Education & Computing 8 (1992) 239-244 Elsevier 239 Tools and methods for teaching informatics at school: an advanced Logo course Rumen Nikolov University of Sofia, 5 Anton Ivanov Str., 1126 Sofia, Bulgaria Abstract Nikolov, R., Tools and methods for teaching informatics at school: an advanced Logo course, Education & Computing 8 (1992) 239-244. The paper discusses an approach for acquainting fourth grade unwersity students in informatics with various tools and methods of teaching informatics at school. The language Logo is used as an unwersal tool for: (1) introducing one variant of school informahcs curriculum; (2) introducing some basic notions, principles and methods of informatics and a number of tools and specific approaches for their explanation and clarification; (3) demonstrating a variety of applications of computers in different fields: mathematics, language, drawing, music, physics, biology, history, etc.; (4) developing a sophisticated programming environment corresponding to the problem being solved and the specific users' needs; (5) demonstrating some basic principles of developing educational software, passing through all the phases of the software life cycle; (6) applying artificial intelligence methods and tools when developing and using educational software. The students get self-confidence both as teachers in informatlcs and as educational software designers. So they can step towards a new pedagogy in a rich computerized learning environment. Keywords: school mformatics; educational software; Logo; teaching methods. Introduction T e a c h i n g a n d applying informatics at school n o r m a l l y follows o n e of two quite different approaches. T h e m a i n e m p h a s i s in the first o n e is o n p r o g r a m m i n g . I n the o t h e r a p p r o a c h s t u d e n t s use r e a d y - m a d e programs. T h e i r i n t e r e s t is focused mostly o n the subject m a t t e r b e i n g covered by the software w i t h o u t paying m u c h a t t e n t i o n to the way the p r o g r a m was i m p l e m e n t e d . T h e universities a n d the o t h e r t e a c h e r t r a i n i n g institutions face the c h a l l e n g e to e d u c a t e a n d t r a i n p e o p l e c a p a b l e of b o t h t e a c h i n g informatics a n d p r o d u c i n g a n d m a i n t a i n i n g e d u c a t i o n a l software systems of d i f f e r e n t r a n g e of complexity. I n d e s i g n i n g a course o n Tools a n d M e t h o d s for T e a c h i n g I n f o r m a t i c s at School for fourth- grade s t u d e n t s in informatics at Sofia University, a n a p p r o a c h lying b e t w e e n these two extremes is chosen. T h e course is b a s e d o n the e x p e r i e n c e of the R e s e a r c h G r o u p o n E d u c a t i o n [7-13,16] a n d the m a i n principles applyed in designing seco n d a r y school textbooks in m a t h e m a t i c s a n d informatics [2,14,17,18]. The course objectives and structure T h e course is d e d i c a t e d to s t u d e n t s who are expected to b e e m p l o y e d as teachers in informatics o r / a n d e d u c a t i o n a l software developers. T h e g e n e r a l objective of the course is p r e p a r i n g stud e n t s to b e c o m e k n o w l e d g e a b l e a n d flexible experts in e d u c a t i o n a l informatics. 0167-9287/92/$05.00 © 1992 - Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. All rights reserved 240 R. Nikolou / An advanced Logo course The main course modules are: Tools and Methods for Teaching Informatics at School; Design of School Informatics Curriculum; Techniques and Tools for Introducing Basic Notions and Ideas of Informatics; Integrating Informatics into the Curriculum; Developing a Personal Software Environment; Working on Advanced Projects; Teaching at School. As a general effect of the course students are expected to get a systematic knowledge in educational informatics, a "bag of tools" and real practice in programming which can serve as background for other courses, for example, Artificial Intelligence, Programming in Prolog, Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Computer Graphics, etc. Basic m o d u l e s o f the course Tools and Methods for Teaching lnformatics at School The module aims at briefly presenting