Abstract
In education, we have noticed a significant gap between the ability of students to program in an educational visual programming environment and the ability to write code in a professional programming environment. The aim of our research was to verify the methodology of transition from visual programming of mobile applications in MIT App Inventor 2 to textual programming in the Android Studio using the Java Bridge tool as a mediator of knowledge transfer. We have examined the extent, to which students will be able to independently program own mobile applications after completing the transition from visual to textual programming using the mediator. To evaluate the performance of students, we have analysed qualitative data from teaching during 1 school year and determined the degree of achievement of educational goals according to Bloom’s taxonomy. The results suggest that students in the secondary education can acquire advanced skills in programming mobile applications in a professional programming environment, when they have knowledge of visual programming in an educational programming environment, and a suitable mediator is used to transfer such knowledge into a new context.
Highlights
Programming is usually included in the educational content of Informatics teaching if the goal of teaching is to acquire computer skills, and to learn the foundations of Informatics as a science
Qualitative findings are based on the evaluation of data from observations and quizzes to determine the level of achievement of goals at lower levels of revised Bloom Taxonomy (RBT) in the phases, when students worked with the help of a lecturer on the same projects and used handouts with sketches of the solution process
We were interested in the extent to which students were able to create mobile applications using text programming after completing the transition from visual to textual programming using a mediator
Summary
Programming is usually included in the educational content of Informatics teaching if the goal of teaching is to acquire computer skills, and to learn the foundations of Informatics as a science. Hromkovič and Steffen (2013) reason why it is important for the teaching of Informatics in education systems to include real Informatics with its fundamental concepts. Such Informatics teaching contributes to the understanding the contemporary world; it contributes to the development of ways of thinking and problem solving and prepares for further study
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