«Learning and teaching introductory programming in Higher Education, strategies and tools»
Antonio MendesUniversidad de Coimbra, Portugal
Resumen de la ponencia
Computer programming learning is known as difficult for many novice students. High dropout and failure rates are often reported even among computing students. Many researchers worldwide have been studying this question, looking for causes for these learning difficulties, and proposing different tools and strategies to help students to overcome their difficulties. This has also been the case of the Educational Technology Lab at the University of Coimbra. In this presentation, our work in this field will be presented, with an emphasis on the more recent contributions to the field.
Bio
António José Mendes is Professor at the Informatics Engineering Department of the University of Coimbra, Portugal, where he teaches mostly Programming courses. His research interests include Computer Science Educational Research, with a special emphasis in the support of introductory programming learning in Higher Education, and Distance Learning. He published more than 130 papers in international journals and conferences and a text book. He has been involved in several European and National projects, and coordinated the Latin-American Network on Informatics and Education. Currently he serves as Director of the Informatics Engineering Department. He also coordinates the University of Coimbra Distance Learning Project.
