The case studies carried out in four non-government primary schools in the ACT aimed to look at the way teachers were using computers in classrooms in order to shed light on the factors which may determine how teachers chose to use computers to enhance learning. The case study method allowed the researcher to use triangulation to provide in-depth information about the processes involved in the delivery of a lesson using a computer. The findings were positive in that more than half of the teachers were found to be using computers at a high level of adoption, predominantly running simulation programs. In most schools, this was in spite of either hardware or software constraints, inadequate professional development opportunities or administrative obstacles. Whether the teachers taught in a laboratory or had one computer in the classroom did not seem to retard their enthusiasm for finding the best strategies to effectively integrate computer use. Cooperative learning strategies had been adopted by most of the teachers so their transition to computer use was made easier since their students had already been 'routinised'.The data also pointed to formal Computer Education as a possible determinant of a high level computer user. However, research on a wider scale would be needed to validate the result. Differences in the way classes were managed in a onecomputer classroom and a laboratory were evident. Teachers spent most time with those students working away from the computer in the one-computer classroom and most time with those working at the computer in the laboratory setting. Methods of evaluation were shown to be necessarily different depending on whether work was carried out in a laboratory or a one-computer classroom. Finally, the study pointed to the need for non-government schools and system managers to begin long-term planning for hardware and software purchase and resource management in order to provide teachers with the tools needed to integrate computer use effectively. Such planning would need to include provision for professional development.

The UBC CS Science Education Initiative (CSSEI) has resulted in a number of research projects. New teaching methods and student assessment instruments are introduced to engage student learning and evaluations of their understanding. In this paper, we report four of these recent initiatives and their initial findings.

This study explored the life and work of the late Grace Murray Hopper, Rear Admiral United States Naval Reserve. The study emphasized Hopper's contributions to computer science and computer science education, including her philosophy of teaching and learning, and her pedagogical legacy for today's teachers and scholars of computer science and computer science education.

This paper presents PythonVis, a novel Virtual Reality (VR) software visualization prototype for program comprehension. The motivation for PythonVis is to leverage the affordances of VR and the debugger tool to support software developers' comprehension of novel software. An experimental study with follow up interviews was conducted using 10 participants, comparing PythonVis to a desktop setup. The results indicate that PythonVis could be useful for getting a better overview over a whole code base. Limitation are addressed and further studies are suggested. / Den här avhandlingen presenterar PythonVis, en ny prototyp av ett Virtual Reality (VR) visualiseringsverktyg för programförståelse. Motivationen för PythonVis är att utnyttja de förmågor som VR erbjuder, samt felsökarverktyg för att underlätta mjukvaruutvecklares förståelse för okända program. En experimentell studie med följande intervjuer genomfördes med 10 deltagare där PythonVis jämfördes med en traditionell dator. Resultaten indikerar att PythonVis kan användas för att få en bättre överblick av en hel kodbas. Begränsningar i studien är adresserade och framtida forskning är förslagen.

Widespread accessibility to the Internet and the proliferation of Web 2.0 technologies has led to the growth of online tools for educational content creation, delivery, and assessment. Maintaining high quality of assessment using this medium is made more practical by using tools to author and represent a broad range of assessment problems. A survey of existing problem-authoring tools uncovered two main deficiencies: (a) lack of support for authoring "dynamic" (parameterized) problems, and (b) lack of tools that are independent of a specific publishing format, persistence format, and/or authoring platform. Dynamic problems are assessment problem templates that support parameterization of the problems by the use of variables. Variables dynamically take values assigned at random to generate different instances of a problem from a template. This provides for greater diversity of authored problems, and permits students to practice with different variations of a problem. In existing problem authoring tools, the problem types supported are often limited to static problems. A formal definition of an assessment problem structure is presented. This formal definition served as a design aide for a new problem authoring system named QBank, a web-based tool that supports authoring dynamic problems. The proof-of-concept implementation of QBank supports export of questions in CSV format and the Khan Academy Exercise format. The extensible nature of the framework allows future development of features supporting export of authored problems into other publishing and/or persistence formats. / Master of Science

This study has two main focuses. The first centers on teacher’s use of digital tools within the Swedish middle-school educational system. The second emphases which purpose and in what situations teachers implement digital tools in their teaching. Hence, chosen research questions are: (I) What are the main determining factors controlling the use of digital tools within science education? (II) With which purposes and in what contexts do teachers use digital tools? This study is based on qualitative interviews on an assorted group of respondents, and the results are analyzed from the socio-cultural and constructivist theories of learning. Collectively our interviews show that the main determining factors controlling the use of digital tools are school resources, the teacher knowledgebase and the teachers approach towards digital tools. Furthermore, this study shows that the use of digital tools is most commonly implemented as a complement to traditional teaching methods, and primarily to increase student motivation.

