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Describes CaMILE (Collaborative and Multimedia Interactive Learning Environment), an online forum for collaboration and reflection. Topics include project-based learning, collaborative domain-relevant student discussions, a model for understanding collaboration tool use, examples of using CaMILE in various university disciplines, and use of the World Wide Web. (Author/LRW)

Proposes the use of hypermedia to provide components of an apprenticeship learning model for students in which process and conceptual knowledge learning is integrated. Describes a model called Apprenticeship Based Learning Environment (ABLE) and discusses software design and scaffolding, an example of an ABLE. Contains 80 references. (Author/LRW)

Discusses cognitive apprenticeship, an educational practice that focuses on students actively engaged in activities with a variety of supports, or scaffolding. Presents a model of scaffolding that was implemented in courseware for learning computer graphics on the World Wide Web. An evaluation on the use of the courseware at Georgia Institute of Technology is reported. (LRW)

Traditional introductory computer science (CS) courses have had little success engaging non-computer science majors. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, where introductory CS courses are a requirement for CS majors and nonmajors alike, two tailored introductory courses were introduced as an alternative to the traditional course. The results were encouraging: more nonmajors succeeded (completed and passed) in tailored courses than in the traditional course, students expressed fewer negative reactions to the course content, and many reported that they would be interested in taking another tailored CS course. The authors present findings from a pilot study of the three courses and briefly discuss some of the issues surrounding the tailored courses for nonmajors: programming, context, choice of language, and classroom culture. Index Terms--Classroom culture, computer science (CSL motivation, nonmajors, programming.

Learning computing with respect to the context of its use has been linked in previous reports to student motivation in introductory Computer Science (CS) courses. In this report, we consider the role of context in a second course. We present a case study of a CS2 data structures class that uses a media computation context. In this course, students learn data structures and object-oriented (OO) programming through a pervasive narrative about how real media professionals use data structures to model the real world and to construct the digital images, sounds, and animations with which the students are familiar in their daily lives. We found that context played a different role in a second course than in a first course. We found evidence that some students did not need context to appreciate computing, but we also found evidence that context can help students get engaged with the material that they otherwise do not find interesting. In particular, the narrative aspect of a context may help students in relating the elements of the course and may even help with learning.