Open AccessTeaching of Computer Science Topics Using Meta-Programming-Based GLOs and LEGO Robots
Author(s) -
Vytautas Štuikys,
Renata Burbaitė,
Robertas Damaševičius
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
informatics in education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.53
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 2335-8971
pISSN - 1648-5831
DOI - 10.15388/infedu.2013.09
Subject(s) - computer science , reuse , context (archaeology) , robot , process (computing) , visualization , flexibility (engineering) , software engineering , artificial intelligence , programming language , engineering , paleontology , statistics , mathematics , biology , waste management
The paper’s contribution is a methodology that integrates two educational technologies (GLO and LEGO robot) to teach Computer Science (CS) topics at the school level. We present the methodology as a framework of 5 components (pedagogical activities, technology driven processes, tools, knowledge transfer actors, and pedagogical outcomes) and interactions among the components. GLOs are meta-programmed entities to generate LO instances on demand depending on the context of use and learning objectives. A GLO is a black-box entity, which is integrated in the framework through the generating process to source the teaching and learning process via robot-based visualization to demonstrate how programs and algorithms are transformed into realworld tasks and processes. The methodology is tested in the real e-learning setting. The pedagogical outcomes are evaluated by empirical data showing the increase of student engagement level, higher flexibility and reuse enhancement in learning.