Barbara Demo | Università degli Studi di Torino (original) (raw)

Papers by Barbara Demo

Esistono molti strumenti e metodi per realizzare video guide o video tutorial. Il nostro obiettiv... more Esistono molti strumenti e metodi per realizzare video guide o video tutorial. Il nostro obiettivo è quello di mostrare, attraverso l'utilizzo combinato di software freeware, come costruire video multimediali che guidino gli utenti nell'apprendimento di un qualunque strumento informatico, filmando direttamente dallo schermo del computer le sequenze di operazioni necessarie per un qualche uso dello strumento, eseguite da qualcuno che ne conosce le funzionalità, e corredando tali sequenze con oggetti multimediali quali didascalie e messaggi vocali.

Changing the teaching of informatics in secondary (and primary) education is in many countries di... more Changing the teaching of informatics in secondary (and primary) education is in many countries difficult to achieve, owing to several reasons: the natural tendency of institutions and people to stick to well-established practices, a distorted view of informatics prevailing in society and among those who take the decisions, the specific fact that in several school systems the teaching of informatics is largely committed to teachers of other scientific disciplines. We describe the Italian situation and our experience in Turin where we have organised training stages for the Olympiad in Informatics and supported the organisation of other informatics contests. On its basis we argue how the different kinds of competition can help to change informatics education in Italy, by making problem solving and programming play a central role.

Approaches to Prototyping, 1984

An approach is proposed for database design prototyping. Database design currently has a well est... more An approach is proposed for database design prototyping. Database design currently has a well established structure while prototyping of the process is a quite new subject of research.

2008 Eighth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, 2008

Small robots are very simple computers that can move autonomously. Their use in primary schools a... more Small robots are very simple computers that can move autonomously. Their use in primary schools allows pupils to have "concrete" yet full programming experiences at the age in which Piaget situates the concrete operational stage of cognitive development. Indeed, for their first robotic activities, pupils think of paths where the robot moves forward, decides which direction to go when getting to a crossroad or repeats part of its previous trip. In planning a path for their robot, children walk it themselves thus finding out its successive parts and related features. Pupils in our classes use NQCBaby and NXCJunior programming languages for the formal specification of robot's behaviour. These languages are textual languages, mother-tongue-based and Logo-like, in order to be oriented to children rather than to robots. Thus, through an activity with small robots, children physically deal with the basic blocks of algorithms (sequence, selection and iteration) and learn how to specify them. This introduces schoolchildren to a solid programming competence.

Proceeding of 2nd Workshop on …, 2003

Proceedings of the 2015 ITiCSE on Working Group Reports, 2015

This exploratory study focuses on concepts and their assessment in K-9 computer science (CS) educ... more This exploratory study focuses on concepts and their assessment in K-9 computer science (CS) education. We analyzed concepts in local curriculum documents and guidelines, as well as interviewed K-9 teachers in two countries about their teaching and assessment practices. Moreover, we investigated the 'task based assessment' approach of the international Bebras contest by classifying the conceptual content and question structure of Bebras tasks spanning five years. Our results show a variety in breadth and focus in curriculum documents, with the notion of algorithm as a significant common concept. Teachers' practice appears to vary, depending on their respective backgrounds. Informal assessment practices are predominant, especially in the case of younger students. In the Bebras tasks, algorithms and data representation were found to be the main concept categories. The question structure follows specific patterns, but the relative frequencies of the patterns employed in the tasks vary over the years. Our analysis methods appear to be interesting in themselves, and the results of our study give rise to suggestions for follow-up research.

Executive Overview 1. All of Europe's citizens need to be educated in both digital literacy and i... more Executive Overview 1. All of Europe's citizens need to be educated in both digital literacy and informatics. 2. Digital literacy covers fluency with computer tools and the Internet. 3. Informatics covers the science behind information technology. Informatics is a distinct science, characterized by its own concepts, methods, body of knowledge and open issues. It has emerged, in a role similar to that of mathematics, as a crossdiscipline field underlying today's scientific, engineering and economic progress. 4. Informatics is a major enabler of technology innovation, the principal resource for Europe's drive to become an information society, and the key to the future of Europe's economy. 5. European countries are making good progress in including digital literacy in the curriculum. The teaching of this topic should emphasize the proper use of information technology resources and cover matters of ethics such as privacy and plagiarism. 6. Informatics education, unlike digital literacy education, is sorely lacking in most European countries. The situation has paradoxically worsened since the 70s and 80s. 7. Not offering appropriate informatics education means that Europe is harming its new generation of citizens, educationally and economically. 8. Unless Europe takes resolute steps to change that situation, it will turn into a mere consumer of information technology and miss its goal of being a major player. Based on an analysis of the current situation and of experiences in many countries, this report makes four key recommendations: • Recommendation 1. All students should benefit from education in digital literacy, starting from an early age and mastering the basic concepts by age 12. Digital literacy education should emphasize not only skills but also the principles and practices of using them effectively and ethically. • Recommendation 2. All students should benefit from education in informatics as an independent scientific subject, studied both for its intrinsic intellectual and educational value and for its applications to other disciplines.

