Informatics in Education

Teaching algorithmic thinking enables students to use their knowledge in various contexts to reuse existing solutions to algorithmic problems. The aim of this study is to examine how students recognize which algorithmic concepts can be used in a new situation. We developed a card sorting task and investigated the ways in which secondary school students arranged algorithmic problems (Bebras tasks) into groups using algorithm as a criterion. Furthermore, we examined the students’ explanations for their groupings. The results of this qualitative study indicate that students may recognize underlying algorithmic concepts directly or by identifying similarities with a previously solved problem; however, the direct recognition was more successful. Our findings also include the factors that play a role in students’ recognition of algorithmic concepts, such as the degree of similarity to problems discussed during lessons. Our study highlights the significance of teaching students how to recognize the structure of algorithmic problems.

In a previous publication we examined the connections between high-school computer science (CS) and computing higher education. The results were promising—students who were exposed to computing in high school were more likely to take one of the computing disciplines. However, these correlations were not necessarily causal. Possibly those students who took CS courses, and especially high-level CS courses in high school, were already a priori inclined to pursue computing education. This uncertainty led us to pursue the current research. We aimed at finding those factors that induced students to choose CS at high school and later at higher-education institutes. We present quantitative findings obtained from analyzing freshmen computing students' responses to a designated questionnaire. The findings show that not only did high-school CS studies have a major impact on students’ choice whether to study computing in higher education—it may have also improved their view of the discipline.

Mongolia started using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in secondary education relatively late. The computer training and informatics has been included as a subject in the secondary school curriculum in Mongolia since 1988 and in the university curriculum since 1982. This paper presents current situation of informatics education in Mongolia. SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat) analysis of Informatics Education in Mongolia, conclusions and future recommendations are also presented.

Course-support environments are an important technical development relating to computer communications in education that involves the linking of a web-compliant user interface and web-compliant tools and applets with an underlying database. This paper presents a comparison among three different course support environments. One of them is a commercial product and the other two are open source software. The comparison includes various features from the student, and the instructor point of view.

Most students use computers without thinking about how the software and the hardware works internally. So, their occupational outlook depends strictly on the equipment used by a potential employer. Obviously, in case of shoals of applications students which know about the handling of miscellaneous systems are preferred. The concept behind UNIX, BSD or Linux is to provide a set of small but efficient and specialised chiefly tools. More complex problems can be resolved by combining these tools. So, learning how to work with a UNIX-like operating system is learning how to break down a problem into manageable subproblems. But, schools are typically under-funded. That means, that they are unable to bye commercial UNIX-systems. A solution for this dilemma is the usage of Open Source Software like Linux. This paper presents a report of experience which is based on three lectures and practical courses on UNIX/Linux. We will show how to introduce the concepts of Linux as well as how to advance the motivation of students by facilitate individual successes.