Informatics 101: How to Teach New Information Technologies Helmar Burkhart Computer Science University of Basel

Informatics 101: How to teach? (NLT Bern ) Overview  Personal Experiences  Informatics 101: Background Contents Experiences  Curriculum Aspects Global view:Curriculum 2001 Local view:Uni Basel

Informatics 101: How to teach? (NLT Bern ) Computer Usage and Projection in Lecture Room  Algorithmic Motivation Sort Race  Algorithmic Training Spiral What’s the output?  New Media (audio) MP3

Informatics 101: How to teach? (NLT Bern ) Internet Access in Lecture Room  Online tours Computer Museum  Survival training in the information age 800 M (?) web pages world wide Mona Lisa Wrapped Trees  It’s not a toy - it’s real life Currency calculator

Informatics 101: How to teach? (NLT Bern ) Added-Value of New Content Management Infrastructure  Trails Replay lecture parts Extend and modify teacher’s programs  My home is my lab Run exercises on Home-PC  Self-tests for drill & practice parts Similar to foreign language studies

Informatics 101: How to teach? (NLT Bern ) Potential Risks - Often Ignored  Teachware crisis I build, you maintain! Intellectually attack any hype  Brandnew legacy software and information descriptions Java HTML - XML  Quality of production preps learn from movie business and TV

Informatics 101: How to teach? (NLT Bern ) Informatics 101: Design Issues  Target audience: Students of physical sciences (non-majors in informatics)  Prerequisites: None (in informatics)  Smooth revisions: Lectures and lab  Radical Revisions: PASCAL  JavaScript, Java Internet technologies  Administration: Usage of Top Class

Informatics 101: How to teach? (NLT Bern ) Informatics 101: Contents  Orientation and Basics: what is informatics?, short history of computing, coding of information, basic understanding of computer, and survey of application area.  Internet from a user's point of view: computer networks, internet services, information search, and basic elements of HTML.  Imperative Programming using JavaScript: algorithms, imperative programming paradigm, JavaScript elements (expressions, statements, functions, arrays, document object model), and event-driven programming.  Object-oriented programming using Java: extending the imperative core, object-oriented programming paradigm, graphics, user interfaces, exception handling, input and output, network programming, and applets and servlets.

Informatics 101: How to teach? (NLT Bern ) ACM/IEEE-CS Curriculum 2001  Curriculum Subject area: Algorithms and Data Structures, Architecture, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Database and Information Retrieval, Human-Computer Communication, Numerical and Symbolic Computation, Operating Systems, Programming Languages, Software Methodology and Engineering 3 Processes: Theory, Abstraction, and Design

Informatics 101: How to teach? (NLT Bern ) Curriculum 2001 (2)  New focus area Computing at the Interface, Net-Centric Computing, Computational Science, ….  Informatics across curricula CS Non-majors get more and more importance  Life-long learning New models for ongoing education, partnerships with private training companies

Informatics 101: How to teach? (NLT Bern ) Questionnaire Uni Basel "What are the CS core topics to be taught ALL students in your field ?“

Informatics 101: How to Teach New Information Technologies Final Remarks ?

Informatics 101: How to teach? (NLT Bern )

while (dist >0){ tg.move(dist); tg.turnRight(90); dist-=10; } tg.move(10); while (dist<400){ dist+=10; tg.turnLeft(90); tg.move(dist); }

Informatics 101: How to teach? (NLT Bern )

void Draw(TurtleGraphics tg, double s){ if (s<1) return; Point p = tg.getPenPos(); double w=tg.getPenDir(); tg.turnLeft(45); tg.move(s); Draw(tg,fac*s); tg.setPenPos(p); tg.setPenDir(w); tg.turnRight(45); tg.move(s); Draw(tg,fac*s); }

Informatics 101: How to teach? (NLT Bern ) fac = 0.5fac = 0.75

Informatics 101: How to teach? (NLT Bern ) Computer usage and projection in lecture room  Algorithmic Motivation Sort Race  Algorithmic Training Spiral What’s the output?  New Media (audio) MP3