IS THERE A PLACE FOR INFORMATICS IN THE SCHOOL

CURRICULUM?THE BULGARIAN EXPERIENCE

Assoc. Prof. PhD Krassimir ManevFaculty of Mathematics and Informatics,

Sofia University, BULGARIAmanev@fmi.uni-sofia.bg

CONTENT

1. Introduction

2. Informatics and IT

3. Teaching I&IT in Bulgaria

4. My conception

5. Conception of Bulgarian

authorities

6. Conclusion

1. INTRODUCTION – PERSONAL INFO

My first program – National Math School, 1966, the machine language of MINSK-2

Graduated from Sofia University in 1974, diploma work written in Assembly language of MINSK-32

Teaching assistant in Programming since 1976 – FORTRAN, PL/I, Assembly language of IBM-360

Since late 70’s – PDP-11(UNIX, C)

1. INTRODUCTION – PERSONAL INFO

Since 1980 – national competitions in programming

Since 1985 – national Olympiad in Informatics

Since 1989 – IOI, BOI, JBOI, many times Team leader, 10 years member of International Committee of IOI

Since 2000 – coach of Sofia University, 4 World Finals of ICPC of ACM

Now I’m teaching Discrete Mathematics and Algorithms in Sofia University

1. INTRODUCTION – SOME HISTORY

Early (IBM 360) stage Starts in the middle of 70’s of past

century Some of the Mathematical schools –

ES Series (IBM 360 compatible) Fortran (PL/I) Call of standard subprograms

linear programming simplex method, etc. sorting (external, magnetic tapes)

PRAVETZ 82, THE COMPUTER OF FIRST INTERNATIONAL OI

1. INTRODUCTION – SOME HISTORY

Apple stage Starts in 1982-83, all secondary schools Apple II compatible Pravetz 82 BASIC, UCSD Pascal Education in programming – no

curriculum, no textbooks Backtracking, exhaustive search Teaching of some algorithms

PC COMPATABLE PRAVETZ 16

1. INTRODUCTION – SOME HISTORY

PC stage Starts in the beginning of 90’s Expensive PC compatible Pravetz 16

available in some math schools Borland IDE’s for C/C++ and Pascal Real education in programming

moved out of class and even out of schools

1. INTRODUCTION – SOME HISTORY

Changes of 90’s had a destructive effect for education and especially for “new” discipline Informatics

Boom of private software companies Many teachers left the school Quality of teaching gone down Number of PCs in institutions and

companies increased dramatically The term Information technologies

become popular and replaced term Informatics!!!

2. INFORMATICS AND IT

Informatics - the set of scientific disciplines, that investigate the processes of automated (i.e. computer aided ) collecting, storage and processing (incl. transmission) of information (rather data)

Computer architectures Operating systems Programming languages & environments Data Base Management Systems Computer Networks etc. and the mathematical base of all this

disciplines – Discrete mathematics

2. INFORMATICS AND IT

Information technologies (more correct computer aided technologies) - the technological instruments provided by Informatics for solving the tasks of the day: Text processingData visualizationImage processingData storage and retrievalNetwork technology Public communications, etc.

Software technology not to confuse with IT

2. INFORMATICS AND IT The world population is divided into 3

categories : Computer programmers Computer users (mobile devices, TV sets,

etc. considered computers also) People that still not joined to one of the

two mentioned above categories Near the end of 20th century we recognized

2 universal disciplines – mother language and mathematics (philosophy?!?)

Nowadays we have to append a new universal discipline – linked with our abilities to program/use computers in our life

2. INFORMATICS AND IT WHICH IS THE DISCIPLINE?

Are Informatics and Information technologies different disciplines? (see, for example, Language and literature) My answer: Not!

How much I&IT to teach in school? (see, for example, Language and literature) My answer: Universal disciplines have to be learned from the first to the last year!

What to include in the school curriculum and in which proportion? (is, for example, Discrete mathematics part of I&IT) My answer: We have to discuss it!, etc.

