Skúsenosť z roku 2020 zrejme definitívne ukončila úvahy o potrebe rozvíjať digitálnu gramotnosť žiakov, učiteľov, a koniec-koncov, aj rodičov. Naďalej ale zostáva aktuálnou otázka, ako a kde sa má u žiakov a (budúcich) učiteľov rozvíjať. Práve táto téma je hybnou silu zmien, ktoré nedávno iniciovali vzdelávacie systémy niektorých rozvinutých krajín. To je však iba jedna – aj keď významná – téma, ktorá našu komunitu musí naliehavo zaujímať. Je najvyšší čas otvorene hovoriť aj o druhom problematickom aspekte informatického vzdelávania (určite nielen u nás). Kam týmto mierim? Každý absolvent našej základnej školy má za sebou šesť rokov povinnej informatiky a každý absolvent strednej školy zameranej na všeobecné vzdelávanie ešte ďalšie tri. Sme spokojní s výsledkom? Na ilustráciu si pomôžem úryvkom z vyjadrenia študenta našej fakulty (kiež by bol iba okrajovým hlasom):

… keď si spomeniem na premrhaný čas na školách, tak ma až zabolí pri srdci. … tie hodiny informatiky, ktoré sme buď strávili pozeraním nejakých videí alebo kreslením si, tak mi je až zle. A zakaždým znova a znova od začiatku. Nemôžem povedať, že som sa za celú základku v informatike niekam posunul, absolútne nie.

Tento stav vnímam ako križovatku, na ktorej stojíme. V mojom vystúpení by som rád otvorene pomenoval a analyzoval súčasný stav a vyzval na diskusiu o tom, ako ďalej. Chcem veriť, že sa nám podarí nájsť únik z tohto začarovaného kruhového objazdu, zo stratenej zóny neefektívnosti a večných začiatkov.

Significant advancements in e-learning have been achieved by use of the Web 2.0 technologies. These technologies converted a passive learner into an active participant in the learning process. Also, the classroom has been transformed in terms of how it is not only socially but collaboratively constructed by using wikis, blogs, and other social web tools. Such collaborative way of learning where communication is multi-directional, and knowledge may be socially constructed is challenging methodological aspect.

In our presentation we will report our long-lasting experience regarding the implementation of Web 2.0 concept in several Software Engineering courses delivered at Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad. In particular, this is emphasized in encouragement of students’ teamwork, through usage of Wiki technology. Special attention is paid to workload, students’ feedback and to observed benefits and potential disadvantages.

Additionally, as nowadays the term E-Learning 3.0 is getting more and more popular we will briefly consider possibilities that numerous concepts of Web 3.0 offer to support future educational processes.

New trends toward the digitization of society focus on the widespread adoption of the Internet of Things and the Industrial Internet of Things. Everywhere there are intelligent sensor-based devices that process data with or without human help. The Internet of Things consists of a multi-layered system having hardware components that transfer data through the Internet. The data are analyzed and transformed using analytical tools or machine learning algorithms.

We will discuss the architecture of the Internet of Things based on the cloud, the connection with industry and education, and examples of successful implementations. We will analyze the integration of cloud services into the architecture of an IoT. Whilst IoT networks use a gateway to gather data and communicate with the cloud, the cloud performs computation and data storage, real-time analytics, machine learning and visualization. We will also present the concepts and technologies involved in Cloud Computing. In this context, it is worth considering the question of whether an IoT system without cloud components can be reliable.

Some challenges of including IoT and Cloud Computing topics in the Curricula will also be presented. Our discussion will focus on a target group of online courses on IoT and Cloud Computing from universities in the USA and Google company and will consider some existing courses in the European universities. We will follow and discuss the guidelines of some reference papers from the ACM and IEEE databases.

Main goal of informatics at school is to teach how to think – to solve problems by using different ways: with a computer as well as without a computer. Thinking computationally draws on the concepts that are fundamental to computer science, and involves systematically and efficiently processing information held in the tasks. Computational thinking involves defining, understanding, and solving problems, reasoning at multiple levels of abstraction, understanding and applying automation, and analysing the appropriateness of the abstractions.

There are many ways for selecting tasks to be solved by pupils in the classroom. For primary education two types of problem solving are usually declared: (1) hands-on tasks that take more time and cover several topics, and (2) everyday exercises, that are very common in mathematics and grammar lessons. We suggest a third type of problems, the short tasks (as “mind-size bites” according to S. Papert) with double folded aim: to cover informatics concepts and to be solvable in few minutes.

Solving short informatics tasks is a powerful method that can support a pedagogical shift in the classroom and foster pupils’ engagement and motivation to learn. Problem solving of short tasks can be considered as a systematic process involving pupils into deeper understanding of informatics concepts. Solving short tasks can be one of the strategies that engage and motivates pupils for deeper learning and fosters the deeper thinking skills.

The worldwide Bebras challenge on Informatics and CT is discussed as an example of connecting formal and non-formal informatics education by using thousands of short tasks based on informatics concepts and applying problem solving strategies. The Bebras activities is aimed to promote pupils’ interest in informatics at the early stage of the school education and to motivate pupils to learn deep and master better technology.