German language

German (Standard High German: Deutsch, dɔʏtʃ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Western Europe and Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also an official language of Luxembourg and Belgium, as well as a recognized national language in Namibia. Outside Germany, it is also spoken by German communities in France (Alsace), Czech Republic (North Bohemia), Poland (Upper Silesia), Slovakia (Košice Region, Spiš, and Hauerland), and Hungary (Sopron). German is most similar to other languages within the West Germanic language branch, including Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German, Luxembourgish, Scots, and Yiddish. It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group, such as Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language after English, w

Exploring a Handwriting Programming Language for Educational Robots

Barbara Bruno, Christian Giang, Taavet Kangur, Laura Mathex, Francesco Mondada, Vaios Papaspyros

Recently, introducing computer science and educational robots in compulsory education has received increasing attention. However, the use of screens in classrooms is often met with resistance, especially in primary school. To address this issue, this study presents the development of a handwriting-based programming language for educational robots. Aiming to align better with existing classroom practices, it allows students to program a robot by drawing symbols with ordinary pens and paper. Regular smartphones are leveraged to process the hand-drawn instructions using computer vision and machine learning algorithms, and send the commands to the robot for execution. To align with the local computer science curriculum, an appropriate playground and scaffolded learning tasks were designed. The system was evaluated in a preliminary test with eight teachers, developers and educational researchers. While the participants pointed out that some technical aspects could be improved, they also acknowledged the potential of the approach to make computer science education in primary school more accessible.

Springer, Cham2021

Modeling and Optimizing Computer-Assisted Mathematics Learning in Children

Arithmetic abilities are essential in modern society. However, many children suffer from difficulties in learning mathematics, ranging from mild to severe numeracy problems. The prevalence of developmental dyscalculia is about 3%−6% in German speaking countries. Children with developmental dyscalculia often develop anxiety and aversion against thesubject and experience difficulties in school and later in profession. Despite the relatively high prevalence, few targeted interventions for children with developmental dyscalculia exist and only a fraction of these programs is computer-based. In this thesis, we present a complete loop in the data-driven development of an intelligent tutoring system for mathematics learning that overcomes the limitations of previous work.This process consists of three steps: The development of a first training environment, its evaluation in user studies and the data-driven validation and improvement of the system. We first develop Calcularis, a computer-based training program for children with difficulties in learning mathematics. The curriculum and concepts of the system are theory-based: The program transforms current neuro-cognitive findings into the design of different instructional games. A Bayesian network student model representing different mathematical skills and their dependencies, and a non-linear control algorithm ensure adaptationof the training to the mathematical abilities of the individual child. Furthermore, the program features a bug library allowing recognition and remediation of specific errors. In a second step, we evaluate Calcularis in two user studies to prove its effectiveness. Based on the input data collected in these studies, we performa data-driven validation andimprovement of the program in the third step. We assess student model and controller properties and analyze the quality of our model via logistic regression. The data-driven investigations lead to the development and extensiveanalysis of techniques for model validation. We improve prediction accuracy of the student model by introducing aconstrained latent structured predictionmethod for efficientparameter learning in Bayesian networks. By applying a clustering and classification approach, we are able to predict the mathematical characteristics of the children. Moreover, we also explore the possible addition of an engagement model to Calcularis. Finally, we develop a data-driven diagnosis tool for developmental dyscalculia based only on input data. The integration of this tool into Calcularis closes the loop of data-driven development.

ETH-Zürich2013

Modeling and Optimizing Computer-Assisted Mathematics Learning in Children

ETH-Zürich2013

Exploring a Handwriting Programming Language for Educational Robots

Beteiligung an Begutachtungsprozessen am Beispiel der Begleitforschung „Wissenschaft für nachhaltige Entwicklung“, Impuls-Referat an der Tagung „Kultur der Verantwortung - Transparenz in der Wissenschaft“

Modeling and Optimizing Computer-Assisted Mathematics Learning in Children

Beteiligung an Begutachtungsprozessen am Beispiel der Begleitforschung „Wissenschaft für nachhaltige Entwicklung“, Impuls-Referat an der Tagung „Kultur der Verantwortung - Transparenz in der Wissenschaft“

Modeling and Optimizing Computer-Assisted Mathematics Learning in Children

Exploring a Handwriting Programming Language for Educational Robots