Pilot Project: Teaching Introductory Programming Utilizing the Liberal Arts

Immaculata University, Immaculata PA

Investigators

Abstract

Current undergraduate computer science curricula do adequately prepare students to communicate and interpret technical skills to other technical disciplines. Effective and efficient programming demands technical skill and creativity, mental discipline and intellectual openness, but computer programming is usually taught from a technocentric viewpoint, so that students do not develop skills that enable them to develop programs for diverse and rigorous applications. Students therefore lack adequate contextual understanding of how programming skills solve real world problems. The result is project difficulties manifested in the management, design and implementation of software applications. This pilot project improves our understanding of the creative processes in the context of software design, through the design, implementation, testing, refinement, and dissemination of an introductory undergraduate computer programming course through storytelling using the ALICE programming language. Intellectual Merit: The project advances instructional strategies for introductory programming that foster creativity through focus on planning, attention to process, collaborative problem solving, and design refinement and refactoring. The use of storytelling to teach programming is a highly novel approach to extending the work begun in the ALICE project (partially funded by NSF). This will be accomplished by embedding the programming skills into an integrated liberal arts environment, and specifically focusing on learning and using programming structures in the service of a broader task. Broader Impacts: The proposed project provides an instructional strategy to enhance teachers? ability to recognize, articulate, and demonstrate integration points between creative and technical skills through the use of storytelling. It will enhance the problem-solving and collaborative skills of students and help them build connections between diverse tasks and the applicability of programming as a problem-solving tool. It will help build solid planning and collaboration skills in IT (Information Technology) students and invite a more diverse group of students to enhance their creative endeavors through programming. In a time of rapidly growing need for individuals with programming expertise, it has the potential to provide a new model for training a new generation of technical specialists.