Software Seminar Helps Area Educators

by Tracie Sweeney

"Building a Web Application" isn't the only computer science course in which students work for the public good. Since 1990, students in Roger Blumberg's "Educational Software Seminar" (CS92/ED89) have collaborated with teachers in Rhode Island public and private schools to create custom software for use in their classrooms.

Although the course is offered during the spring semester, preparations begin in the fall when Blumberg solicits requests for proposals from teachers. (The deadline for proposals this year was January 15.) Students in Blumberg's course review the ideas, select the ones of greatest interest, and divide themselves into project teams. Throughout the semester, the teams work closely with the teachers, their pupils, and others to design and develop software that entertains as well as educates.

Last May, Blumberg's students demonstrated three interactive software programs developed during the spring semester. One is a vocabulary game called Word Expander, created for kindergarten teacher Ellen Lynch at the Vartan Gregorian Elementary School in Fox Point. This game uses Lynch's idea of "word families" to teach and reinforce spelling and word recognition. Bridges Through Time was created for Betsy Hunt, a third-grade teacher at the Lincoln School in Providence. She sought an interactive program she could use to enhance the unit she teaches on the history of bridge design and construction. Real Reading for Real Readers is a comprehension program developed for Martin Carruso, who uses it to prepare his eighth-graders at the Nathan Bishop Middle School for Rhode Island English Standards tests.

As is his custom, Blumberg places the software his students created online after the end of the semester. Anyone with a connection to the Internet may review the projects and download the software.