75,746 research outputs found
Cognitive computing in education
Cognitive computing is the new wave of Artificial Intelligence (AI), relying on traditional techniques based on expert systems and also exploiting statistics and mathematical model. In particular, cognitive computing systems can be regarded as a "more human" artificial intelligence. In fact, they mimic human reasoning methodologies, showing special capabilities in dealing with uncertainties and in solving problems that typically entail computation consuming processes. Moreover, they can evolve, exploiting the accumulated experience to learn from the past, both from errors and from successful findings. From a theoretical point of view, cognitive computing could replace existing calculators in many fields of application but hardware requirements are still high, even if the cloud infrastructure, which is expected to uphold its rapid growth in the very next future, can support their diffusion and ease the penetration of such a novel variety of systems, fostering new services as well as changes in many settled paradigms. In this paper, we focus on benefits that this technology can bring when applied in the education field and we make a short review of relevant experiences
ScratchMaths: evaluation report and executive summary
Since 2014, computing has been part of the primary curriculum. âScratchâ is frequently used by schools, and the EEF funded this trial to test whether the platform could be used to improve pupilsâ computational thinking skills, and whether this in turn could have a positive impact on Key Stage 2 maths attainment. Good computational thinking skills mean pupils can use problem solving methods that involve expressing problems and their solutions in ways that a computer could execute â for example, recognising patterns. Previous research has shown that pupils with better computational thinking skills do better in maths.
The study found a positive impact on computational thinking skills at the end of Year 5 â particularly for pupils who have ever been eligible for free school meals. However, there was no evidence of an impact on Key Stage 2 maths attainment when pupils were tested at the end of Year 6.
Many of the schools in the trial did not fully implement ScratchMaths, particularly in Year 6, where teachers expressed concerns about the pressure of Key Stage 2 SATs. But there was no evidence that schools which did implement the programme had better maths results.
Schools may be interested in ScratchMaths as an affordable way to cover aspects of the primary computing curriculum in maths lessons without any adverse effect on core maths outcomes. This trial, however, did not provide evidence that ScratchMaths is an effective way to improve maths outcomes
Informaticology: combining Computer Science, Data Science, and Fiction Science
Motivated by an intention to remedy current complications with Dutch
terminology concerning informatics, the term informaticology is positioned to
denote an academic counterpart of informatics where informatics is conceived of
as a container for a coherent family of practical disciplines ranging from
computer engineering and software engineering to network technology, data
center management, information technology, and information management in a
broad sense.
Informaticology escapes from the limitations of instrumental objectives and
the perspective of usage that both restrict the scope of informatics. That is
achieved by including fiction science in informaticology and by ranking fiction
science on equal terms with computer science and data science, and framing (the
study of) game design, evelopment, assessment and distribution, ranging from
serious gaming to entertainment gaming, as a chapter of fiction science. A
suggestion for the scope of fiction science is specified in some detail.
In order to illustrate the coherence of informaticology thus conceived, a
potential application of fiction to the ontology of instruction sequences and
to software quality assessment is sketched, thereby highlighting a possible
role of fiction (science) within informaticology but outside gaming
Learning by Seeing by Doing: Arithmetic Word Problems
Learning by doing in pursuit of real-world goals has received much attention from education researchers but has been unevenly supported by mathematics education software at the elementary level, particularly as it involves arithmetic word problems. In this article, we give examples of doing-oriented tools that might promote children\u27s ability to see significant abstract structures in mathematical situations. The reflection necessary for such seeing is motivated by activities and contexts that emphasize affective and social aspects. Natural language, as a representation already familiar to children, is key in these activities, both as a means of mathematical expression and as a link between situations and various abstract representations. These tools support children\u27s ownership of a mathematical problem and its expression; remote sharing of problems and data; software interpretation of children\u27s own word problems; play with dynamically linked representations with attention to children\u27s prior connections; and systematic problem variation based on empirically determined level of difficulty
Female Under-Representation in Computing Education and Industry - A Survey of Issues and Interventions
This survey paper examines the issue of female under-representation in computing education and industry, which has been shown from empirical studies to be a problem for over two decades. While various measures and intervention strategies have been implemented to increase the interest of girls in computing education and industry, the level of success has been discouraging.
The primary contribution of this paper is to provide an analysis of the extensive research work in this area. It outlines the progressive decline in female representation in computing education. It also presents the key arguments that attempt to explain the decline and intervention strategies. We conclude that there is a need to further explore strategies that will encourage young female learners to interact more with computer educational games
Justifications-on-demand as a device to promote shifts of attention associated with relational thinking in elementary arithmetic
Student responses to arithmetical questions that can be solved by using arithmetical structure can serve to reveal the extent and nature of relational, as opposed to computational thinking. Here, student responses to probes which require them to justify-on-demand are analysed using a conceptual framework which highlights distinctions between different forms of attention. We analyse a number of actions observed in students in terms of forms of attention and shifts between them: in the short-term (in the moment), medium-term (over several tasks), and long-term (over a year). The main factors conditioning studentsÂŽ attention and its movement are identified and some didactical consequences are proposed
Some Thoughts on the Teaching of Mathematics -- ten years later
I describe some deep-seated problems in higher mathematical education, and
give some ideas for their solution -- I advocate a move away from the
traditional introduction of mathematics through calculus, and towards
computation and discrete mathematics.Comment: 10 pages, to appear in Notices of the AM
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