and analyzing different software tools, techniques, and methods of teaching informatics at school and making sure the students can evaluate and select similar ones by themselves. Students are acquainted with some ideas and concrete examples and experience of using computer as a teacher, adviser, tool, and learning environment. The main attention is paid to the last two approaches and the role of teaching programming at school. Logo is regarded both as a programming language very suitable for novices and as a real philosophy of education. Some statements that the course is built around are presented to the students, for example: (1) Programming is a universal tool for training and self-training in all school subjects and for all school ages; (2) the choice of a suitable programming language is of vital importance for the novices; (3) the concept of debugging (known from programming) is fundamental for the education in general; (4) the most important factor for successful learning is the richness of the learning environment; (5) Learning and discovery in a computer-based learning environment can happen in a way very similar to the way children normally discover the world around them. The statements posed are expected to be proved during the course. Design of school inforrnatics curriculum Some concrete examples, ranging from a curriculum entirely based on programming to a curriculum based on so-called "button-press informatics", are presented and evaluated. Some national strategies based on different new information technology products are discussed as well. An example of an informatics curriculum for all school ages [10] is taken as a basis for illustration of some basic ideas and principles. Following the Research Group on Education scheme, the informatics education is regarded in three levels: (1) Primary level (lst-4th grade). Its objective is providing initial, non-systematic knowledge in an encyclopedic style about the children's environment. Some notions, like algorithms, coding, decoding, variable, assigning a value to a variable, table, graph, procedure, etc. are introduced and applied in some rasonable school activities. The educational software includes a set of computer games, microworlds and Logo extensions, including one for controlling Lego machines, editors (text, music, graphics), simple databases, etc. (2) Secondary junior level (5th-7th grade). A relatively systematic hand-on course in informatics on the base of variety of problems and activities closely related to other school subjects is developed [10,11,13]. The variety of problems enables every pupil to follow his own way to informatics. Apart from informatics, some computer applications penetrate deeper and deeper the other school subjects. The educational software includes a number of Logo-based microworlds and software tools providing a good basis for acquiring problem solving and information processing skills. (3) Secondary senior level (8th-12th grade). Computers are used as real universal laboratories in mathematics, language, science, arts, music, etc. when teaching some integrated X and Informatics subjects [10,18]. The subject Mathematics and Informatics is expected both to enrich the students' knowledge in informatics and to motivate studying mathematics. Special attention is paid to pupils with special interests in informatics who can even help teachers in software development. R. Nikolov / An advanced Logo course Some non-traditional approaches are discussed, for example: (1) building an informatics curriculum by using problem solving scenarios developed both vertically (in grades) and horizontally (within the same grade), rather than by using a number of artificial small problems [17]; (2) using "glass-box toy systems" (text editors, databases, picture editors) instead of professional software systems [2]; (3) revealing some secrets of how to build new Logo extensions by using the ideas of procedural and data abstraction [14]; (4) building up a system of analogies and metaphors through which to describe both the real computer and the models of some imaginary machines [2]; (5) dividing the optional informatics topics into "arms" which are to be chosen by the teacher for the pupils according to their interests [18]. Techniques and tools for introduction of the basic notions and ideas of informatics The module includes a few topics presenting some techniques and a set of metaphors and analogies appropriate for introducing beginners to the basic notions and ideas of informatics. The students are offered a teaching method which could be applied when teaching pupils in the classroom. The ideas of "playing the turtle" and "playing computer" techniques, the advantages of iconic programming when clarifying the hard parts of Logo [4], the pigeon holes metaphor explaining the scope rules for variables in Logo [15], the substitution model for procedure execution, the little people metaphor, etc. are demonstrated and discussed. Special attention is paid to the methods for clarifying the notion of recursion and helping pupils understand and write their own recursive procedures. The most exploited is the leap and faith method which is very helpful when writing recursive procedures [5], applied together with a bag of recursive procedure templates. For the pupils who are interested in the process of recursive procedure execution the telescope model, the tracing and little people method [5] could be used. A discussion on iteration and recursion is provoked and exploited for clarifying these notions. The ideas of using glass-box toy 241 systems at different levels of abstraction [2] are also discussed in detail and illustrated by some concrete examples. Integrating informatics into the curriculum The integration of informatics into the school curriculum can be done at two levels: (1) by using problems from the other school subject as a basis for clarifying some informatics notions [9]; (2) by applying the methods and tools of informatics to understand better some topics of a certain school subject. For instance, an extended variant of the program given in [3] for an adjective comparison form generation could be used when introducing such notions as procedure, operation, scope rules for variables, word and list processing, predicates, logical operations, top-down programming, procedural abstraction and naming, debugging, etc. The same program can be also used then teaching English as a second language at school. TO MORE :ADJ (LOCAL "L "SL) IF VOWELS :ADJ> 2 [OUTPUT SENTENCE "MORE :ADJ] MAKE "L LAST :ADJ MAKE "SL LAST BUTLAST :ADJ IF AND CONSONANTP :SL EQUALP :L "Y [OUTPUT WORD :ADJ "IER] IF OR EQUALP :ADJ "GOOD EQUALP :ADJ " W E L L [OUTPUT "BETTER] IF EQUALP :ADJ "BAD [OUTPUT "WORSE] IF DOUBLEP :ADJ [OUTPUT (WORD :ADJ :L "ER)] OUTPUT WORD :ADJ "ER END TO CONSONANTP :LETTER OUTPUT NOT VOWELP :LETTER END TO VOWELP :LETTER OUTPUT MEMBERP :LETTER [A E I O U] END TO VOWELS :WORD IF EMPTYP :WORD [OUTPUT 0] IF VOWELP FIRST :WORD [OUTPUT I + V O W E L S BUTFIRST :WORD] OUTPUT VOWELS BUTFIRST :WORD END TO DOUBLEP :ADJ (LOCAL "L "SL "TL) MAKE "L LAST :ADJ MAKE "SL LAST BUTLAST :ADJ MAKE "TL LAST BUTLAST BUTLAST :ADJ IF AND VOWELP :SL VOWELP :TL [OUTPUT "FALSE] 242 R. Nikolov ,/An advanced Logo course IF OR (EQUALP :L "W) (EQUALP :L "Y) [OUTPUT "FALSE] IF AND VOWELP :SL CONSONANTP :L [OUTPUT "TRUE] OUTPUT "FALSE END Developing a personal software environment A great part of the course is d e v o t e d to illust r a t i n g the idea that w h e n u s i n g a l a n g u a g e like Logo you can initially b u i l d a l a n g u a g e e n v i r o n m e n t c o r r e s p o n d i n g to y o u r way of t h i n k i n g and the p r o b l e m b e i n g solved. T h e l a n g u a g e can be e n r i c h e d with m a n y powerful c o n t r o l and data s t r u c t u r e s t a k e n from the o t h e r p r o g r a m m i n g languages: WHILE, REPEAT-UNTIL, FOR, CASE, iteration over a list, m a p p i n g , filters, arrays, sets, trees, etc. [3,5,6]. S o m e t h i n g m o r e - - y o u c a n add some exotic control and data s t r u c t u r e s which b e t t e r fit c o n c r e t e personal needs and interests. A d e f i n i t i o n of the w e l l - k n o w n control structure CASE is given below: TO CASE :EXPR :LVRTS IF LABELP EVAL :EXPR :LVRTS [CASE1 EVAL :EXPR :LVRTS] IF EQUALP "ELSE FIRST LAST :LVRTS [RUN LAST LAST :LVRTS] END ciples of educational software development. The importance of using powerful and user-friendly software tools as different