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SUMMARY:IC Colloquium : “Programming is Hard & Boring” Addressing Cogn
 itive and Affective Challenges in Computer Science Education
DTSTART:20151214T161500
DTEND:20151214T173000
DTSTAMP:20260407T003822Z
UID:d493181197ddb629df957094bc1bbf1680d4bcc874acaf6dc941377f
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:By : Alexander Repenning - University of ColoradoVideo of his 
 talkAbstract :\nComputational thinking has been identified as an essential
  21st century skill relevant not only to computer scientists. Unfortunatel
 y\, many computer users\, particularly children\, consider programming to 
 be hard and boring. There are two fundamental barriers to making programmi
 ng more appealing: cognitive challenges to overcoming the “hard” part\
 , and affective challenges to overcoming the “boring” part. Over the l
 ast 20 years we have systematically explored these cognitive and affective
  challenges\, and with AgentSheets/AgentCubes\, we have created computatio
 nal thinking tools to transform “hard and boring” into “accessible a
 nd exciting” by pioneering concepts such as drag and drop programming. T
 he presentation will introduce computational thinking\, demonstrate comput
 ational thinking tools\, and outline the Scalable Game Design curriculum u
 sed in the USA\, Mexico and Switzerland. Additionally\, the presentation w
 ill discuss the notion of Cyberlearning as means to evaluate and support c
 omputer science activities through the analysis of real time design inform
 ation. In 2013\, as part of the Hour of Code\, the AgentCubes 3D Game desi
 gn activity was used by nearly a quarter million participants in just one 
 week. New kinds of evaluation instruments\, relevant to computer science e
 ducation research\, emerge from these large data collections.Bio :\nDr. Al
 exander Repenning is the Hasler Professor and Chair of Computer Science Ed
 ucation at the PH FHNW (School of Teacher Education at the University of A
 pplied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland)\, is a computer science
  professor at the University of Colorado\, and a founder of AgentSheets In
 c. He is directing the Scalable Game Design Initiative at the University o
 f Colorado. Repenning’s research interests include education\, end-user 
 programmable agents\, and artificial intelligence. He has worked in resear
 ch and development at Asea Brown Boveri\, Xerox PARC\, Apple Computer\, an
 d Hewlett Packard. Repenning is the creator of the AgentSheets/AgentCubes 
 simulation and game computational thinking tools. He has offered game desi
 gn workshops in the USA\, Mexico\, South America\, Europe and Japan. His w
 ork has received numerous awards including the Gold Medal from the mayor o
 f Paris for “most innovative application in education of the World Wide 
 Web”\, as well as “best of the best innovators” by ACM and has been 
 featured in WIRED Magazine. Repenning has been a Telluride Tech Festival h
 onoree for contributions to computer science. Repenning is an advisor to t
 he National Academy of Sciences\, the European Commission\, the National S
 cience Foundation\, The Japanese Ministry of Education and the Organisatio
 n for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).More information
LOCATION:BC 420 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BC%20420
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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