School of Computing

Computing Education Group
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Computing Education Group: Seminars

Upcoming seminars

  • Valuing teaching
    Dr. Bob Keim, School of Computing (homepage)

    Friday 25th May 2012, 11:00 - 12:00, S115b

    Bob will begin his talk by citing some obvious facts about how teaching is and isn’t valued in HE. These data suggest that teaching is an important provider of value to Higher Education, but a number of questions naturally arise such as: ‘What are the relationships between teaching and research?’, ‘Can teaching, as well as research be a source of prestige for an academic institution?’ Bob will explore some approaches to the topics these questions raise. A few suggestions will be offered how we, the School of Computing, might benefit by changes to our attitudes, to our presentation of ourselves and to the manners in which we maintain contact with our former students.

  • Observing User Behaviour
    Mr. Philip Stevens, School of Computing (homepage)

    Friday 1st June 2012, 11:00 - 12:00, S115b

    Learner behaviour has often be time consuming, on a small scale and the data is rarely shared with the research community leading to limited research in this area.

    We have begun the process of implementing data collection into BlueJ which will allow us to remotely observe learners on a large scale. We plan to share this data with the research community which will support more research in this area.

    This talk will discuss the privacy issues with observing user behaviour and the drawbacks of large scale data collection, as well as the considerations when implementing the server-side technology.

  • Exploring the relationship between student identities and academic success in undergraduate computer science education
    Mr Pete Chalk, Faculty of Computing, London Metropolitan University (homepage)

    Monday 11th June 2012, 12:00 - 13:00, SW101

    : The aim of the research is to develop an understanding of the relationship between students' identities, experiences and success in undergraduate computer science education (CSE). This is being done by exploring students' perceptions and experiences, and by examining the disciplinary/ institutional cultures and practices, of CSE. The talk will present new primary data mainly in the form of extracts from interview transcripts and propose approaches to analysing it. It is hoped that findings will contribute to understandings of success, failure and dropout in CSE, with implications for policy and practice. The theoretical framework is based on Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, capitals, field and practice as applied to understanding relationships between student identities and the field of CSE.

Past seminars

  • Computing Across the Curriculum
    Dr. Neil Brown, School of Computing (homepage)

    Friday 18th May 2012, 11:00 - 12:00, S115b

    Computing is finally starting to establish itself as a recognised discipline in schools, having been over-shadowed by ICT for many years. In a similar way, the sometimes over-eager push for the use of IT to support learning across the curriculum has masked the notion that Computing can support and enhance learning in other disciplines. This talk will explore ideas of ways in which Computing can sensibly support other disciplines, and how this is different from using IT to support learning. One particular example is the presenter's "sinepost" blog, which attempts to show how maths learning can be enhanced by showing practical applications in Computing.

  • Examining Novice Programmer Errors
    Mr. Davin McCall, School of Computing (homepage)

    Friday 11th May 2012, 11:00 - 12:00, S115b

    Some past work on exploring the nature of errors made by novice programmers will be presented and critiqued. Initial results of current data collection will be discussed, and proposals for techniques to improve software development tools used by novices, based on the outcome of the study, shall be put forward.

  • The design and implementation of a notional machine for teaching
    Mr. Michael Berry, School of Computing (homepage)

    Friday 30th March 2012, 11:00 - 12:00, S115b

    Many studies in the literature have shown that learning to program is hard, with many students failing or dropping out of courses that teach introductory programming. There have been many reasons proposed as to why this is the case; one popular theory is that students find the concepts of programming too hard to grasp. My PhD focuses around designing a notional machine in an attempt to help this issue. In this seminar I'll present a summary of the existing material in the literature and some ideas for my work thus far.

  • Why do people study and practise computer science?
    Mr. Daniel Knox, School of Computing (homepage)

    Friday 23rd March 2012, 11:00 - 12:00, S115b

    The aim of this research is to identify the key motivational factors in computer science students at di erent stages of their academic careers and determine if they are motivated primarily by a desire to belong to a particular community of practice. Later this research will ask `Do current teaching practices and courses meet these desires?'. To address these questions, a mixed methodology approach will attempt to develop snapshots of di erent academic commu- nities and year groups. Some initial data will be presented at this seminar, which aims to identify trends in secondary school sixth form students and UCAS applicants.

  • Threshold Concepts and the Teaching of Programming
    Mr. Dermott Shinners-Kennedy, School of Computing

    Friday 9th March 2012, 11:00 - 12:00, S115b

    A threshold concept is said to capture a significant aspect of a discipline and offer useful insights into its pedagogy. The idea has been enthusiastically received and supported and much has been written about it, even some criticisms, yet no one has examined the idea from a "concepts" perspective through a conceptual lens.

