Learning and Teaching Programming by Problem Solving

Date:Saturday 22 November 2008 and Saturday 29 November 2008

Time:10.00 - 13.00 and 15.00 respectively

Venue: Harrow School of Computer Science (Watford Road, Northwick Park, Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 3TP

The University of Westminster cordially invites you to attend the staff development/training event Learning and Teaching Programming by Problem Solving.

This excellent training opportunity, funded by West London Lifelong Learning Network, is hosted by Harrow School of Computer Science.

Dates and Times

Saturday 22 November 2008, 10.00-13.00
Saturday 29 November 2008, 10.00- 15.00 (with a lunch break 12.00-13.00).

Content

We aim to deliver a 7 h.staff development/training session (in two consecutive Saturdays) for level 3/Diploma IT tutors, focusing on a problem-solving methodology for teaching programming skills.

It will demonstrate how to teach programming concepts (including a programming
language’s syntax and semantics, data structures and algorithms) in a laboratory, through a series of problems of increasing complexity, and look at ways of solving them.

The staff development sessions will use Python as an example language.

Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language that is freely available on a wide range of different platforms (Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Linux , Mac).

The design of the language encourages good programming practice through layout, while excellent library support allows a diverse range of applications, from web programs to games, to be easily developed.

The language is based on earlier programming languages, such as Pascal and Modula-2, which have proven successful in computer programming education.

Python itself was partly developed as part of a “Computer Programming for Everybody” education initiative, funded by the US Government, whose purpose was to make programming more widely accessible and to promote basic programming literacy.

The choice of programming tool/ paradigm, however, will not be the focus of the session (although a programming language will be taught and learnt, but only insofar as it helps a learner to understand how to express solutions to problems).

The session will be accompanied by a student’s guide, tutor’s guide and evaluation questionnaire, while the outcome will be disseminate to West London relevant LLNs.

All participants will receive:

A welcome pack (via email), including travel information, on Monday 17 November
A Student’s Guide and a Tutor’s Guide to Learning and Teaching Programming by Problem Solving, upon arrival, on Saturday 22 November
An evaluation questionnaire, to be completed on Saturday 29 November. A comprehensive evaluation report will be disseminated to relevant Life Long Learning Networks soon thereafter
A certificate of attendance, upon completion of the training. Attendance is compulsory in order for participants to receive a certificate.

Registration

Email Maureen Walker by Friday 7 November 2008 with your name, affiliation, email address, telephone and parking rquest.

Venue

Harrow School of Computer Science (Watford Road, Northwick Park, Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 3TP).
Narest tube station: Northwick Park (Metropolitan Line).
Parking spaces are available upon request.

A limited number of spaces is available for this event, offered on a first-come, first-served basis.