First you have to specify the area of research, whether primary, secondary or higher education. One area which is very burning nowadays is the use of computer in teaching large class rooms because it can reach to a large number with interest and motivation. Besides, the use of computer in distance education and its effectiveness can also help in research area.

Thank you very much. I am thinking of doing a research in a higher ed.

OK, then specify what do you think what is "Computer education"? Do you mean "usage of computer in education", or "Computer science education for (non)professionals" ... or?

usage of computers among Teacher Education students.

Since the topic of your research is higher education I can present our latest advancement - please look at the http://fmd-site.aecp.am/

Good luck,

Prof. M. Shahsuvaryan

I am currently working in two-three separate directions. The first is “Different Roles of Agents in Personalized Programming Learning Environment”, and the second is “Pedagogical Patterns for Learning Programming by Mistakes”. We try to investigate various techniques to help learners to improve learning effects using e-learning systems. We propose an e-learning architecture with a recommendation module consisting of several different kinds of pedagogical agents which actively participate in learning processes, provoking learners and motivating them to learn more effectively. For the purpose of our research we distinguish two groups of agents. The first group consists of pedagogical agents with diverse functionalities and potential. The second group includes harvesting agents employed in educational environments with the main goal of collecting different learning resources. Initial ideas are how to incorporate different kinds of agents: Harvesting, Provoking, and Zestful, etc.

Both Zestful and Provoking agents have the same goal – to increase the learner’s quality of learning - but approach to this task differently. The Zestful agent offers hints that, in the usual methodology of teaching programming languages, represent useful directions for problem solving as propositions of appropriate solutions to the given problem. The Provoking agent, on the other hand, tries to steer the process of learning and problem solving in a bad direction by offering wrong parts of the code. That is, it offers false hints and suggests bad solutions to the given problem. The basic rationale behind this approach is to encourage learners not to follow the tutor’s instructions blindly, but rather to employ critical thinking and, in the end, they them-selves decide on the proper solution to the problem.

Also, you could provide some home works for the students. For example, you finished classes about word processing in some course for computing literacy. After some time, give to the students your CV generating by ResearchGate (for example), and ask them “How many times does my name appear in that document?”

Or, novice students make mistakes in programming, design, and particularly in problem solving. And they are aware of that. Students “believe” that teacher is a person who always tells the truth, so they accept the facts and solutions without checking them. Moreover, the students take and accept some facts without checking the source of them, from Internet for example. Students often don't know how to interpret the error messages, or what to do to solve problems that are diagnosed. Debugging and Testing are an essential skill, whether done with a sophisticated debugger, or just by comparing actual outputs or results with expectations, as well as to have the whole picture of the problem and test properly the given solution from teacher. For example, the pattern was used in Basic of Computer Literacy course for non-professionals (like students with major in Geography) at the University of Novi Sad. Topic on data types and potential problems with them (such as division by zero for numbers, for example) was taught at the beginning of the course. After a while, branching and control structures were done, and their usage in solving some problems is presented. The students together with lecturer solve some problem using these branching and control structures. The lecturer conducted the output. But, the “hidden” special case is not seen by students, i.e. for the particular data entry the program could crushed. They miss to observe the case which leads in dividing by zero. This case lecturer "wisely" ignore in the analysis of the task. Next class, students still did not notice the mistake, and lecturer admitted his “sin”, and explains the reason and consequences of mistake. Couple weeks later, students get the assignment very similar to previously, but in some other context. They all do the assignment without a single mistake.

I want to say, you have to provoke with the right questions/tasks, to determine how students have progressed and understand what you are teaches.

At the end, do not forget good old methods in teaching, like use of some physical device, such as a toy, that has some of the characteristics of the concept being taught (see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234037026_Pedagogical_Patterns_For_Learning_Programming_By_Mistakes_(Presentation)?ev=prf_pub, page 19-21), together with some ICT simulation and chalk / board explanations.

I do not know is these fields really "newest trend", but...

Data Pedagogical Patterns For Learning Programming By Mistakes (P...