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This paper presents an approach to teaching Computer Ethics that blends the use of contemporary media, subscriptions to digests of current technology news, and reflective writing in a learnercentered strategy. This approach is designed to make use of activities and assignments that take advantage of (1) student interest in contemporary media (video and film) to provide motivation and context beyond historical case studies, (2) breaking news about technology and technology use in education to provide current real world context, and (3) reflective writing to stimulate thinking critically about the course content outside the classroom context. Digests published three times weekly provide a constant flow of current real-world issues that can be used for focused reflective writing. Contemporary media productions are viewed and then a writing assignment in a structured learning log is used to focus on ethical issues raised by the film. We present an example using a feature length film and subsequent learning log assignment.

The computing research methods (CRM) literature is scattered across discourse communities and published in specialty journals and conference proceedings. This dispersion has led to the use of inconsistent terminology when referring to CRM. With no established CRM vocabulary and isolated

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This paper presents an empirical study of the relative effectiveness of two teaching methods used in CS1 classrooms. While the teaching methods are nothing new, the results of the study are an important contribution to the body of computer science education literature. The research design should also be of interest in that it demonstrates how statistical significance can be achieved with a relatively small sample by using the naturally occurring groups that we have as course sections.The teaching methods studied here were having students write programming assignments from scratch versus having them add to or modify existing well-written, welldocumented programs. The results are perhaps not surprising. After controlling for certain factors, the statistical analysis showed that students who added to program templates as programming assignments scored better on the comprehensive examination and had higher overall course averages than their counter parts who wrote programs from scratch. This idea is firmly based in cognitive psychology and teachers of language use a similar method extensively. Reading increases vocabulary, aids in concept retention, and improves writing skill.