research-article

Serious toys II: teaching networks, protocols, and algorithms

Authors:

Jason O. HallstromAuthors Info & Claims

ITiCSE '13: Proceedings of the 18th ACM conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education

Pages 273 - 278

https://doi.org/10.1145/2462476.2462502

Published: 01 July 2013 Publication History

Abstract

Networking concepts have been in use for centuries. The human body is a network of organs that must coordinate to survive. The postal service is an example of a network that connects individuals world-wide. It is only natural that networks play an important role in computing --- from networks of sensors collecting and recording data, to social networks, to the most complex network of all, the Internet. Observing the importance of networking concepts in computing, we have developed the second in a series of "serious toys" to use in the K-12 curriculum. In this case, the toy is an embedded hardware device designed to enhance a lecture titled "Learning Networks, Protocols, and Algorithms", by engaging visual and kinesthetic learners. In this paper, we describe our curriculum module and its use in an outreach program involving six middle school classes. We conclude with a summary of evaluation results that show the program produced positive results in terms of content understanding and attitudes toward Computer Science.

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Cited By

Lewis MHolloman AHernández Cuevas BCrawford C(2024)Exploring Computational Thinking Perspectives in Black Communities with Physiological Computing2024 Black Issues in Computing Education (BICE)10.1109/BICE60192.2024.00013(27-32)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/BICE60192.2024.00013
Lechelt ZRogers YMarquardt NShum VLukowicz PKrüger ABulling ALim YPatel S(2016)Democratizing children's engagement with the internet of things through connectUsProceedings of the 2016 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing: Adjunct10.1145/2968219.2971435(133-136)Online publication date: 12-Sep-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2968219.2971435
Feaster YZhai JHallstrom JSettle ASteinbach TBoisvert D(2015)Serious ToysProceedings of the 16th Annual Conference on Information Technology Education10.1145/2808006.2808037(3-8)Online publication date: 29-Sep-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2808006.2808037
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Serious toys II: teaching networks, protocols, and algorithms
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ITiCSE '13: Proceedings of the 18th ACM conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education

July 2013

384 pages

ISBN:9781450320788

DOI:10.1145/2462476

General Chair:
Janet Carter
University of Kent, UK
,
Program Chairs:
Ian Utting
University of Kent, UK
,
Alison Clear
Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, NZ

Copyright © 2013 ACM.

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 ACM 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]

Sponsors

Bilkent University: Bilkent University
SIGCSE: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 July 2013

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ITiCSE '13

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Bilkent University
SIGCSE

ITiCSE '13: Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education conference 2013

July 1 - 3, 2013

Canterbury, England, UK

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ITiCSE '13 Paper Acceptance Rate 51 of 161 submissions, 32%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 552 of 1,613 submissions, 34%

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ITiCSE '25

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Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education

June 27 - July 2, 2025

Nijmegen , Netherlands

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Cited By

Lewis MHolloman AHernández Cuevas BCrawford C(2024)Exploring Computational Thinking Perspectives in Black Communities with Physiological Computing2024 Black Issues in Computing Education (BICE)10.1109/BICE60192.2024.00013(27-32)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/BICE60192.2024.00013
Lechelt ZRogers YMarquardt NShum VLukowicz PKrüger ABulling ALim YPatel S(2016)Democratizing children's engagement with the internet of things through connectUsProceedings of the 2016 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing: Adjunct10.1145/2968219.2971435(133-136)Online publication date: 12-Sep-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2968219.2971435
Feaster YZhai JHallstrom JSettle ASteinbach TBoisvert D(2015)Serious ToysProceedings of the 16th Annual Conference on Information Technology Education10.1145/2808006.2808037(3-8)Online publication date: 29-Sep-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2808006.2808037
Jarman SBell TSchulte CCaspersen MGal-Ezer J(2014)A game to teach network communication reliability problems and solutionsProceedings of the 9th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education10.1145/2670757.2670773(43-49)Online publication date: 5-Nov-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2670757.2670773
Feaster YAli FZhai JHallstrom JCajander ÅDaniels MClear TPears A(2014)Serious toysProceedings of the 2014 conference on Innovation & technology in computer science education10.1145/2591708.2591732(69-74)Online publication date: 21-Jun-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2591708.2591732

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