editors, tracers, workspace and file managers, etc. is pointed out and illustrated by examples. A bag with such tools is developed by using some advanced programming techniques. A number of software tools which can support the educational software development are proposed as well. For example, if the CASE control structure has been already defined, a variant of the Single Keystroke Program Generator [5] can be defined: TO ONEKEY :NAME :COMMDS LOCAL "TEXT MAKE "TEXT [[ ] [LOCAL "CH] [PRINT [TYPE ? FOR HELP]] [MAKE "CH RC]] MAKE "TEXT LPUT SE [CASE :CH] FPUT.:COMMDS [ ] :TEXT MAKE "TEXT LPUT (LPUT (LIST "GIVEHELP :COMMDS) [IF EQUALP :CH "?]) :TEXT MAKE "TEXT LPUT FPUT :NAME [] :TEXT DEFINE :NAME :TEXT TO GIVEHELP :COMMDS IF EMPTYP :COMMDS [STOP] PRINT (SE FIRST FIRST :COMMDS "- LAST FIRST :COMMDS) GIVEHELP BF :COMMDS END TO CASE1 :CONST :LVRTS IF EMPTYP :LVRTS [STOP] IF EQUALP :CONST FIRST FIRST :LVRTS [RUN LAST FIRST :LVRTS] IF AND LISTP FIRST FIRST :LVRTS MEMBERP :CONST FIRST FIRST :LVRTS [RUN LAST FIRST :LVRTS] CASE1 :CONST BF :LVRTS END Now a family of Instant-like programs can be easily produced, for example: TO LABELP :CONST :CASE.LIST IF EMPTYP :CASE.LIST lOP "FALSE] IF LABELP1 :CONST FIRST FIRST :CASE.LIST [OP "TRUE] OP LABELP :CONST BF :CASE.LIST END I n the Logo workspace you can find the proced u r e s given below: TO LABELP1 :CONST :LBLCOM IF EQUALP :CONST :LBLCOM [OP "TRUE] OP AND LISTP :LBLCOM MEMBERP :CONST :LBLCOM END TO EVAL: EXPR IF LISTP :EXPR [OP RUN :EXPR] OP :EXPR END Another basic direction considered in this module concerns some guidelines and basic prin- ONEKEY "INSTANT [[F [FORWARD 1011 [B [BACK 10]] [R [RIGHT 151][L [LEFT 1511][P [PENS]]] ONEKEY "PENS [[U [PENUP INSTANT]] [D [PENDOWN INSTANT]] [E [PENERASE INSTANT]]] TO INSTANT LOCAL "CH PRINT [TYPE ? FOR HELP] MAKE "CH RC CASE :CH [[F [FORWARD 10]] [R [BACK 10]] [R [RIGHT 15]] [L [LEFT 15]] [P [PENS]]] IF EQUALP :CH "? [GIVEHELP [[F [FORWARD 10]] [R [BACK 10]] [R [RIGHT 15]] [L [LEFT 15]] [P [PENS]]]] INSTANT END TO PENS LOCAL "CH PRINT [TYPE ? FOR HELP] MAKE "CH RC R. Nikolov / An advanced Logo course CASE :CH [[U [PENUP INSTANT]] [D [PENDOWN INSTANT]] [E [PENERASE INSTANT]]] IF EQUALP :CH "? [GIVEHELP [[U [PENUP INSTANT]][D [PENDOWN INSTANT]] [E [PENERASE INSTANT]]]] PENS END By means of a tool like ONEI<EY, a variety of computer games, picture, text, and music editors can be generated and used in the primary school curriculum. Working on advanced projects The module includes t e a m work on more advanced projects according to the following scheme: (1) reading and understanding a research p a p e r or separate chapter of a book dealing with specific application of Logo and adapting the programs included in it; (2) enriching and modifying the programs; (3) finding some reasonable educational applications in the existing school curriculum. The proposed projects cover all the mentioned aspects of teaching informatics at school including: (1) developing specialized software tools and language extensions, for example, object-oriented Logo extension, file manager, a tool for generating a family of Animals-like programs, including an editor for data base binary tree manipulation and its graphical display, a tool for adventure games writing, etc. (2) developing and applying subsets of programming languages, for example Pascal, s o l o , LISP; (3) developing some glass-box toy systems: databases, text, picture and music editors, graphics system, etc.; (4) developing learning environments in mathematics, language, physics, and music; (5) working on, and finding reasonable applications in education of some advanced topics of AI: knowledge representation, symbolic manipulation, expert systems, natural language understanding, etc. Every t e a m should present its project at specially organized seminars and final performances. Thus the scope of the topics included in the course is extended by the students. 