Report on the SIIE 2005 Conference
As every year, it was again the moment to visit the SIIE 2005 Conference. This is an international conference about Computers and Education which is held yearly alternating locations in Portugal and Spain. This year we all went to Portugal, and the conference was held in the beautiful Leiria.
Just like last year’s edition, the highlights were the friendliness of the organization committee and the domestic (yet exotic) feeling imbued by the fact that half of the presentations are in Portuguese and the other half in Spanish (note for foreigners: Spanish and Portuguese people can understand each other more or less provided we speak slowly).
The contributions had a good overall level (with a low acceptance ratio) and covered a variety of fields. About having fun while learning, there were a few contributions worth mentioning.
Guillermo Jiménez Díaz, Mercedes Gómez Albarrán and some other fellows from my own Complutense University of Madrid presented the paper “Visualización y Role-play en la Enseñanza de la Programación Orientada a Objetos” (Visualization and Role-play for teaching Object Oriented Programming). Role-play is a teaching/design method often used in Object Oriented Programming, where different people play the roles of different objects and simulate the passing of messages and control flow using a ball that is passed from person to person. The paper presented a 3D environment that simulates this activity. There is more information on the project’s website.
Filipa Filipe, Miriam Aguiar and some others presented the paper entitled “e-COPOS: Utilização de um jogo 3D como ferramenta de aprendizagem em e-Learning” (e-COPOS: Use of a 3D game as an e-learning tool). They have developed a beautiful and well-polished game about the relationship between alcohol and driving.
Finally, I wouldn’t want to end this report without commenting the friendliness of the organization committee with a special mention for Isabel Pereira, who acted as our host and struggled to make us happy during our stay in Leiria. Thank you!