    In this talk I will use the concepts approach to examine the features of threshold concepts (e.g. troublesome knowledge, integration, transformation) in a programming context. I will show how the concepts approach affords a greater degree of coherence and robustness for threshold concept research as well as providing a unique perspective on the perceived difficulties attributed to threshold concepts.

  • Programming, Games and Gamification
    Dr. Neil Brown, School of Computing (homepage)

    Thursday 10th November 2011, 11:00 - 12:00, SW101

    In this talk, I will look at the inspiration and ideas that games can provide when designing tools for novice programmers. I will start by examining some games that feature aspects of programming, showing how these concepts are represented, how a structured challenge/game is constructed around this, and how players are motivated to continue playing. I will then examine the motivational, feedback and social systems that are employed in games in general. Many of these ideas have already propagated to social websites and beyond in a process termed "gamification". Gamification is well on its way to being over-hyped and over-used, but I will attempt to sort the good from the bad. Throughout this talk, I will relate these ideas to the design of our beginners' programming environment, Greenfoot. Everyone welcome: gamers and non-gamers alike.

  • Programming Languages as User Interface: Thoughts on pedagogical language design
    Barry Brown, Sierra College, CA, USA

    Friday 29th October 2010, 11:00 - 12:00, sw101

    A programming language is an interface between the developer and computer. Through it, the developer makes his or her intentions known to the computer and, in return, the computer (by way of the compiler) responds with status and error messages. Well-designed user interfaces let both novices and expert users alike gain mastery over the product. Most modern programming languages were designed with the expert user in mind, leaving the novice frustrated. This talk looks at languages through the eyes of an interface designer and identifies areas where the user experience could be improved.

  • Teaching discussion
    Maria Angeles Diaz-Fonden , Universidad de Orviedo, Spain,  Mr. David Barnes, School of Computing (homepage)  and   Dario Alvarez-Gutierrez, Universidad de Orviedo, Spain

    Wednesday 7th July 2010, 10:00 - 11:00, s110b

  • TOPS working group
    Ms. Janet Carter, School of Computing (homepage)

    Wednesday 16th June 2010, 10:00 - 11:00, s110b

  • Introduction
    Angel Velazques, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid

    Tuesday 25th May 2010, 16:00 - 17:00, s110b

  • Share project
    Ms. Sally Fincher, School of Computing (homepage)

    Wednesday 19th May 2010, 10:00 - 11:00, s110b

  • Teaching programming issues
    Even Larsen, University of Agder, Norway  and   Hallgier Nilsen, University of Agder, Norway

    Wednesday 19th May 2010, 10:00 - 11:00, s110b

  • The Greenroom
    Professor Michael Kölling, School of Computing (homepage)

    Wednesday 7th April 2010, 10:00 - 11:00, s110b

  • The Greenroom
    Dr. Neil Brown, School of Computing (homepage)

    Wednesday 24th March 2010, 10:00 - 11:00, s110b

  • Detecting Plagiarism in Microsoft Excel Assignments
    Mr. Laurence Hellyer, School of Computing (homepage)  and  Mr Lawrence Beadle, Computing Laboratory

    Wednesday 19th August 2009, 14:00 - 15:00, S110b

    We present a new anti-plagiarism tool called Excel-Smash. Whilst there are already anti-plagiarism tools available for essays and programming based submissions, our tool to the best of knowledge is the only tool designed to compare student submissions in the form of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. We present details of the plagiarism checks performed and we test our software on over nine hundred current and past student submissions. We present a case study to show how Excel-Smash functions from the point of view of the user, and we present data to support the ability of Excel-Smash to identify plagiarism between different marker groups above the abilities of its human counterparts. With a low false positive and false negative result Excel-Smash quickly allows identification of serious and more minor inter-group plagiarism.

  • project updates from Australia
    Dr Judy Sheard, Monash University  and  Dr Margaret Hamilton, RMIT

    Thursday 23rd July 2009, 10:00 - 11:00, S110b

  • Curing recursion aversion
    Kat Gunion, University of British Columbia

    Wednesday 15th July 2009, 10:00 - 11:00, S110b

    The paradigm recursion is a major one when teaching programming. There is quite some debate on the difficulty to learn, understand and use recursion for the typical first or second year student in computer science. We approach the efforts to improve the success of teaching and learning recursion from a new perspective: Can we teach the concept successfully to younger students? If so, this in turn may prepare the university students to easier grasp this concept. This paper outlines the concept of recursion as a sophisticated topic, the challenges that are faced when teaching recursion as well as the age old debate, .When to teach Recursion?.. We present a preliminary study on teaching the concept to a group of 10 youth in grades 6.8 in BC, Canada.