3. TEACHING I&IT IN BULGARIA - 1999

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

I(P) 36 72 144

108

I(M) 72

IT(E)

IT(M) 36 36

IT(P) 36 72 144

108

I – INFORMATICS, IT – INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

M- MANDATORY, E – ELECTIVE , P - PROFILED

3. TEACHING I&IT IN BULGARIA - 2006

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

I(P) 36 72 144

108

I(M) 72

IT(E)

IT(M) 36 36 36 36 36 36

IT(P) 36 72 144

108

I – INFORMATICS, IT – INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

M- MANDATORY, E – ELECTIVE , P - PROFILED

3. TEACHING I&IT IN BULGARIA - 2008

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

I(P) 36 72 144

108

I(M) 72

IT(E) 36 36 36 36

IT(M) 36 36 36 36 36 36

IT(P) 36 72 144

108

I – INFORMATICS, IT – INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

M- MANDATORY, E – ELECTIVE , P - PROFILED

3. TEACHING I&IT IN BULGARIA

Many disciplines – I(M) and IT(M) with different curricula in regular and special schools

Student passed IT(E) in 1th-4th are far beyond those starting IT(M) in 5th

Most of the students change the school after 7th but IT(M) continue in 8th but no too much new material for IT(M) 8th

Curriculum of IT(M) in 9th-10th repeats 70-80% of material of IT(M) in 5th-8th

No enough teachers for I(M) 9th

No teaching of DB&IS in IT(M) 10th

And so on, and so on, and so on ….

4. OUR CONCEPTION

Single discipline in mandatory education – first IT and then Informatics and & IT - changed after 7th

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

I(P)

ITorI&IT(M)

7272

72 72 72 72 72108

108 108

IT(P)

4. OUR CONCEPTION

Profiled education in 11th-12th of special Math schools only to prepare the student that will apply in the University – CS, IF, SE or CS

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

I(P) 108 108

ITorI&IT(M)

7272

72 72 72 72 72108

108 108

IT(P) 108 108

4. OUR CONCEPTION

Facultative profiled education in 8th-10th of the special not mathematical schools for student that have interest

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

I(P) I(EP)

ITorI&IT(M)

7272

72 72 72 72 72108

108 108

IT(P) IT(EP)

4. OUR CONCEPTION

Detailed analysis of the 12 years experience Total revision of the existing curricula for:

Deleting doubled topics Including missing topics

Defining of mechanism for regular updating of the curricula

Elective education in IT for 5th-7th is acceptable only if extend the mandatory, not to go forward of it – for example, 10-finger typing

4. OUR CONCEPTION State exam in I&IT – the successful first

attempt was neglected by the Ministry (“only 1 excellent mark out of 60 student”)

Profiled education to be precisely regulated as content – mandatory and elective modules

Profiled education to be precisely regulated as expected result – beside the state exam an professional exam and regulating of a profession programmer with secondary education

Creation of text books for profiled education have to be sponsored by the state – for the small countries it is crucial

4. OUR CONCEPTION Part of our conception is the role of teachers

in I&IT and their treatment from the community: No another discipline with such dynamics!

The teacher in I&IT has to work much more then the other teachers …

No other such domain where the teachers to have an alternative on the job market like the teachers of informatics – the software industry

Salaries of teachers in I&IT – a hard problem for the state and the industry

5.CONCEPTION OF BULGARIAN AUTHORITIES

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

I(P) 36 72 144

108

I(M) 72

IT(E) 36 36 36 36

IT(M) 36 36 36 36 36 36

IT(P) 36 72 144

108

I – INFORMATICS, IT – INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

M- MANDATORY, E – ELECTIVE , P - PROFILED

5.CONCEPTION OF BULGARIAN AUTHORITIES

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

I(P) 36 72 144

108

I(M)

IT(E) 36 36 36 36

IT(M) 36 36 36 36 36 36

IT(P) 36 72 144

108

I – INFORMATICS, IT – INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

M- MANDATORY, E – ELECTIVE , P - PROFILED

6. CONCLUSION The answer of the question of the title: no

place for Informatics in the curriculum of the Bulgarian school

The alternative – out of class preparation Programming contest

Beaver International Olympiads in Informatics Regional Olympiads in Informatics –

Balkan OI, Central-European OI, Baltic OI, South-Pacific OI, OI of America Latina,…

5. CONCLUSION Other Contests

Development of IT Projects Russian contest “КИО“ presented here Scratch Contest

Special announcement: Junior Olympiads in Informatics

JBOI’2007 Belgrade, Serbia JBOI’2008 Shumen, Bulgaria JBOI’2011 Bistrica, Roumania Fall Tournament, Shumen, November!!!

Thank you for your attention!Questions?