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• Introductory Computer Programming Courses in Mathematics Curriculum

  19-30

  Leslie Jones

  Tim Smith

  Views:

  110

  We present the results of surveys and curricular research on introductory computer programming courses that are required or recommended for mathematics degrees at U.S. colleges and universities. Our target schools were those with populations between 5,000 and 20,000 undergraduate students. A key result is a synopsis of programming languages in use in these introductory courses with Java, Python and C + + holding the top three spots. We found that 85% of the 340 schools in our pool require or recommend an introductory programming course as a component of a mathematics degree. Furthermore, most of these introductory programming courses are taught by faculty outside of the mathematics department. These results indicate that mathematics faculty value computer programming and should be actively involved in setting learning outcomes, incorporating skills and concepts learned in introductory programming courses into subsequent mathematics courses, and determining programming languages in use.

  Subject Classification: 97D30, 97P20, 97P40

• Live & Learn: When a wrong program works

  195-208

  Tibor Gregorics

  Views:

  26

  In this paper an interesting and surprising case study of my programming education practice is presented. This case underlines the importance of methods, standards and rules of thumb of the programming process. These elements of the programming technology can be taught well in education and they can guarantee the quality of the implemented programs. However the case described in this paper brings an anomaly when a programming standard is violated during the programming process and, although it should imply that the implemented program code works badly, the program works perfectly. This anomaly is caused by a typical implementation problem: the boundary and rules of the machine representation of numbers. This anomaly is going to be analyzed and the appropriate conclusions of our case study will be deducted.

• Expressiveness of programming languages and environments: a comparative study

  111-141

  Gábor Törley

  Views:

  32

  In written and oral communication tools, the support of the understanding of our message have an important role: we can increase the expressiveness and the level of understanding of our topic by approaching it in several ways, i.e. in written methods by highlighting the important parts; in oral by changing tone and other elements of non-verbal communication. In this paper programming languages and developing environments are compared with each other in terms of their methods and their level of support to the solution of programming tasks.
  There is a need to have these tools in programming and, of course, in teaching programming. What are the factors that define the distinctness and the legibility of a program? What are the basic principles which give an instrument in programmers' and students' hands in order to create a properly working program from already existing algorithms in the most efficient way? We search for the answers to these questions in this paper.

• Analogous programming with a template class library

  135-152

  Tibor Gregorics

  Views:

  43

  In this paper, a template class library and its usage can be read. The classes of the library contain the C++ code of the algorithm of programming theorems. This library supports the implementation of the programs that are planned by analogous programming but the primary aim of its usage is to introduce the object-oriented programming style to show how a reusable code can be written with inheritances, overriding virtual methods, composition of objectcs and template parameters.

• Programming theorems on enumerator

  89-108

  Tibor Gregorics

  Views:

  37

  This paper deals with the examination of the programming patterns best known by programmers: the programming theorems. It is a significant issue that in what way these patterns can be formulated in order to solve a relatively broad spectrum of problems using a small number of patterns. In this paper, the well known programming theorems are applied to the processing of enumerators. To this end, the robustness of patterns gained this way will be presented, and it will be also pointed out how the programs thus constructed can be implemented in the modern object-oriented programming environments: in language C++, Java and C#.

• Teaching multiparadigm programming based on object-oriented experiences

  171-182

  Zoltán Porkoláb

  Viktória Zsók

  Views:

  28

  Multiparadigm programming is an emerging practice in computer technology. Co-existence of object-oriented, generic and functional techniques can better handle variability of projects. The present paper gives an overview of teaching multiparadigm programming approach through typical language concepts, tools in higher education. Students learning multiparadigm-oriented subjects would gain considerable expertise, which is highly needed by the industrial side in large-scale application development.

• How to teach testing?

  215-232

  Tibor Gregorics

  Krisztián Mózsi

  Rudolf Szendrei

  Views:

  24

  Testing methodology is an important part of IT education. It is desired to show the beginner programmer students the advantage of testing by having them do only a small amount of work. In this paper, we will show how to make testing as a part of programming in simple exercises. These exercises are solved with the analogous programming technique, which is based on programming theorems over enumerators. We have elaborated grey-box test cases for the programs which have been developed based on programming theorems. These test cases can be taught together with the programming theorems, and they can serve as a standard testing procedure for programmers. We also suggest a test tool to automatize test runs, and we will discuss its usage in a short case study.

• Methods of teaching programming

  247-257

  Péter Szlávi

  László Zsakó

  Views:

  47

  Programming methodology is one of the oldest fields of IS education, and thus various methods have evolved for its teaching. While some of them could be used effectively in primary or secondary education, others are more suited for students in higher education. The methods themselves determine the structure and curricula of courses such as Programming methodology, Data types and algorithms, Programming technology.

