[Bluej-discuss] How is BlueJ being used?

[Lon Levy]

Greetings Bruce,

At Oregon High School, located in Oregon, Wisconsin, I have a two year computer science program.  This begins with learning a functional language (DrScheme) and during the last quarter of the first year, we transition to Java.

During that quarter of Java, I introduce objects and classes with the BlueJ class representations and object bench being wonderful tools that make learning much easier for my students.  I also introduce JUnit testing (students having used a testing teachpack in DrScheme).

The second year is AP Computer Science "AB":  Data Structures.  We use BlueJ throughout the course.  I am teaching this as a constructivist course, students building most of the required collections from scratch.  This begins with me modeling the construction of a Doubly Linked List, using external AbstractNode, ListNode, and EmptyNode (terminator) classes, using List, Iterator, and ListIterator interfaces, and using inner class Iter and ListIter.  By the time we get through all of that and seeing how it works with BlueJ's object inspector, my students tend to do very well on their AP Exams (last year all students passed and half of them earned the maximum score of 5).

Please let me know if you want more details on any parts of what I am describing.

Regards,

Lon.

Lon Levy, MS-CSEd
Computer Science Teacher
Volunteer Computer Club Advisor
Oregon High School
608-835-1316
 
Lon.Levy at oregonsd.org
LXL at oregon.k12.wi.us
cs at levytree.net

non somnos requiem


>>> Bruce Quig <bquig at deakin.edu.au> 11/1/2007 4:38 AM >>>
The BlueJ user community provides invaluable feedback to the  
development team through the bluej-discuss mail list. We also get  
valuable information through our bluej-support mail list, the objects- 
first book discussion list and face to face contact with educators at  
various conferences, seminars and workshops throughout the world.  
Often we come across someone who is doing something really  
interesting or novel with BlueJ (or Greenfoot) that we were unaware of.

I'm sure there are many of these instances that we are still unaware of.

I would like to get a more complete picture of who and how BlueJ is  
being used by teachers and institutions. In particular I would like  
to get more information on how specific BlueJ features are being used  
in your teaching. My aim is to collate the information and use it to  
create additional website content that demonstrates how BlueJ is  
being used as an aid for other users. The secondary benefit is we  
learn a lot more about how we can improve BlueJ in the future.

I would be grateful for any information or feedback you can supply on  
how you are using BlueJ. The information can be as brief as a couple  
of lines (or more if you would like). Whilst we always like to hear  
how good BlueJ is, we also want feedback on problems faced, solutions  
and workarounds, and enhancements that would help.

Some of the topical areas that would be of particular interest include:

   - BlueJ extensions
   - the Submitter extension in particular
   - unit testing features
   - the codepad
   - synergies with other tools
   - teaching approaches
   - use in courses other than CS1 (eg. software engineering, data  
structures, non-cs majors, secondary school usage)
   - use of the teamwork/version control features
   - <insert your topical area here>


I would like to use details of people, courses and institutions where  
it is appropriate and helpful to others (with the consent of the  
people involved).

Please send any info directly to my email address in the first  
instance, rather than replying to the list.

Thanks in advance.

Bruce


Dr. Bruce Quig

Research Programmer/Analyst
BlueJ project
School of Engineering and Information Technology
Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125 Australia
Phone: 03 9244 6239 International: +61 3 9244 6239
Fax: 03 9251 7604 International: +61 3 9251 7604
Email: bquig at deakin.edu.au 
Website: http://www.deakin.edu.au 
Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code 00113B (Vic)