17/10/2017 – Talk by Giuseppe Maggiore

Title: GrandeOmega, a smart e-learning platform
Time: 14:00
Location: Meeting room, Ed. Zeta
Type: Research Result
Speaker: Giuseppe Maggiore
Abstract: Teaching programming and mathematics presents a challenge: learning such disciplines requires, at the same time, a heavy does of both theory and practice. Theory provides the overview, the rules, and the fundamental way the discipline is set up. Practice offers context and motivation for the theory, and its repetition breeds familiarity and deeper understanding.

Moreover, while teachers strive towards sharing the beauty and elegance of abstract concepts, students often wish to learn “useful” concepts that have a real-world application, and to experiment with it. Unfortunately, this becomes a chicken-and-egg problem: too much practice overshadows proper learning of the underlying theory, and too much theory demotivates students.

In this talk, we present GrandeOmega, a tool that facilitates the teaching of the formal application of programming languages and similar formalisms in an active, engaging, practical way.