A Comparative Analysis of Teaching Environments for Java Programming.
An extract . . . . .
Abstract:
The aim of this report is to investigate some of the most popular pedagogical and development environments and to determine how successful they are in assisting novice programmers in learning Java programming and object-oriented principles. A set of criteria will be drawn from reviewed literature as well as careful consideration of the challenges facing novices. This report will document the literature, the criteria and summarise the findings of the evaluation.
This dissertation starts by considering computer programming and its role within Computer Science. It gives an overview of how programming has been taught and covers the various approaches and research in this area. The report then focuses specifically on how pedagogical environments have developed over the years. The dissertation then looks at a set of pedagogical environments and evaluates each of them against set criteria drawn from literature and research. This evaluation is undertaken against a background of two things. Firstly, acceptance that learning to program is a difficult task. Secondly, the nuances and principles of object oriented programming need to be conveyed to students. These factors ultimately determine the influence and contribution that each of the pedagogical environments might make in assisting novice programmers successfully master both Java programming and object oriented principles.
Key Findings:
Alice is an outstanding pedagogical environment, well suited to introduce novices to object oriented (OO) principles.
BlueJ excels in removing some of the complexity of the syntax of Java programming, allowing simple interaction with classes and successfully introduces OO principles.
DrJava is a useful lightweight development environment and one of its advantages is that it can be used as a plug-in to simplify the Eclipse environment.
Jeliot is outstanding in its ability to automatically animate Java programs without any additional input. It also has a useful pedagogical tool that can automatically generate questions about the code that is being animated.
jGRASP is both a pedagogical as well as a development environment which has many features including, UML and animation viewers, to assist novices.
Eclipse is easily the most professional development environment evaluated.
“We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.”
Marcel Proust.
http://www.quotationspage.com
Acknowledgements To:
Murray Wood, my supervisor, for constant guidance and encouragement as well as football banter.
Judi for her forbearance, understanding and words of encouragement, ‘Work hard.’
My Parents (Tom & Nancy) – without whom – let’s face it - I wouldn’t be here.
www.Somafm.com for keeping me sane and introducing me to some amazing new music.
Handed in Thursday 6 September, 2007. Hard to believe that I started both this course and this Blog 1 year ago . . . . how time has flown.
I Hit Strathclyde running - My 1st Blog entry
No comments:
Post a Comment