The study concluded that digital tools, personal devices, social networking software and many of the other tools explored all have a large educational potential to support learning processing and teaching practices. Therefore, use of these tools and processes within institutions, amongst staff and students should be encouraged. • The report goes on to suggest ways in which the use of such technologies can help strengthen the links between informal and formal learning in higher education. The recommendations are grouped under four areas – pedagogical, socio-cultural, organisational and technological

Fujaba days 2009 : proceedings of the 7th international Fujaba days, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, November 16-17, 2009

Fujaba is an Open Source UML CASE tool project started at the software engineering group of Paderborn University in 1997. In 2002 Fujaba has been redesigned and became the Fujaba Tool Suite with a plug-in architecture allowing developers to add functionality easily while retaining full control over their contributions. Multiple Application Domains Fujaba followed the model-driven development philosophy right from its beginning in 1997. At the early days, Fujaba had a special focus on code generation from UML diagrams resulting in a visual programming language with a special emphasis on object structure manipulating rules. Today, at least six rather independent tool versions are under development in Paderborn, Kassel, and Darmstadt for supporting (1) reengineering, (2) embedded real-time systems, (3) education, (4) specification of distributed control systems, (5) integration with the ECLIPSE platform, and (6) MOF-based integration of system (re-) engineering tools. International Community According to our knowledge, quite a number of research groups have also chosen Fujaba as a platform for UML and MDA related research activities. In addition, quite a number of Fujaba users send requests for more functionality and extensions. Therefore, the 7th International Fujaba Days aimed at bringing together Fujaba developers and Fujaba users from all over the world to present their ideas and projects and to discuss them with each other and with the Fujaba core development team

Are digital natives a myth or reality?: Students’ use of technologies for learning

This paper outlines the findings of a study investigating the extent and nature of use of digital technologies by undergraduate students in Social Work and Engineering, in two British universities. The study involved a questionnaire survey of students (n=160) followed by in-depth interviews with students (n=8) and lecturers and support staff (n=8) in both institutions. Firstly, the findings suggest that students use a limited range of technologies for both learning and socialisation. For learning, mainly established ICTs are used- institutional VLE, Google and Wikipedia and mobile phones. Students make limited, recreational use of social technologies such as media sharing tools and social networking sites. Secondly, the findings point to a low level of use of and familiarity with collaborative knowledge creation tools, virtual worlds, personal web publishing, and other emergent social technologies. Thirdly, the study did not find evidence to support the claims regarding students adopting radically different patterns of knowledge creation and sharing suggested by some previous studies. The study shows that students’ attitudes to learning appear to be influenced by the approaches adopted by their lecturers. Far from demanding lecturers change their practice, students appear to conform to fairly traditional pedagogies, albeit with minor uses of technology tools that deliver content. Despite both groups clearly using a rather limited range of technologies for learning, the results point to some age differences, with younger, engineering students making somewhat more active, albeit limited, use of tools than the older ones. The outcomes suggest that although the calls for radical transformations in educational approaches may be legitimate it would be misleading to ground the arguments for such change solely in students’ shifting expectations and patterns of learning and technology use

Incorporating Agile with MDA Case Study: Online Polling System

Nowadays agile software development is used in greater extend but for small organizations only, whereas MDA is suitable for large organizations but yet not standardized. In this paper the pros and cons of Model Driven Architecture (MDA) and Extreme programming have been discussed. As both of them have some limitations and cannot be used in both large scale and small scale organizations a new architecture has been proposed. In this model it is tried to opt the advantages and important values to overcome the limitations of both the software development procedures. In support to the proposed architecture the implementation of it on Online Polling System has been discussed and all the phases of software development have been explained.Comment: 14 pages,1 Figure,1 Tabl