[PLT logo] TeachJava 2005

Overview

Both programming technology and pedagogy are in the midst of a revolution. Unsafe procedural programming in C/C++ is being supplanted by safe, object-oriented programming in Java. The new technology greatly increases programmer productivity, software reliability, and software reuse. In recognition of this shift in technology, the College Board recently instituted a new AP Computer Science curriculum focusing on object-oriented programming in Java instead of object-based programming in C++.

The TeachJava Project is devoted to fostering the development of curricula and courses that teach the principles of obect-oriented program design in Java using design patterns. Each summer we teach a workshop on object-oriented program design in Java targeted at high school AP teachers. The workshop presumes a familiarity with either C++ or Java.

We will offer the TeachJava! workshop during the week of June 27 - July 1, 2005. The workshop will demonstrate how object-oriented program design in Java can be gently taught to high school students using the DrJava pedagogic programming environment. This year we will use a new version of DrJava that supports a hierarchy of progressively richer language levels (Java subsets) akin to the language levels in the DrScheme programming environment. This version of DrJava has been developed to support a new introductory course sequence (CS1/CS2) taught entirely in Java at Rice University. See the Comp 201 home page.

For more information on DrJava, see our four articles on DrJava and related projects ( SIGCSE 2002, 2003, SIGCSE 2004, SIGCSE 2005) and the DrJava website.

The workshop is free but participants will have to cover their own travel and lodging costs. The instructional staff will include Robert "Corky" Cartwright, Dung Nguyen, Stephen Wong. For information on how to arrange travel, consult the Workshop Information Sheet.

Application

To apply for the workshop, please fill out this form. Applications should be submitted as soon as possible. The available slots will be filled on a "first-come-first-served" basis.

This workshop is partially supported by the National Science Foundation, the Texas Advanced Technology Program, and Sun Microsystems.

Resources