Discovering informatics fundamentals through interactive interfaces for learning

Abstract

Theoretical informatics is a hard component of future teachers of informatics academic training. Relatively small space is allocated to it and thus the students' learning curve is very short and very steep. We assume this happens because we expose our students to fundamental problems before they come across them by themselves. We tend to provide students with formal analysis of unfamiliar topics using unfamiliar language. To improve this we decided to build a new seminar, in which a series of interactive environments developed in Imagine Logo are being used. Using them, students discover fundamentals of informatics. Through such tangible experience they construct their own knowledge and discuss many key challenges with us. We continue iterative improvement of the contents and form of the seminar. Using methods of the action research we want to understand the problem and help our students to be familiar with the language of theoretical informatics and build positive attitude towards the informatics fundamentals. As an indirect effect we have noticed their growing interest in new forms of teaching/learning methods and growing expectations for the quality of educational software. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.