JCSE Online: Issue 2, 2005–2006
J. Philip East
University of Northern Iowa
October 2006
Linda Werner, Jill Denner, & Shannon Campe
IT Fluency from a Project-Based Program for Middle School Students
This article describes research that relates to the Fluency Report, which I believe offers critical insight into the skills and understandings that we need to be developing in all our students. The authors discuss an instructional program designed to enhance the IT Fluency of middle school girls. A principal part of their program was having the girls design and develop interactive games. They used Macromedia’s Flash application/language as the design and implementation tool. Working with the authors on this article was both enjoyable and difficult. I have very strong feelings about the Fluency Report and, at first, did not necessarily agree with all aspects of their interpretation and use of it. After some reflection most of my concerns have dissipated. However, even if I still had concerns I would highly recommend this article. It seems vital to me that computing teachers try to apply the ideas from the report and these folks clearly have.
In preparation for or in conjunction with this article you may wish to review or examine the Fluency Report. It is available via the Net at http://newton.nap.edu/catalog/6482.html for you to buy or to read online—it won’t take much of your time and, I think, will be time well spent. Then you can read the article. It provides plenty of food for thought and alternatives to learning and using Flash in addition to the main idea of working to develop fluency in middle school computing classes.
IT Fluency from a Project-Based Program for Middle School Students (PDF, 211 KB, PDF Instructions)
JCSE Publication Guide (MS Word, 67 KB)
JCSE Publication Guide (PDF, 62 KB, PDF Instructions)
NOTE: The Publication Guide template is best viewed with Microsoft Word (version 2000 or later) which should be installed on your computer to make use of the file. The template is also available in PDF format for those without Microsoft Word available.
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