Learning computer networks in an international, distributed course

(Email: Anders.Berglund@docs.uu.se) The speaker, Anders Berglund, is currently visiting Hong Kong University from the Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, Sweden where his is a lecturer in computer science. He is currently working on his PhD in computer science education on how university students, who take part in an internationally distributed project course in computer systems, learn networks. In his research he is studying the learning of the subject matter, as well as the learning process in a complex learning environment. Contact: Anders Berglund, Information Technology, Uppsala University, SwedenHow students understand and learn about network protocols is studied in an internationally distributed university course in computer systems. The course, in which the students work in project groups, is taught jointly by two universities. Insights into students' understanding of basic concepts within computer networks are gained through an empirical phenomenographic research approach that will be described during this seminar. The use of phenomenography as a research approach makes it possible to learn about computer science, as it is experienced by the students. The relationship between the students and the rather complex context of their studies is considered to play an important role for their learning. This empirical study aims to reveal a variation of qualitatively distinct ways in which the students experience (or conceptualise) important phenomena in their learning situation, and to distinguish aspects of such experience that are critical for learning. In addition to analysing and describing the variation in ways in which the students experience certain computer science concepts, as computer network protocols, attention is paid to the ways in which students experience the context of their learning, characterised in terms of an activity system (Engestrom, 1987). Such contextual entities, as the tools they use in their work, their team mates, teachers and other students, the natural language they communicate in and the computer languages and protocols they communicate through and about, rules governing university courses, cultural rules, and labour division within and between teams, are regarded as a system, in which the actual work with the project and learning of computer networks are components.published_or_final_versionCentre for Information Technology in Education, University of Hong Kon