  • Pedagogical futures for CMC
    Martin Gough, UELT

    Thursday 4th June 2009, 10:00 - 11:00, S110b

  • Scratch: MIT's environment for beginning programmers
    Mr. Ian Utting, School of Computing (homepage)

    Thursday 21st May 2009, 10:00 - 11:00, S110b

  • Useful Sharing
    Ms. Sally Fincher, School of Computing (homepage)

    Thursday 9th April 2009, 10:00 - 11:00, S110b

  • tba
    Mr. Ian Utting, School of Computing (homepage)

    Thursday 2nd April 2009, 10:00 - 11:00, S110b

  • The Greenfoot Gallery: An attempt to use an online community to increase motivation for learning programming
    Professor Michael Kölling, School of Computing (homepage)

    Thursday 2nd April 2009, 10:00 - 11:00, S110b

  • The HEA-ICS
    Ms. Janet Carter, School of Computing (homepage)

    Thursday 5th March 2009, 10:00 - 11:00, S110b

  • Student Produced Podcasts for Learning and Assessment
    Dr. Colin Johnson, School of Computing (homepage)

    Thursday 19th February 2009, 10:00 - 11:00, s110b

  • Surveying views on teaching and assessing professional values in CS
    Ms. Ursula Fuller, School of Computing (homepage)  and  Dr. Bob Keim, School of Computing (homepage)

    Friday 5th December 2008, 11:00 - 12:00, s110b

  • A Theory of Collaborative Technology Fit: A Diagnostic Tool for Global
    Tony Clear, Auckland University of Technology

    Tuesday 21st October 2008, 16:00 - 17:00, S110b

    Working in global virtual teams (GVTs), presents a set of challenges spanning several dimensions. In addition to the global actors working directly within their teams, a number of further actors perform support roles through a set of 'backstage' activities. While crucial to the success of GVTs, their work has been little researched. The Theory of Collaborative Technology Fit (CTF), reported for the first time in this presentation, derives from empirically grounded research conducted for the author's Doctoral thesis (Clear, 2008). The research originates from a grounded analysis of a global collaboration conducted in 2004 between three Universities: Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand; Uppsala University Sweden; and St Louis University, St Louis Missouri, USA. The theory of CTF will be explained and its potential applicability to supporting the work of Global Virtual Teams will be outlined in this presentation.

  • title tba
    Mrs. Janet Linington, School of Computing (homepage)

    Friday 11th July 2008, 14:00 - 15:00, S110b

  • Using Second Life in a computing curriculum - learning and teaching experiences and opportunities
    Dr Mike Hobbs, Anglia Ruskin University

    Friday 27th June 2008, 14:00 - 15:00, S110b

    The seminar will focus on what we've done with Second Life in our computing curriculum and also cover some the of the potential areas we'd like to use it for.

  • title tba
    Mr. David Barnes, School of Computing (homepage)

    Friday 13th June 2008, 14:00 - 15:00, S110B

  • The Mundane and the Magnificent: the future of learning technology in the lab
    Mr. Phill Camp, School of Computing (homepage)

    Friday 30th May 2008, 14:00 - 15:00, S110b

    Very short presentation on where we are and what the centre is doing and a few ideas to get us started on our discussion.

  • The TOPS Project
    Ms. Janet Carter, School of Computing (homepage)

    Friday 9th May 2008, 14:00 - 15:00, S110b

  • Accreditaion in the US the good the bad and the ugly
    Dr Paul Tymann, Rochester Institute of Technology, NY

    Tuesday 22nd April 2008, 10:00 - 11:00, S110b

  • Python is Cool
    Mr Tony Jenkins, University of Leeds

    Monday 21st April 2008, 10:00 - 11:00, S110b

  • GPPM - A Generic Model of Programming Processes and its Relevance for Programming Education
    Professor Michael Kölling, School of Computing (homepage)

    Friday 11th April 2008, 14:00 - 15:00, S110b

  • Integrating Java ME with BlueJ
    Mr. Ian Utting, School of Computing (homepage)

    Friday 4th April 2008, 14:00 - 15:00, S110b

  • Novel Approaches to the Electronic Delivery of Learning Materials
    Mr David Mitchell, School of Computing

    Friday 7th March 2008, 14:00 - 15:00, S110b

  • Learning Taxonomies for Computer Science
    Dr. Colin Johnson, School of Computing (homepage)

    Friday 8th February 2008, 14:00 - 15:00, S110b

  • The Disciplinary Commons
    Ms. Sally Fincher, School of Computing (homepage)

    Tuesday 15th January 2008, 14:00 - 15:00, S110b

  • Should we assess our students' attitudes?
    Ms. Ursula Fuller, School of Computing (homepage)  and  Dr. Bob Keim, School of Computing (homepage)

    Tuesday 6th November 2007, 14:00 - 15:00, S110b

School of Computing, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NF

Enquiries: +44 (0)1227 824180 or contact us.

Last Updated: 24/05/2012 03:43