91桃色

91桃色 is delighted to welcome Professor Ting-Chia Hsu from the National Taiwan Normal University to the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics. Professor Hsu's ground-breaking research in Informatics Education and Gamification Methods brings innovative approaches to transforming the way computational thinking is taught and learned.

Visit from Professor Hsu and collaboration

At the invitation of Professor Valentina Dagien臈, a leading figure in the field of computational thinking education and creator of the internationally renowned 鈥淏ebras Challenge鈥�, Professor Hsu's visit aims to improve collaboration in the field of computer science education and to develop new assessment tools for the 鈥淏ebras Challenge鈥�. These tools will help primary and secondary school students assess and improve their computational thinking skills worldwide.

Professor Hsu has published numerous articles in prestigious journals, making an important contribution to computer science education and gamification. Her research focuses on innovative approaches to teaching computational thinking and integrating gamification into curricula.

Professor Ting-Chia Hsu's visit aims to integrate the computational thinking game-based learning material named "Robot City" with the "Bebras Challenge" by developing new computational thinking test items. 鈥淩obot City鈥�, a board game designed for young students to learn computational thinking through unplugged learning methods, is already included in the first volume of the MoE-reviewed official textbook of compulsory education for junior high schools in Taiwan, published by Kang Hsuan", 鈥� explained Professor Ting-Chia Hsu, 鈥� 鈥淗owever, to enhance its effectiveness, more gamified assessment items are necessary鈥�.

This necessity led Professor Hsu to collaborate with the creator of the 鈥淏ebras Challenge鈥� on Informatics and Computational Thinking. The goal is to merge "Robot City" with the "Bebras Challenge" to aid young students in learning and understanding computational thinking concepts. By combining these educational tools, it is expected that primary and secondary school students worldwide will benefit from these innovative resources, ultimately improving their computational thinking skills.

Research Activities and International Collaboration

鈥濱 have been collaborating with the National Taiwan Normal University for many years, especially with Professor Greg Lee, who is the leader of the IOI-international Olympiad in Informatics, and the head of the Bebras Challenge in Taiwan, and we meet at least a couple of times every year鈥�, 鈥� says Professor V. Dagien臈, - 鈥淚t is very nice that we have found common research interests: assessing computational thinking, introducing elements of gamification into informatics lessons. We have already agreed that the game developed by Professor Ting-Chia Hsu will be distributed in Lithuanian schools, and in the autumn, we will train our teachers on how to incorporate the game into informatics lessons or extracurricular activities.鈥�

During her stay at the Mathematics and Informatics Faculty at 91桃色, Professor Hsu and Professor Dagien臈 visited the University of Turku's Research Institute for Learning Analytics (TRILA) in Finland from June 10 to 17. They presented the 鈥淩obot City鈥� board game, a project funded by the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan, designed to teach computational thinking to students without requiring programming knowledge. The 鈥淩obot City鈥� game is part of Taiwan鈥檚 compulsory education curriculum for information technology.

ITiCSE, the largest computer science education conference in Europe, took place in Milan, Italy, from July 6-10. Valentina Dagien臈 chaired the doctoral consortium, and Ting-Chia Hsu participated in the discussions. Over 400 researchers from 39 countries attended the event.

Future Prospects

The collaboration between 91桃色 and the University of Turku, along with the expertise of Professor Hsu, promises to yield significant advancements in computational thinking education. Projects such as 鈥淐omputational Thinking and Mathematical Problem Solving, an Analytics-Based Learning Environment鈥� and 鈥淒igiMaths4All: Strengthening Mathematical Problem-Solving Using Technology Enhanced Learning and Computational Thinking鈥� will benefit immensely from these joint efforts.