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Using Visual Logic To Teach A First Course In Programming Logic

Using Visual Logic To Teach A First Course In Programming Logic. Jorge Vallejos – Assistant Professor ( jvallejo@cscc.edu ) Computer Science Department Columbus State Community College. Logic – AND Benefits to our students. What Is Logic ? – Loose Definitions :

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Using Visual Logic To Teach A First Course In Programming Logic

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  1. Using Visual Logic To Teach A First Course In Programming Logic Jorge Vallejos – Assistant Professor (jvallejo@cscc.edu) Computer Science Department Columbus State Community College Ohio Educational Technology Conference - January 2014

  2. Logic – AND Benefits to our students • What Is Logic ? – Loose Definitions : • The application of principles of correct reasoning • Proper thinking about the understanding of something • Interrelation of facts and events to reach valid conclusions • Why Is Logic Necessary?: • Solve complex tasks by applying systematic reasoning • Establish an approach to analyze and understand a problem • Discover simple and efficient solutions to implement processes and systems • What Do Students Gain By Learning Logic?: • Develop skills for critical thinking • Gather relevant facts, analyze them, and derive conclusions to troubleshoot systems • Apply problem solving strategies – formalize theories, discard invalid assumptions, establish priorities (ordering of actions and validation), solve problem in incremental steps, isolate/reproduce issues, test solutions • Readiness for programming courses and other analytical courses Ohio Educational Technology Conference - January 2014

  3. courses THAT support PROGRAMMING logic • MATH courses – beyond the algorithms and formulas, MATH creates the foundation to discover relations between entities, combine building blocks to compose new entities, build sets of detailed instructions to complete a task • READING /WRITING courses focused on comprehension – analyze complex materials, apply critical analysis to reach conclusions, inductions and deductions • PHYLOSOPHY courses: cover topics like: critical thinking, methods of inductive, deductive and symbolic logic. Ohio Educational Technology Conference - January 2014

  4. Tools for a First course in programming logic • Visual Logic • Creates visual representation of algorithms in flowchart format. The program does not use formal programming-language instructions – like Java, C#, or other programming languages • Alice/Alice3 – byCarnegie-Mellon • Creates 3D animations. Tool is oriented towards learning computer programming. Drag objects from a palette onto a scene canvas. Objects are constructed from Java classes. Methods are presented as menus – to control the actions performed by objects • Scratch – byMIT • Create animated objects. The program uses a list of instructions to control the actions performed by objects • Others – search the Internet Ohio Educational Technology Conference - January 2014

  5. Visual logic Features • Variables: non-typed numeric and string constants • There is no variable declaration – variables are created at the point of use • Constructs: • Assignments • Operators • Arithmetic (+, -, *, /, Mod, ^), Comparison (<, >, …), Compound (AND, OR, …) • Sequences • Conditions: if-then-else • Loops • while, do-while, for – control of execution can be modified by the exit, continue clauses • Arrays • Procedures (a.k.a., modules): named set of instructions. • Parameters: passed by value, passed by reference • Do not return a value Ohio Educational Technology Conference - January 2014

  6. Visual logic Features - Continued • Functions • FormatCurrency(), FormatPercent(), Round(), Random(), … • There is no Wait()/Sleep()-equivalent function. Alternative: use a busy-do-nothing loop • Input/Output • Dialog boxes, Console, File • Enforces Structured Programming – There is no GOTO instruction • All programming structures have a single entry/exit point • It is not possible to create spaghetti-code Ohio Educational Technology Conference - January 2014

  7. Visual logic PITFALLS • Variables are created at the point of use. When a variable identifier is misspelled, Visual Logic creates a new variable • Example: • Correctly spelled variable identifier: firstName. • Misspelledvariable identifier: fisrtName – Visual Logic creates the new variable identifier with a default zero (0) value • Visual Logic does not enforce syntax – (justification: students learn logic better when focusing on the concepts – rather than syntax) • It is possible to create an invalid comparison in comparison/loop statements: • while (YES <> number) { … }, where YESstores the string constant “y”, and number is a numeric constant. • The comparison evaluates as false – no syntax error, the loop does not execute • An existing string variable can afterwards be assigned a numeric value Ohio Educational Technology Conference - January 2014

  8. VISUAL LOGIC DEMONSTRATIONS • Sequences • Decisions • Loops • Arrays • Parameterized Procedures • Graphics Ohio Educational Technology Conference - January 2014

  9. References • Visual Logic • http://www.visuallogic.org/ • A Guide to Working with Visual Logic. Thad Crews & Chip Murphy. Course Technology – Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0-324-60119-0 • Alice • http://www.alice.org/index.php • Scratch • http://www.scratch.mit.edu Ohio Educational Technology Conference - January 2014

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