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By the year 2020, it is projected that 30% of the United States population will be comprised of people age 65 and older (Administration on Aging, 2004). Individuals over age 65 will continue to constitute a larger proportion of the total population because people are living longer and healthier lives. With older adults living longer, this senior population leads very active lives and often has great interest in modern technology such as the Internet (Nielsen, 2002). Given the use of computers in the workplace and homes and the increase in the number of older adults in the next 20 years, the use of computers by older adults is a significant issue that should be addressed (Czaja, 1996). Computer tasks involve cognitive skills that may be challenging for older adults. Most of the literature suggests that cognitive skills decline as individuals age (Baddeley, 1981; Foos, 1989; Salthouse, 1996; Welford, 1985). Decrements in working memory could place older adults at a disadvantage when performing computer-interactive tasks. To increase the success of older workers' performance with computer technology, web-based training programs designed to accommodate age-related cognitive declines may be an effective avenue to deliver computer training to younger and older adults. The objectives of this study were to explore computer self-efficacy differences between younger adults (18-24 years old) and older adults (65 and older) and to determine if the design of a web-based training system affects individual performance when completing a computer task. Four hypotheses were tested in this study: older adult-centered web-based training program would yield better performance for both younger and older adults; older adults would have lower computer self-efficacy than younger adults; participants with higher computer self-efficacy would perform better on a computer task; and participants with higher usability ratings would perform better on the computer task. Results of the study did not directly support any of the hypotheses. However, age-related differences were evident in training time, task completion time, performance score, and usability ratings. The older adult participants had longer training and task completion times, lower performance scores, and higher usability ratings. Results were discussed in terms of limitations and implications of older-adult centered training programs. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study is to examine in detail how a computer education teacher utilizes an online learning environment. The study tries to explore how a computer education teacher uses information technologies in classroom instruction, which methods s/he uses during integration process of the online learning environment, how s/he solves the problems s/he faced and his/her expectations from an online learning environment. Furthermore, based on the experiences of the computer education teacher use of online learning environments by other subject area teachers were pursued. In this study, within the framework of qualitative research paradigm a case study was conducted in the form of action research. Qualitative research methods were used. A computer education teacher formed the participant of the study with attributes of matching with the purpose and according to predetermined criteria. Results revealed that the teacher used the online learning environment to support his instruction. Implementation section of the online learning environment was preferred mostly. Use of online learning environment enabled the teacher to spare much time for dealing with students individually, providing other information source, and increasing students&rsquo / interest. The teacher utilized the online learning environment for preparing and supporting instruction: Preparing and providing alternative examples, supporting the evaluation process, and assigning homework. Integration of online learning environment is affected by content of lesson, content provided by the environment, and learning materials. The teacher perceived that his students became aware of responsibility of their own learning, become aware of information can be reached from other sources and were much active and participating more to the lessons. The computer teacher perceived that other subject teachers needed technical support, showed lack of access to technology resources, and lack of learning materials to enhance their classroom instruction with technology.

O presente trabalho se propõe a identificar as possíveis contribuições da utilização de ambientes digitais/virtuais de aprendizagem e de convivência no processo de desenvolvimento de escolares que apresentam Transtorno de Déficit de Atenção e Hiperatividade (Tdah), nas áreas social, emocional, escolar e comportamental. Este estudo, de caráter qualitativo, se integra aos trabalhos realizados pelo Núcleo de Informática na Educação Especial – Niee, da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - Ufrgs e foi realizado junto ao Ambulatório de Dificuldade de Aprendizagem do Hospital Infantil Joana de Gusmão, na cidade de Florianópolis. A pesquisa envolveu o acompanhamento de sete escolares com diagnóstico de Tdah, em tratamento, em sessões semanais e/ou quinzenais, individuais ou em pequenos grupos, durante as atividades interativas no ambiente digital/virtual de aprendizagem e de convivência Eduquito. / The present work intends to identify the possible digital/virtual environments learning’s contributions on the students developing process that present Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in the social, emotional, scholar and behavior area. This study, with qualitative character, integrates itself into works realized by the “Núcleo de Informática na Educação Especial” – Niee (Department of Informatic in Special Education) – UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul) and was realized with the “Ambulatório de Dificuldade de Aprendizagem” (Learning’s Deficiency Ambulatory) from the Joana de Gusmão Childhood Hospital, in the city of Florianópolis. The research involved the observation of seven students diagnosed with ADHD, in treatment, in a week and/or fifteen day’s sessions, individual or in small groups, during the interactive activities in the digital/virtual environments learning called Eduquito.