Working Groups
In parallel with the Conference on Integrating Technology into Computer
Science Education, seven Working Groups will convene to address
areas related to the integration of technology into computer science
education. The groups will begin working together electronically on
April 1st, in order to prepare themselves and to set a direction for their
collaboration.
On the evening of May 31st, there will be a Working Group Kick-off and, during the next 5 days, June 1 - 5, the groups will work towards producing a set of products. Each group will have a conference room with computing facilities at their disposal and will meet according to schedules they set themselves.
During the conference, the groups will present intermediate results in the form of poster presentations. On Monday and Wednesday afternoons, there will be Working Group Receptions for all Conference attendees. These receptions will provide the opportunity for viewing the group's posters, talking to the group members, asking questions, and making observations.
At the end of June 5th, each group will have developed publishable products,
including guidelines, usable exercises, and other curricular materials.
The Working Group reports will be assembled into a single document, which will
be distributed to all conference attendees and to all SIGCSE and SIGCUE
members during the autumn.
Working Group Topics
The seven Working Groups that will convene in conjunction with ITiCSE'97
are described below.
This working group will focus on the practical issue of designing laboratory materials for computing courses. The group will iteratively work on three inter-related areas: 1. Creating samples of innovative laboratory materials, complete with abstracts and cover page information as required for submission to the SIGCSE repository. 2. Critiquing the format for labs, submission guidelines, and instructions for referees for the repository. 3. Creating a lab development manual to help educators design labs specific to their courses and environments. This approach will provide a valuable experience to Working Group participants and valuable resources for the entire community.
An algorithm visualization (AV) system renders the actions of an algorithm as a sequence of graphical snapshots, the viewing of which is controlled by the AV system's user interface. By combining effective visualization with accompanying hypertext materials on the World Wide Web, we can provide students with a rich, exploration-based learning environment. The past year has witnessed the beginning of many projects that use the Web as a delivery mechanism for AV. This working group will explore these projects and provide a summary analysis of their use as pedagogical tools.
This working group will examine the pedagogical issues involved in using the Web for distance learning. What aspects of teaching lend themselves to Web instruction, what aspects do not work? This group will investigate several issues, including: the pros and cons of Web uses in education; guidelines for effective use of the Web as an instrument for distance learning; the ethical issues in delivery of education via the Web; a taxonomy of information to be delivered and appropriate Web-based delivery systems; and an evaluation of what is and is not effective in using the Web for education.
Computer Science (CS) and Information Systems (IS) students must not only learn computing technology and its applications, but must be able to respond responsibly to the social and ethical issues that constantly arise. This Working Group will bring together educators who are interested in using information technology to support instruction for ethical and societal impact topics. Each participant will bring samples of related projects that were used in their curriculum. By working together to modify and improve these sample exercises, participants will create a set of materials for use in classes. These materials will serve as a resource and reference for CS/IS faculty, as well as a model for teaching ethics in other disciplines.
How can higher education use Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) tools? Will CMC foster collaborative learning settings? This group will consider the advantages and disadvantages of CMC, its educational goals, and specific activities for students and teachers. We will consider software availability and requirements, what learning is best supported by CMC (concept communication versus skill acquisition), the range of collaborative relationships possible, and the conflict with entrenched competitiveness. Classroom management issues include mediating student activities and assessing student performance. We will compile resources (bibliographies, web links) and generate a report that addresses both the pedagogical issues and relevant software support.
The Computer Science discipline is well poised to provide leading examples of harnessing communications and computer technologies in order to encourage collaborative practices both within and between institutions. Students, academics, and institutions all potentially have access to their counterparts world-wide, hence the opportunities for sharing knowledge, accessing scarce expertise, making effective re-use of limited resources, collaborating to attract funding and influence policies, etc, are endless. Even so, within our own institutions we regularly miss opportunities to exploit appropriate technology for supporting both educational and administrative collaboration. The goals of this working group are to identify collaborative opportunities, recommend ways of improving and maintaining communications between institutions, and to identify techniques and tools which offer pragmatic approaches to supporting collaborative schemes.
The deadline for receipt of working group member applications is March 15th.
Vicki L. Almstrum
email: almstrum@docs.uu.se
Dept of Computer Systems
Uppsala University
Box 325
S-751 05 Uppsala
Sweden
fax: +46-18-55 02 25
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Last modified: Thursday February 6 19:05:49 MET 1997