• Comparing the IT skills and the programming knowledge of Hungarian students specialized in informatics with Romanian students attending a science course or a mathematics-informatics course

  21-40

  Gábor Kiss

  Views:

  36

  The goal of this research is an analysis of the IT skills and programming knowledge of Hungarian and Romanian students attending a Science course or a Mathematics-Informatics course. Analysed was how effectively can students from different grades answer questions dealing with different subjects. After having evaluated the test results correctness of the original presumption emerged. Significance level was 5% through the analysis. Significant divergency in knowledge of Hungarian students and Romanian students of Humanities (Profil Uman) was found in 11th and 12th grades too. Romanian students attending a science course (Profil Real) and a Mathematics-Informatics course scored higher in programming than their Hungarian counterparts specialized in Informatics in the 11th grade. After the evaluation a final conclusion can be made: Romanian students of the Real Profile have the same or more practice in programming than Hungarian students specialized in Informatics, though the latters have the same or better IT skills. Unfortunately, Hungarian teachers concentrate on word processing and spreadsheet calculation and teach programming just for the students specialized in Informatics, although algorithm thinking would be important for every student before finishing secondary school.

• Teaching XML

  317-335

  Péter Jeszenszky

  Views:

  33

  The author has been teaching XML at the Faculty of Informatics, University of Debrecen since the end of the nineties. This paper gives an overview of XML technology from an educators viewpoint that is based on the experience that the author has gained teaching XML over the years. A detailed description of the XML course is provided. Methodological issues are also discussed.

• Shall we use one more representation? Suggestions about establishing the notion of recursion in teaching informatics in primary schools

  209-229

  Cecília Sitkuné Görömbei

  Views:

  27

  Among the most prominent developmental tasks of primary school education one finds increasing pupils' cognitive capacity with especial regard to observing, interpreting, coding and proving skills, which form an integral part of information and communication culture.
  Info-technology (problem solving with the tools and methods of informatics), a subject matter within informatics, provides outstanding opportunities to reach the aims outlined above.
  This study presents methodological ideas related to the subfield Algorithmization and data modelling of Info-technology. More specifically, it presents teaching methods to be applied while establishing the notion of recursion in grades 3–8 of primary education, and at the same time it also focuses on various realization possibilities of the prominent developmental tasks mentioned above.

• Decision based examination of object-oriented programming and Design Patterns

  83-109

  Szabolcs Márien

  Views:

  28

  On the basis of our examination experience of Design Patterns the existing interpretations and descriptions of Design Patterns do not realise a clear and understandable answer for their aims. The reason for this is that the existing interpretation of the object-oriented paradigms is used for their description and formulation. In order that clear answers could be found for the aims of using Design Patterns, a new conception of their interpretation has to be established. In order to create a new conception, we have to analyze object-oriented paradigms.
  According to our new conception the object-oriented methodology is based on the elimination of decision repetition, thus sorting the decisions to class hierarchy, with the help of which the data structure and methodology of decision options can be determined by the subclasses of the given class. Sorting the decisions and decision options to a class and its subclasses only the first decision case will be executed, which will be archived and enclosed by instantiation of one of the subclasses. For the following decision cases the archived decision result can be used without knowledge of which decision option was used, so to say which subclass was instantiated, because it is enclosed by using the type of the parent class.
  The aim of the object-oriented technology is the elimination of decision repetition, which can be realized by sorting the decisions. The derivations are the abstract definitions of decisions, so the derivations can be interpreted as decision abstractions. The Design Patterns offer recipes for sorting the decisions. With the help of the decision concept the aim of Design Patterns can be cleared and a more natural classification of Design Patterns can be realized.

• New style in teaching word processing

  417-426

  Mátyás Arató

  Gyöngyi Bujdosó

  Views:

  33

  Teaching word processing is confined to looking through some menus and showing some functions of a word processor program, although technology presents just a small part of forming layouts. This fact causes that people who are writing documents spend a lot of time by trying to form, e.g., title pages or inner pages.
  The present paper deals with a design of an online course on word processing that fits better the needs of many users. The online course is designed for teaching (LA)TEX by leading the students to the technical issues of the typesetting system through layout and grammar rules: demonstrates the most important basic recommendations of typography and grammar rules through samples, and shows how to program the currently displayed layout in the (LA)TEX programming languages. This methodology suits better the common working habit, and can be a useful help in word processing documents.

• Facilitating class attendance to improve student achievements

  77-90

  Ye Sun

  Weifeng Chen

  Views:

  29

  Many studies have revealed that attendance is strongly associated with students' achievements, and have proposed different strategies to improve students' attendance. However, there are few studies investigating how to efficiently take students' attendance – the key component to improve students' attendance. Taking attendance manually is inefficient since it will consume part of the limited class time. This paper describes the design and the implementation of an online attendance system that is currently used in classes at West Virginia University and California University of Pennsylvania. Examples of the system are provided online. Implementation codes of the system are shared, which can be used to teach computer science courses such as Web Programming or Client-Server Script Languages.