Introduction to computing for future elementary and middle-school teachers
Vivian La Ferla Morgan, Kate Sanders · Journal of computing sciences in colleges · 2002
In this paper, we describe the design of a section of Introduction to Computing that is specifically tailored for education majors. The course design preserves the general goals of familiarizing students with computer-related concepts, history, ethics, and basic applications, but adds a specific focus on the use of computers in the classroom. Instead of teaching about spreadsheets in general, for example, we show how spreadsheets can be used by teachers for their own gradebooks and in the classroom for data collection and analysis projects. Instead of teaching about computer ethics in general, we discuss the ethics of computer use in the classroom.This course was designed in the spring and summer of this year and is being offered for the first time in the Fall of 2001. In addition to the design, therefore, we also describe some preliminary results based on our experience with the alpha version of the course in the classroom. Our experience so far suggests that if you have a large group of students with the same or similar majors, focusing the course on their major can greatly improve both the teachers' and the students' experience with the course.