An old-line proof checker operating under APL/360, with educational applications in logic, mathematics, and computer science

Over the last years, mobile robot platforms are having a key role in education worldwide. Among others, LEGO Robots and MATLAB/Simulink are being used mainly in universities to improve the teaching experience. Most LEGO systems used in the literature are based on NXT, as the EV3 version is relatively recent. In contrast to the previous versions, the EV3 allows the development of real-time applications for teaching a wide variety of subjects as well as conducting research experiments. The goal of the research presented in this paper was to develop and validate a novel real-time educational platform based on the MATLAB/Simulink package and the LEGO EV3 brick for academic use in the fields of robotics and computer science. The proposed framework is tested here in different university teaching situations and several case studies are presented in the form of interactive projects developed by students. Without loss of generality, the platform is used for testing different robot path planning algorithms. Classical algorithms like rapidly-exploring random trees or artificial potential fields, developed by robotics researchers, are tested by bachelor students, since the code is freely available on the Internet. Furthermore, recent path planning algorithms developed by the authors are also tested in the platform with the aim of detecting the limits of its applicability. The restrictions and advantages of the proposed platform are discussed in order to enlighten future educational applications.

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A Primer on Gamification Standardization

10.4018/978-1-7998-8089-9.ch001 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 1-13

Author(s):

Ricardo Alexandre Peixoto de Queiros ◽

Mário Pinto ◽

Alberto Simões ◽

Carlos Filipe Portela

Keyword(s):

Science Education ◽

Computer Science ◽

Systematic Study ◽

Ad Hoc ◽

Computer Science Education ◽

Design Strategy ◽

Good Practices ◽

Game Mechanics ◽

The Status ◽

Educational Applications

Computer science education has always been a challenging topic for both sides of the trench: educators and learners. Nowadays, with the pandemic state that we are facing, these challenges are even greater, leading educators to look for strategies that promote effective virtual learning. One of such strategies includes the use of game mechanics to improve student engagement and motivation. This design strategy is typically called gamification. Nowadays, gamification is being seen as the solution to solve most of the issues related to demotivation, complexity, or tedious tasks. In the latest years, we saw thousands of educational applications being created with gamification in mind. Nevertheless, this has been an unsustainable growth with ad hoc designs and implementations of educational gamified applications, hampering interoperability and the reuse of good practices. This chapter presents a systematic study on gamification standardization aiming to characterize the status of the field, namely describing existing frameworks, languages, services, and platforms.

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Google Educational Apps as a Collaborative Learning Tool among Computer Science Learners

Assessing the Role of Mobile Technologies and Distance Learning in Higher Education - Advances in Mobile and Distance Learning ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-7316-8.ch012 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 272-296 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Vasileios Paliktzoglou ◽

Tasos Stylianou ◽

Jarkko Suhonen

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Computer Science ◽

Learning Environments ◽

Online Course ◽

Science Students ◽

Social Media Tools ◽

Educational Applications ◽

The University ◽

State Of Art ◽

Eastern Finland

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate students' engagement using Google Educational Applications as educational social media tools to support teamwork. The participants of the study were a cohort of Computer Science students enrolled in the State-of-Art Technologies in Education (SOAT) online course at the University of Eastern Finland. The data was collected through pre- and post-Google Educational Collaborative Applications experience questionnaires and an interview. Based on the findings, it is evident that social media, and more specifically Google Educational Applications, can support social-constructivist models of pedagogy and that Google Educational Applications (as social media tools) have the potential to play an important role in the future of learning environments. The chapter provides experimental evidence that the use of Google Educational Applications can increase student engagement, and thus, Google Educational Applications can be used as an educational tool to support teamwork.

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