Making Computer Science fun for teachers and learners in Western Cape High Schools

Prof Derek W. KeatsDeputy Vice Chancellor
(Knowledge & Information Management)
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
http://kim.wits.ac.zaderek.keats@wits.ac.za

The University of
the Western Cape

Context is important

South AfricaWestern CapeUniv Western CapePoverty is a
majority
phenomenon

http://scns.uwc.ac.za

a free instant messaging software application developed in South Africa that runs on GPRS/3G mobile phones with java support

widely popular among youth

Highly available due to high
cellphone use among young
people

XMPP based

Drug
Advice
Services

Chisimba

MXit

Google Talk

Service: 3-5pm daily, expanded to
3-7 pm due to demand

Project

A proof of concept with 1-3 schools that are part of the SCNS project to participate in an online CS4Fun competition as a means to develop interest in computer science among high school learners

Components

CS4Fn type magazine articles on the siteAuthored by CS students at UWC

Problem solving puzzlesSolvable using cell phone (MXIT)

Develop an AI bot using AIML editorBuilt on Chisimba, MXIT, Google Talk

Talk via cell phone (MXIT)

Create a bot editor (AIML editor) for the learners to use to create their bot

Example

Your own intelligent bot

Study the basics of AIML

Create an AIML file and load it into the bot via a web interface

Chat with the bot via a web interface and improve on it by iteratively changing the AIML

Chat to the bot using MXit

Attribution file: http://www.dkeats.com/usrfiles/users/
1563080430/attribution/attrib.txt