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Fiction as an Introduction to Computer Science Research

Published: 01 March 2014 Publication History
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  • Abstract

    The undergraduate computer science curriculum is generally focused on skills and tools; most students are not exposed to much research in the field, and do not learn how to navigate the research literature. We describe how fiction reviews (and specifically science fiction) are used as a gateway to research reviews. Students learn a little about current or recent research on a topic that stirs their imagination, and learn how to search for, read critically, and compare technical papers on a topic related to their chosen science fiction book, movie, or TV show.

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    • (2024)Book Club Model for Engaging with Data Science and Ethics: Using Weapons of Math DestructionProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630792(1374-1380)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
    • (2023)“What if everyone is able to program?” – Exploring the Role of Software Development in Science FictionProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581436(1-13)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
    • (2019)Building an Argument for the Use of Science Fiction in HCI EducationIntelligent Human Systems Integration 201910.1007/978-3-030-11051-2_129(846-851)Online publication date: 6-Jan-2019
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    Published In

    cover image ACM Transactions on Computing Education
    ACM Transactions on Computing Education  Volume 14, Issue 1
    March 2014
    98 pages
    EISSN:1946-6226
    DOI:10.1145/2600089
    Issue’s Table of Contents
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 01 March 2014
    Accepted: 01 November 2013
    Revised: 01 October 2013
    Received: 01 April 2013
    Published in TOCE Volume 14, Issue 1

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    Author Tags

    1. Artificial intelligence
    2. research
    3. science fiction

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    Cited By

    View all
    • (2024)Book Club Model for Engaging with Data Science and Ethics: Using Weapons of Math DestructionProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630792(1374-1380)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
    • (2023)“What if everyone is able to program?” – Exploring the Role of Software Development in Science FictionProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581436(1-13)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
    • (2019)Building an Argument for the Use of Science Fiction in HCI EducationIntelligent Human Systems Integration 201910.1007/978-3-030-11051-2_129(846-851)Online publication date: 6-Jan-2019
    • (2018)How to teach computer ethics through science fictionCommunications of the ACM10.1145/315448561:8(54-64)Online publication date: 23-Jul-2018
    • (2017)SIGCSE ReadsProceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3017680.3022354(721-721)Online publication date: 8-Mar-2017
    • (2016)Artificial Intelligence meets Software Engineering in Computing EducationProceedings of the 9th Hellenic Conference on Artificial Intelligence10.1145/2903220.2903223(1-5)Online publication date: 18-May-2016
    • (2016)A Conceptual Research Agenda and Quantification Framework for the Relationship Between Science-Fiction Media and Human-Computer InteractionHCI International 2016 – Posters' Extended Abstracts10.1007/978-3-319-40548-3_9(52-57)Online publication date: 22-Jun-2016
    • (2015)DISSECTProceedings of the 2015 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE.2015.7344241(1-9)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2015

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