Educational Technology

By Tonia Moxley, Roanoke Times

Computer Science professor Dennis Kafura teaches a pilot computational thinking course for students in various disciplines as student Nathan Sexton, right, looks on. Virginia Tech is changing its general education curriculum for the first time in years. After nearly four decades teaching computer science, Virginia Tech professor Dennis Kafura is not one to jump on every passing bandwagon touting change. “I’m not much for educational fads because I’ve seen them come and go,” Kafura said. But last year when he was teaching a junior level computer science class in the traditional way — lecture with slides and homework assignments — Kafura noticed the occasional student surfing Facebook. And attendance was sometimes low. An idea from 2010 came back to the professor, based on a more experimental course he had taught that used in-class exercises and minimized lectures.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/education/higher_education/virginia_tech/students-test-new-ways-of-teaching-and-learning-at-virginia/article_dca00832-1328-5e74-9ba5-c0bbf62fb0fb.html