Using Storytelling to Enable Engagement of First Level Students in Programming Courses George Eleftherakis eleftherakis@city.academic.gr G.Eleftherakis@sheffield.ac.uk George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 1
Structure Current situation Our Problem Our Solution The tool used The setting to enable use of stories The result Food for thought Last words from Mentor George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 2
Educator s Goal George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 3
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Diversity: Do not fear; George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 12
Diversity: Embrace it! George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 13
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Problem Ignoring students' previous learning styles, educational cultures, and most importantly knowledge and skills inadequacies results in the formation of minorities that do not engage, are discouraged and eventually abandon their studies. George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 15
Solution Teaching diverse groups of students requires focusing to the aim and learning objectives of every taught unit and the curriculum in general, and rethinking ways, techniques and tools used to achieve them. George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 16
Give them a chance! George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 17
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I was always dreaming instead of..., to be able to give an assignment like this... Plagued by voices at night, our hero believed he has gone insane until old friend Jhary-a-Conel advises him it is in fact a summons from another world. Listening to the voices allows him to pass to the other world, which is in fact the distant future, and there he is known as Corum, the Prince with the Silver Hand. The Tuha-na-Cremm Croich (who call Corum "Corum Llew Ereint") face extinction from the Fhoi Myore: seven giants who with their allies conquered the land and plunged it into eternal winter. Allying himself with King Mannach, Corum falls in love with his daughter Medhbh. Corum seeks the lost artifacts of the Tuha-na-Cremm Croich. In his first assignment he has first to locate Medhbh and take her with him, then look for a new ally Goffanon (a blacksmith and diminutive giant) and ask him also to join him. Then he has to move them in the temple of the Fhoi Myore. There Goffanon will create a spear that will aid Corum to defeat the Fhoi Myore by taking it to the sacred black rock of the Tuha-na-Cremm Croich. George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 25
Our Problem At the University of Sheffield International Faculty, CITY College, over the last years we have cohorts consisting of diverse groups of students. George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 26
What we decided to do This fact led us to redesign the Computer Science Level 1 introductory programming unit in computer programming (considered as the most challenging) to make it accessible to a much wider audience. George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 27
This was achieved by: abstracting out everything but the essential computational skills in the first half of the semester, introducing an educational tool aiming to bolster the skills of the students, both with or without programming experience, in the area that traditionally is the most difficult for them. integrating the curriculum with carefully designed extra curriculum activities George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 28
To achieve the desired results the tool should: enable visual and immediate output of the efforts of students, be easy to use it with few minutes training, have a fun factor, and allow students to use it in a creative way. George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 29
Mentor George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 30
What the tool achieved By simulating two dimensional worlds it provides a visual direct output and it is very simple to learn and start using the language (less than 1 hour in theory and 1 hour practice), enabling any student to experiment and engage early. George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 31
Two assignments The first assignment (taking place in week 5) students had to solve problems inspired by science fiction stories and fairytales! The second assignment (week 9) they had to devise their own story and present it as a problem to be solved that really simulated a game like scenario. This one was a group project. George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 32
Result This proved to boost students' creativity avoiding the usual computer science problems that are boring for most of them. The first results conjecture that students with limited or no background in programming managed to engage early and intuitively develop all required knowledge and skill. At the same time the ones with any level of experience on programming managed to achieve deeper understanding of the fundamentals of computer programming and well establish their previous knowledge, while at the same time enjoying the learning process and not loosing their focus at any phase. All students really unfolded their creativity and imagination at the end. George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 33
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Inclusion while having fun The most important though was that working in groups to simulate stories inspired by fairytales and Sci-Fi novels, created a sense of community no matter the initial diversity. Because of the simplicity of such stories and their inclusion to every culture, and the simplicity of the common tool they were all using for the first time, everyone had something to share. George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 35
Community feeling This enabled the emergence of a community sharing experiences and giving rise to new ones trying to solve the problems, in a way similar of playing creative games in a cooperative and collaborative environment. And while all these are happening, students have fun at the same time. George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 36
At the end The end result was to achieve to have at the end of the first semester a well balanced cohort eliminating the initial diversity on the level of programming skills and knowledge. George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 37
Food for Thought Could stories, and tools (and/or serious games) that enable their visualization, be used in education to improve student engagement especially tackling diversity issues? Could we address similar problems with diverse groups in terms of background and skills, and cultural differences looking for creative, technology enhanced solutions which invest in the power of stories and fairytales, to bring people together? Could Mentor be easily used from many disciplines not focusing on developing computational thinking skills but any other, discipline specific or not, knowledge? The presentation could be regarded as an initial step for exploring potential interdisciplinary collaboration and research. George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 38
Contact http://robotseducate.us/ Mentor tool George Eleftherakis eleftherakis@city.academic.gr G.Eleftherakis@sheffield.ac.uk http://www.city.academic.gr/csd/eleftherakis/ George Eleftherakis / 1st Online Conference on Virtual and Digital Storytelling (VIS 2013) 39