How to use computers in primary schools is often discussed among those involved in education. In ... more How to use computers in primary schools is often discussed among those involved in education. In our project we introduce robot programming in order to give both children and teachers the opportunity of concretely approaching the basics of informatics as a science while performing activities concerning the standard curricula subjects. Fundamental components of our proposal are: a) the use of different types of small autonomous robots as computer systems children develop programs for, b) programming with a textual, Logolike language in order to avoid problems due to the language in use during first programming activities, c) a cross-disciplinary didactical methodology where each robot activity is a learning environment nurturing as its principal concern concepts from traditional primary school subjects, such as mathematics, physics, geography, music. Also grammar and linguistic abilities are concerned because the programming language introduction is harmonized with pupils learning of...

Proceedings of the 9th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education, Nov 5, 2014

1984 IEEE First International Conference on Data Engineering, 1984

Google, Inc. (search). ...

In our ICT activities in junior high schools pupils program the RCX and NXT Lego bricks using a L... more In our ICT activities in junior high schools pupils program the RCX and NXT Lego bricks using a Logo-like language supplemented by a program development environment specifically implemented for young students. In their f irst programs, pupils mainly aim at moving their autonomous robots. We describe how teachers and pupils have analyzed with us a number of robot programs, performing a static analysis of the code, for specifying the length of the path a robot covers when a program is executed. When sensors are used this length is specified as an expression containing variables. The analysis associating algebraic expressions to robot programs can be used as a teachers support in motivating elementary algebra, a typical subject addressed in junior high schools. In this activity robotics is used as means to concretely manipulate topics of traditional disciplines. It is integrated in standard school curricula and becomes an active learning environment.

In questo articolo gli autori propongono un approccio basato su tecniche AI di ragionamento su az... more In questo articolo gli autori propongono un approccio basato su tecniche AI di ragionamento su azioni per la realizzazione di sistemi in autoistruzione per l'apprendimento dell'uso di software applicativi, rivolgendo particolare attenzione alle suite da u-cio. In particolare verrµa mostrato come tali tecniche consentono di implementare in modo nat- urale l'approccio noto come e-learning by doing, nel quale lo studente impara esercitandosi e sfruttando i feedback che gli giungono dal sis- tema.

Esistono molti strumenti e metodi per realizzare video guide o video tutorial. Il nostro obiettiv... more Esistono molti strumenti e metodi per realizzare video guide o video tutorial. Il nostro obiettivo è quello di mostrare, attraverso l'utilizzo combinato di software freeware, come costruire video multimediali che guidino gli utenti nell'apprendimento di un qualunque strumento informatico, filmando direttamente dallo schermo del computer le sequenze di operazioni necessarie per un qualche uso dello strumento, eseguite da qualcuno che ne conosce le funzionalità, e corredando tali sequenze con oggetti multimediali quali didascalie e messaggi vocali.

Changing the teaching of informatics in secondary (and primary) education is in many countries di... more Changing the teaching of informatics in secondary (and primary) education is in many countries difficult to achieve, owing to several reasons: the natural tendency of institutions and people to stick to well-established practices, a distorted view of informatics prevailing in society and among those who take the decisions, the specific fact that in several school systems the teaching of informatics is largely committed to teachers of other scientific disciplines. We describe the Italian situation and our experience in Turin where we have organised training stages for the Olympiad in Informatics and supported the organisation of other informatics contests. On its basis we argue how the different kinds of competition can help to change informatics education in Italy, by making problem solving and programming play a central role.

Approaches to Prototyping, 1984

An approach is proposed for database design prototyping. Database design currently has a well est... more An approach is proposed for database design prototyping. Database design currently has a well established structure while prototyping of the process is a quite new subject of research.

2008 Eighth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, 2008

Small robots are very simple computers that can move autonomously. Their use in primary schools a... more Small robots are very simple computers that can move autonomously. Their use in primary schools allows pupils to have "concrete" yet full programming experiences at the age in which Piaget situates the concrete operational stage of cognitive development. Indeed, for their first robotic activities, pupils think of paths where the robot moves forward, decides which direction to go when getting to a crossroad or repeats part of its previous trip. In planning a path for their robot, children walk it themselves thus finding out its successive parts and related features. Pupils in our classes use NQCBaby and NXCJunior programming languages for the formal specification of robot's behaviour. These languages are textual languages, mother-tongue-based and Logo-like, in order to be oriented to children rather than to robots. Thus, through an activity with small robots, children physically deal with the basic blocks of algorithms (sequence, selection and iteration) and learn how to specify them. This introduces schoolchildren to a solid programming competence.

