Linking Language & Thinking with Code
Keith J. O’Hara, Kathleen Teresa Burke, Diana Ruggiero, Sven Anderson · 2017
This paper describes the design, implementation and preliminary evaluation of a computing component for a three-week writing-intensive introductory program at a liberal arts college. Specific curricular recommendations are presented that could have a direct, positive impact if adopted in similar courses. A two-pronged approach involving a faculty-led HTML workshop, along with student-led contextualized coding studios, was employed. Computing Unplugged activities were used, including a novel Page Rank Unplugged networking activity. An analysis of attitude surveys shows the program positively changed students attitudes about enjoyment solving CS problems, but potentially reinforced the misconception that CS is just learning programming languages.