243 Teaching at school Every student goes for two months into a real school and teaches pupils following the existing curriculum in informatics. Under the guidance of some advanced teachers the students can compare their dreams with the reali2c.in school. Conclusions Though most educators agree that educational software should be produced by' the joint efforts of teachers and programmers, most of the existing software is not developed in this way. The practising teachers do not have suitable qualification, self-confidence, or simply willingness and time, to write their own pieces of software. The programmers usually have only a slight impression of the school's curriculum and the methods of teaching. Education needs a new type of specialists capable of applying the power of the computer when developing new methods of teaching in a very rich learning environment. The course delivered at the D e p a r t m e n t of Mathematics and Informatics of Sofia University is only a slight move towards a new pedagogy. References [1] H. Abelson and G. Sussman, Structure and Interpretatton of Computer Programs (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 1985). [2] D. Dicheva and R. Nikolov, Glass box toy-systems in school informatics. In: G. Schuyten and M. Valcke, eds. Proceedmgs of the Second European Logo Conference, Gent, Belgium (1989) 638-649. [3] M. Friendly, Advanced Logo (Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale. NJ, 1988). [4] P. Goldenberg, Iconic programming. In: Logo '86 (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1986) 32-34. [5] B. Harvey, Computer Sctence Logo Style, V1 (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1985). [6] B. Harvey, Computer Science Logo Style, V3 (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1987). [7] R. Nikolov, A learning environment in informatics. PhD Thesis (Sofia University, 1987) (in Bulgarian). [8] R. Nikolov, Teacher training in Logo. In: F. Lovis and D. Tagg, eds. Informattcs and Teacher Training, Proceedings of the IFIP WG 3.1 Working Conference (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1984) 59-68. [9] R. Nikolov, Integrating informatics into the curriculum, Education & Computing 3 (1987) 269-274. 244 R. Nikolov / An advanced Logo course [10] R. Nikolov and E. Sendova, Informatics for all school ages. Submitted to EUROLOGO '9L Parma, Italy. [11] R. Nikolov and E. Sendova, Informatics textbooks for beginners. In: Proceedings of the First International Conference "Children in an Information Age", Varna, Bulgaria (1985) 621-629. [12] R. Nikolov and E. Sendova, Can the teacher's creativity overcome the limited computer resources? Education & Computing 4 (1988) 179-184. [13] R. Nikolov, E. Sendova and D. Dicheva, What to teach in informatics and how--a Bulgarian experiment. In: F. Lovis and D. Tagg, eds. Computers in Education (NorthHolland, Amsterdam 1988) 427-432. [14] R. Nikolov and D. Dicheva, Introducing the concept of data types using Logo. In: G. Schuyten and M. Valcke, eds. Proceedings of the Second European Logo Conference, Gent, Belgium (1989) 650-662. [15] I. Nikolova, A metaphor explaining scope rules for variables in Logo. Submitted to EUROLOGO '91, Parma, Italy. [16] E. Sendova and R. Nikolov, Teachers have been growing up. In: F. Lovis and D. Tagg, eds. Computers in Education (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1988) 145-148. [17] E. Sendova and R. Nikolov, Problem solving scenarios in secondary school textbooks in mathematics and informatics. In: G. Schuyten and M. Valcke, eds. Proceedings of the Second European Logo Conference, Gent, Belgium (1989) 650-663. [18] E. Sendova, R. Nikolov and D. Dicheva, Mathematics and informatics--an attempt for integration in the secondary school curriculum. In: Proceedings of the Third International Conference "ChiMren in the Information Age", Sofia, Bulgaria (1989) 155-166. Rumen Nikolov was born in 1955 in the town of Pernik, Bulgaria. He graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics and lnformatics at Sofia University in 1980, where he is still working as an assistant professor. In 1987 he obtained a PhD in the field of Informatics and Education. Since 1982 he has been involved in the activities of the Research Group on Education at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Education. Dr Nikolov is the author of several textbooks and papers, and he takes part in teaching students and teachers. As a Unesco expert he gave Teacher Training Consultancy in Syria and Egypt. Since 1989 he has been a member of the IFIP Working Group 3.5.