The topic ``Recurrence relations'' and its place in teaching students of Informatics is discussed in this paper. We represent many arguments about the importance, the necessity and the benefit of studying this subject by Informatics students. They are based on investigation of some fundamental books and textbooks on Discrete Mathematics, Algorithms and Data Structures, Combinatorics, etc. Some methodological aspects of training to solve problems with applying recurrence relations are also given. We hope that the considered topics concern also the school teachers in Mathematics and Informatics and the paper will be useful to them.
Tutoring systems become complex and are offering varieties of pedagogical software as course modules, exercises, simulators, systems online or offline, for single user or multi-user. This complexity motivates new forms and approaches to the design and the modelling. Studies and research in this field introduce emergent concepts that allow the tutoring system to interact efficiently with potential users, by enhancing ergonomic service, performing response time and allowing better adaptability. The introduction of concepts such as multi-agent systems (MAS) allowed web technology to improve the process of modeling and designing for distance learning, and thus offer convincing solutions. The presentation of some relevant projects that associate MAS to the Web may highlight the benefits of this association in an innovative way.
The paper is aimed to analyse the external expert evaluation results of eContentplus programme's iCOPER (Interoperable Content for Performance in a Competency-driven Society) project's deliverables, especially quality control and Web 2.0 technologies report. It is a suitability report for better practice concerning the use of Web 2.0 technologies and associated quality control mechanisms within the iCOPER best practice network. It aims to outline the key topics and associated standards and specifications found in this community. These illustrate a set of best practice issues for developing educational resources open for remixing and repurposing, tailored to a European dimension. Information relating to both the evidence and experience of using standards and specifications for the delivery of Web 2.0 tools in the community has also been captured. This includes an indication of the most popular technical platforms for content development, sharing and reuse with respect to the new media as well as an indication of quality control methods for them if used. The paper is also aimed to analyse the first results of Lifelong Learning Programme's (LLP) te@ch.us project. The project plans to set up a web community for teachers interested in integrating Web 2.0 in classes at school.
The Internet has recently encouraged the society to convert almost all its needs to electronic resources such as e-libraries, e-cultures, e-entertainment as well as e-learning, which has become a radical idea to increase the effectiveness of learning services in most schools, colleges and universities. E-learning can not be completely featured and met without e-testing. However, in many cases e-testing tools are suitable just for traditional/theoretical knowledge testing, covered by such items as questions, quizzes, matching boxes and other. The article ``A Method for Automated Program Code Testing'' tackles the lack of functions in e-testing systems and suggests e-assessment possibilities for students who study computer science, especially programming. The article analyzes the method that allows freely entering answers to questions, checking program syntax during the testing and enables automatic written code checking and evaluation.
The authors underline their opinion that it is preferable to organise the extracurricular education on city level instead of forming autonomous school groups. Putting together students from different schools forces them to share their knowledge and programming techniques. All this helps them get familiar with new practices and experience and inspires ambitions for growth and progress.
A lesson plan is an important methodological component of the learning process. The key purpose of the article is to analyse the current situation and suggest how the information technologies can assist in the development of lesson plans, their accumulation and retrieval, thus ensuring their effective application. The authors disclose the problems of lesson plan creation and their description as well as make comparative analysis of information and lesson plan templates provided at learning objects storages. The authors identified the main components of lesson plans and their description, based on application of learning objects metadata standard model and the principles for improving the model elements as well as on the results of the analysis made, and proposed the templates for creating the technology-based lesson plans and their description. The development of lesson plans and descriptions will allow educators reuse didactic resources (lesson plans) as an effective learning tool. The storage of didactic resources will allow teachers to use the best practices, and the same learning objects in different learning scenarios.
Automatic program evaluation is a way to assess source program files. These techniques are used in learning management environments, programming exams and contest systems. However, use of automated program evaluation encounters problems: some evaluations are not clear for the students and the system messages do not show reasons for lost points. The author proposes several ideas for possible improvements in black box testing, which can lead into better service for the users of automatic evaluation systems.
Each of the 16 federal states of Germany has its own school system and also its own policy to integrate informatics, computer science or ICT into this system. Till present there aren't any tests of students' knowledge on a nation-wide level. Therefore nation-wide or international contests currently offer the only opportunities to compare the knowledge of the participating students on a large scale level. By evaluating the overall performance of the students of different federal states, we were able to compare the effectiveness of different approaches of teaching Informatics at secondary schools.
There are multiple reasons that justify teaching computer game design. Its multi-aspectual nature creates opportunity to develop, at the same time, creativity, technical skills and ability to work in team. Thinking of game design classes, one needs direction on what to focus on so that the students could benefit the most. In this paper, we present results of a survey on both the students' and working professionals' expectations from game design course and opinions on game designer job. Although sometimes consistent, the answers from the two groups often reveal significant discrepancies. We believe that the results presented in this paper can help improve the quality of computer game design courses and make their learning outcomes more compatible with the needs of the computer game industry.
In their paper the authors deal with the vital issues of creation and application of electronic teaching materials for natural science subjects teaching. They describe an experimental examination of qualitative impact of these aids on education. The authors present a part of research results, which they obtained in a major research focused on possibilities to influence students` attitudes and approaches to particular subjects, mainly the less favorite ones. To be more specific they deal with possibilities to eliminate students` very negative attitude to physics. Their target group were 17-19 aged students and the means applied to change the attitudes of this group to physics were specially designed multimedia education materials and interactive flash animations Principles of Geometry Optics covering basic topics from geometry optics.