(September 29, 2006)--Interactive & Intelligent Computing (IIC) division Professor Mark Guzdial and Ph.D. students Allison Elliott Tew and Brian Dorn published two papers this month at the 2006 International Computing Education Research (ICER) workshop. There were 62 participants and 23 submissions at ICER this year. The IIC papers were two of only six accepted from the U.S. of the 13 total papers in the workshop. In fact, the College of Computing at Georgia Tech is one of only two institutions in the world that had two papers accepted at ICER '06 held in Canterbury, England.

Imagineering inauthentic legitimate peripheral participation: An instructional design approach for motivating computing education by Mark Guzdial and Allison Elliott Tew describes a design principle for creating computing courses for non-CS majors. The premise is that teaching computing to non-technical majors is a problem of storytelling – explaining to them why it’s relevant, why they should care. However, for Guzdial and Elliott Tew, storytelling for computing is not like in film or novels – it’s storytelling in three dimensions (i.e. in the lecture hall, in the dorm, in the computer labs) for over 10-15 weeks. This relevant storytelling form is called “Imagineering,” and is the way that Disney creates theme parks.

Graphic Designers who program as informal CS learners by Brian Dorn and Mark Guzdial
studies graphics designers who program to make their lives easier by automating processes, and creating image effects that don’t exist naturally in their programs. Dorn performed a survey of these designers and found that their knowledge of programming and computer science is quite sophisticated. This study of people who just pick-up programming is giving Dorn and Guzdial insight into how to better motivate and teach undergraduate students. “We might also learn how to better educate these non-CS professionals,” says Guzdial, “to help improve their processes and the quality of what they produce.”

For more information about the 2006 ICER workshop, click here.