Implementing IT0/CS0 with scratch, app inventor forandroid, and lego mindstorms

摘要

The trend of declining enrollment and interest in computing fields, combined with increased demand from the industry, challenges instructors to come up with new, fresh and appealing methodologies to attract and retain students. Further, with the diffusion of information and computing technologies into almost all fields of study, introductory computing courses for non-majors need approaches that motivate students to feel comfortable with the life-long learning of computing concepts and tools. The goal of this paper is to summarize our teaching experience blending the aforementioned two needs into one course that may be considered as a type of CS0/IT0 course. With the pedagogical underpinnings stemming from constructionist learning and contextualized computing education, we present our motivation and the details of a course that uses the Scratch programming language, App Inventor for Android, and Lego Minstorm robotics.