I., Pérez-Sanagustín, M., Delgado Kloos, C., & Fernández-Panadero, C. (2017). Understanding learners’ motivation and learning strategies in MOOCs. Intern. Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(3), 119-137.
Alario-Hoyos, C., Estévez-Ayres, I., Delgado Kloos, C., Villena-Román, J., Muñoz-Merino, P. J., & Llorente-Pérez, E. (2019). Redesigning a freshman engineering course to promote active learning by flipping the classroom through the reuse of MOOCs. International Journal of Engineering Education, 35(1), 385-396.
Alonso-Mencía, M. E., Alario-Hoyos, C., Maldonado-Mahauad, J., Estévez-Ayres, I., Pérez-Sanagustín, M., & Delgado Kloos, C. (2019). Self-regulated learning in MOOCs: lessons learned from a literature review. Educational Review (published online), 1-27.
Baepler, P., Walker, J. D., & Driessen, M. (2014). It’s not about seat time: Blending, flipping, and efficiency in active learning classrooms. Computers & Education, 78, 227-236.
Delgado Kloos, C., Catalán-Aguirre, C., Muñoz-Merino, P. J., Alario-Hoyos, C. (2018). Design of a Conversational Agent as an Educational Tool, In Learning with MOOCs 2018 (LWMOOCS V) (pp. 27-30). IEEE.
Dringus, L. P. (2012). Learning analytics considered harmful. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 16(3), 87-100.
Ferguson, R. (2012). Learning analytics: drivers, developments and challenges. International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 4(5/6), 304-317.
Khalil, M., Taraghi, B., & Ebner, M. (2016). Engaging Learning Analytics in MOOCs: the good, the bad, and the ugly. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Education and New Developments (END) (pp. 3-7).
Moreno-Marcos, P. M., Alario-Hoyos, C., Muñoz-Merino, P. J., & Delgado Kloos, C. (2018). Prediction in MOOCs: A review and future research directions. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies (published online), 1-19.
Moreno-Marcos, P. M., Alario-Hoyos, C., Muñoz-Merino, P. J., Estévez-Ayres, I., & Delgado Kloos, C. (2018). Sentiment Analysis in MOOCs: A case study. In 2018 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON) (pp. 1489-1496). IEEE.
Pérez-Sanagustín, M., Hilliger, I., Alario-Hoyos, C., Delgado Kloos, C., & Rayyan, S. (2017). H-MOOC framework: reusing MOOCs for hybrid education. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 29(1), 47-64.
Ruipérez-Valiente, J. A., Muñoz-Merino, P. J., Leony, D., & Delgado Kloos, C. (2015). ALASKA: A learning analytics extension for better understanding the learning process in the Khan Academy platform. Computers in Human Behavior, 47, 139-148.
Slade, S., & Tait, A. (2019). Global guidelines: Ethics in learning analytics. Oslo: International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE).
Zimmerman, B. J. (2013). Theories of self-regulated learning and academic achievement: An overview and analysis. In Self-regulated learning and academic achievement (pp. 10-45). Routledge.
Building Blocks for Powerful Ideas: Designing a Programming Language to Teach the Beauty and Joy of Computing
Jens Mönig
[email protected] / Research Expert SAP, Germany
Recepción: 9-8-2019 / Aceptación: 21-8-2019
ABSTRACT. Snap! is a cloud-native graphical programming environment and an online community. It is the programming language made for UC Berkeley’s popular introductory CS course named “The Beauty and Joy of Computing”. Snap! is taught in colleges and high schools across the U.S. from Palo Alto to Philadelphia. It has been translated to more than 40 languages and is used around the world—from Göttingen to Beijing—for teaching and research. Snap! has been designed for inclusion. Its low floor welcomes beginners and its multi-media capabilities invite creative thinkers of all ages. At the same time, Snap! offers sophisticated abstractions that make it suitable for an intellectually rigorous introduction to computer science.
KEYWORDS: Snap!, BJC, AP CSP, CS0.
Construyendo bases sólidas para ideas poderosas: diseñando un lenguaje de programación para enseñar la belleza y alegría de la informática
RESUMEN. Snap! es un entorno de programación gráfica nativo de la nube y una comunidad en línea. Es el lenguaje de programación creado para el popular curso introductorio de CS de UC Berkeley llamado “La belleza y la alegría de la informática”. Snap! se imparte en colegios y escuelas secundarias de los EE. UU., desde Palo Alto hasta Filadelfia. Se ha traducido a más de 40 idiomas y se utiliza en todo el mundo, desde Gotinga hasta Beijing, para la enseñanza y la investigación. Snap! ha sido diseñado para su inclusión. El nivel bajo le da la bienvenida a principiantes y sus capacidades multimedia que invitan a pensadores creativos de todas las edades. Al mismo tiempo Snap! ofrece abstracciones sofisticadas que lo hacen adecuado para una introducción intelectualmente rigurosa a la informática.
PALABRAS CLAVE: Snap!, BJC, AP CSP, CS0.
1. INTRODUCTION
Recent years have seen a thunderous revival of programming education, sparked by a growing demand for computationally skilled workforce and spearheaded by MIT’s visual Scratch language. In Scratch’s wake, a new class of so-called “blocks-based” programming editors has appeared, and visual coding has since evolved into the de-facto standard for introductory CS activities. Along with Scratch’s metaphor of stacking bricks, representing chunks of code into program-“towers” that are executed from top to bottom, a very traditional imperative style of programming has been established as quasi-best practice for introducing children and novices to CS.
At the same time, driven by the asynchronous nature of web programming and massive parallelization on the backend side to cope with “big data”, many professional text-based programming languages have been revamped to support functional programming techniques such as proper tail-calls and even lambda, which before were considered too exotic to become mainstream. The gap between what beginners are exposed to in visual blocks-based languages and what is required to express themselves in a professional modern programming language today is more than just syntax. The gap is also conceptual and calls for proficiency in paradigms.
2. A CHALLENGE
Frequently discussed among educators is how to foster the transition from visual to textual programming. Sometimes the proposed solutions suggest bi-modal code editing, being able to switch back and forth between blocks and text. While this might address the lesser issue of coping with textual syntax, it does not help with introducing concepts and paradigms unsupported by any one side, and in the worst case even impoverishes the beginner’s programming experience to the least common denominator of two programming languages.
On the other side of the spectrum, efforts are under way to broaden the scope and raise the ceiling of blocks-based programming. I will present one such project: Snap! Build Your Own Blocks. Snap! is a Scratch-like programming language that treats code blocks as first-class citizens instead of confining them to an editing modality. Embracing nested data structures and higher order functions, Snap! lets learners create arbitrary control structures and even custom programming languages with just blocks. Snap! has been developed for UC Berkeley’s introductory computer science course named “The Beauty and Joy of Computing”.