Proceeding of 2nd Workshop on …, 2003

Proceedings of the 2015 ITiCSE on Working Group Reports, 2015

This exploratory study focuses on concepts and their assessment in K-9 computer science (CS) educ... more This exploratory study focuses on concepts and their assessment in K-9 computer science (CS) education. We analyzed concepts in local curriculum documents and guidelines, as well as interviewed K-9 teachers in two countries about their teaching and assessment practices. Moreover, we investigated the 'task based assessment' approach of the international Bebras contest by classifying the conceptual content and question structure of Bebras tasks spanning five years. Our results show a variety in breadth and focus in curriculum documents, with the notion of algorithm as a significant common concept. Teachers' practice appears to vary, depending on their respective backgrounds. Informal assessment practices are predominant, especially in the case of younger students. In the Bebras tasks, algorithms and data representation were found to be the main concept categories. The question structure follows specific patterns, but the relative frequencies of the patterns employed in the tasks vary over the years. Our analysis methods appear to be interesting in themselves, and the results of our study give rise to suggestions for follow-up research.

Executive Overview 1. All of Europe's citizens need to be educated in both digital literacy and i... more Executive Overview 1. All of Europe's citizens need to be educated in both digital literacy and informatics. 2. Digital literacy covers fluency with computer tools and the Internet. 3. Informatics covers the science behind information technology. Informatics is a distinct science, characterized by its own concepts, methods, body of knowledge and open issues. It has emerged, in a role similar to that of mathematics, as a crossdiscipline field underlying today's scientific, engineering and economic progress. 4. Informatics is a major enabler of technology innovation, the principal resource for Europe's drive to become an information society, and the key to the future of Europe's economy. 5. European countries are making good progress in including digital literacy in the curriculum. The teaching of this topic should emphasize the proper use of information technology resources and cover matters of ethics such as privacy and plagiarism. 6. Informatics education, unlike digital literacy education, is sorely lacking in most European countries. The situation has paradoxically worsened since the 70s and 80s. 7. Not offering appropriate informatics education means that Europe is harming its new generation of citizens, educationally and economically. 8. Unless Europe takes resolute steps to change that situation, it will turn into a mere consumer of information technology and miss its goal of being a major player. Based on an analysis of the current situation and of experiences in many countries, this report makes four key recommendations: • Recommendation 1. All students should benefit from education in digital literacy, starting from an early age and mastering the basic concepts by age 12. Digital literacy education should emphasize not only skills but also the principles and practices of using them effectively and ethically. • Recommendation 2. All students should benefit from education in informatics as an independent scientific subject, studied both for its intrinsic intellectual and educational value and for its applications to other disciplines.

How to use computers in primary schools is often discussed among those involved in education. In ... more How to use computers in primary schools is often discussed among those involved in education. In our project we introduce robot programming in order to give both children and teachers the opportunity of concretely approaching the basics of informatics as a science while performing activities concerning the standard curricula subjects. Fundamental components of our proposal are: a) the use of different types of small autonomous robots as computer systems children develop programs for, b) programming with a textual, Logolike language in order to avoid problems due to the language in use during first programming activities, c) a cross-disciplinary didactical methodology where each robot activity is a learning environment nurturing as its principal concern concepts from traditional primary school subjects, such as mathematics, physics, geography, music. Also grammar and linguistic abilities are concerned because the programming language introduction is harmonized with pupils learning of...

Proceedings of the 9th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education, Nov 5, 2014

1984 IEEE First International Conference on Data Engineering, 1984

Google, Inc. (search). ...

In our ICT activities in junior high schools pupils program the RCX and NXT Lego bricks using a L... more In our ICT activities in junior high schools pupils program the RCX and NXT Lego bricks using a Logo-like language supplemented by a program development environment specifically implemented for young students. In their f irst programs, pupils mainly aim at moving their autonomous robots. We describe how teachers and pupils have analyzed with us a number of robot programs, performing a static analysis of the code, for specifying the length of the path a robot covers when a program is executed. When sensors are used this length is specified as an expression containing variables. The analysis associating algebraic expressions to robot programs can be used as a teachers support in motivating elementary algebra, a typical subject addressed in junior high schools. In this activity robotics is used as means to concretely manipulate topics of traditional disciplines. It is integrated in standard school curricula and becomes an active learning environment.

In questo articolo gli autori propongono un approccio basato su tecniche AI di ragionamento su az... more In questo articolo gli autori propongono un approccio basato su tecniche AI di ragionamento su azioni per la realizzazione di sistemi in autoistruzione per l'apprendimento dell'uso di software applicativi, rivolgendo particolare attenzione alle suite da u-cio. In particolare verrµa mostrato come tali tecniche consentono di implementare in modo nat- urale l'approccio noto come e-learning by doing, nel quale lo studente impara esercitandosi e sfruttando i feedback che gli giungono dal sis- tema.