Introduction to Computing and Programming with Java: A Multimedia Approach [Paperback]

Mark J. Guzdial (Author), Barbara Ericson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0131496980 | ISBN-13: 978-0131496989 | Edition: 1ST

Mark Guzdial and Barb Ericson have a most effective method for teaching computing and Java programming in a context that readers find interesting: manipulating digital media. Readers get started right away by learning how to write programs that create interesting effects with sounds, pictures, web pages, and video.  The authors use these multimedia applications to teach critical programming skills and principles like how to design and use algorithms, and practical software engineering methods–all in the context of learning how to program in Java. Mark and Barb also demonstrate how to communicate compatibly through networks and do concurrent programming. The book also includes optional coverage of rudimentary data structures and databases using Java and comes with a CD-ROM containing all the code files referenced in the text and required for media manipulation. Allows readers to use their own media, such as personal sound or picture files. Demonstrates how to manipulate media in useful ways, from reducing red eye and splicing sounds to generating digital video special effects. The book also includes optional coverage of rudimentary data structures and databases using Java and comes with a CD-ROM containing all the code files referenced in the text and required for media manipulation. For beginners interested in learning more about basic multimedia computing and programming.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

New computer science students are far more motivated when they are creating programs they care about. Reflecting that insight, this complete first course in Java introduces each new concept in the context of programs that manipulate students’own sounds, pictures, web pages, and video: programs that help them communicate.

 

Mark Guzdial and Barbara Ericson draw on their innovative work at Georgia Tech, work that has significantly improved student success, and earned the recognition of the National Science Foundation. This book presents new techniques only after demonstrating why students need them to solve meaningful problems. Students can then run their digital media programs get immediate feedback that helps them stay on the right track.

 

Open-ended assignments are designed to motivate, promote creativity, and encourage collaboration and friendly competition, using the simple, intuitive, lightweight DrJava development environment. At the same time, students learn to create robust, efficient Java code for any IDE or platform. 

 

Skills include:

• fundamentals of object development 
• loops, arrays, and matrices 
• drawing with Java’s Graphics and Graphics2D classes
• generating HTML databases and using basic SQL queries 
• understanding and modifying algorithms 
• program performance and reliability

 

A dual-platform CD-ROM (for Macintosh^® and Windows^®) includes raw media materials and programming source code for the book’s exercises and all necessary software, including Sun Microsystems’ Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition and more.

About the Author

Barbara Ericson is a research scientist and the Director of Computing Outreach for the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. She has been working on improving introductory computing education for over 5 years. She enjoys the diversity of the types of problems she has worked on over the years in computing including computer graphics, artificial intelligence, medicine, and object-oriented programming.

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Mark Guzdial is a Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. ¿An award-winning teacher and active researcher in computing education, he holds a joint Ph.D. In Education and Computer Science from the University of Michigan. Dr. Guzdial directs Project “Georgia Computes!” which is an NSF funded alliance to improve computing education from pre-teen years to undergraduates. ¿He is a member of the ACM Education Board and is a frequent contributor to the ACM SIGCSE (Computer Science Education) Symposium.

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Barbara Ericson and Mark Guzdial are recipients of the 2010 Karl V. Karlstom Outstanding Educator Award for their contributions to broadening participation in computing. They created the Media Computation (MediaComp) approach, which motivates students to write programs that manipulate and create digital media, such as pictures, sounds, and videos.¿Now in use in nearly 200 schools around the world, this contextualized approach to introductory Computer Science attracts students not motivated by classical algorithmic problems addressed in traditional computer science education.¿They also lead “Georgia Computes!” an NSF-funded statewide alliance to increase the number and diversity of students in computing education across all of Georgia.¿ Barbara Ericson directs the Institute for Computing Education at Georgia Tech. Mark Guzdial is director of the Contextualized Support for Learning at Georgia Tech.¿ Together they have written three textbooks using the MediaComp approach to engage and inspire student learning in computing.¿The Karlstrom Award recognizes educators who advanced new teaching methodologies; effected new curriculum development in Computer Science and Engineering; or contributed to ACM’s educational mission.

Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1ST edition (April 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131496980
• ISBN-13: 978-0131496989
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #459,888 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I started teaching computing in February 1980. I was 17 in my senior year of high school, and I taught "Bits, Bytes, and Basic" in a community education class. I taught through my undergrad years--community education, afterschool classes, GED classes, and even community college in 1984. I read "Personal Dynamic Media" by Adele Goldberg and Alan Kay while on an internship at Bell Labs in 1982. I'd never before thought about computing FOR learning (as opposed to learning ABOUT computing). Adele and Alan's thoughts and words set me on the road to my PhD in Education and Computer Science at the University of Michigan in 1993. Nowadays, I focus on using lessons from learning sciences and educational technology for teaching about computing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This Book Does NOT MAKE ANY SENSE!, November 8, 2010

By 

CS_Student - See all my reviews

This review is from: Introduction to Computing and Programming with Java: A Multimedia Approach (Paperback)

Hi,

This book does not make any sense to me. I have learned C++ and I don't See how this book helps with teaching JAVA. It's being used at my university and Simply half of the CLASS DROPPED THE COURSE BECAUSE IT DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE!.. This book is rough and so confusing to me. I am stuck on a few methods that my professor had assigned me to make. It really makes no sense to me what so ever. The notes in class is the READING IN THE BOOK. Really does not work for me. this book is a complete fail for me.

SRY BUT ITS THE TRUTH.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes introductory computing interesting, August 17, 2006

By 

calvinnme - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Introduction to Computing and Programming with Java: A Multimedia Approach (Paperback)

This is the first of the books I've read that tries to teach computer science via Java to programming novices that I think actually does a good job. It is intended to introduce computing, including programming, to students with no prior programming experience.

This book is full of interesting projects and programs such as splicing words into sentences, reversing sounds to make interesting effects, removing red eye from images, and writing programs to generate web pages from data in databases. There are also lessons and projects that create animations and movies using special effects similar to those found in the movies. This book is not just about programming to manipulate media. Media manipulation programs are hard to write, and can behave in unexpected ways. Thus, answering questions about speed, writing for testability, and other issues of program efficiency and software engineering are handled in the last two chapters of the book.

When dealing with media, apparently the authors did a very good thing and did not have the student attempt to work with Sun's tragically abandoned Java Media Framework, which malfunctions to such a degree that it would discourage even an experienced programmer. Instead the author uses something called "MediaTools", which is in much better shape and is included on the CD along with the development environment, DrJava. With both the development and media-handling utilities already handled for the new programmer, he/she can concentrate on what is important - which is how to accomplish interesting tasks in Java while learning the basics of computer programming. I highly recommend this as a textbook for any introductory programming class. The reader won't be an expert Java programmer by the time they finish the book, but he/she will understand the basics of Java programming and know what questions need to be answered when embarking on the writing of a computer program in any language. The table of contents is as follows:

1 Introduction to Computer Science and Media Computation

2 Introduction to Java

3 Introduction to Programming

4 Modifying Pictures using Loops

5 Modifying Pixels in a Matrix

6 Conditionally Modifying Pixels

7 Drawing

8 Modifying all Samples in a Sound

9 Modifying Samples using Ranges

10 Combining and Creating Sounds

11 Creating Classes

12 Creating and Modifying Text

13 Making Text for the Web

14 Encoding, Manipulating, and Creating Movies

15 Speed

16 JavaScript

APPENDICES

A Quick Reference to Java

A.1 Variables

A.2 Method Declarations

A.3 Loops

A.4 Conditionals

A.5 Operators

A.6 String escapes

A.7 Classes

A.8 Fields

A.9 Constructors

A.10 Packages

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pictures and Dr Java are a powerful combination, May 12, 2007

By 

D. W. Smith (Sierra foothills, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Introduction to Computing and Programming with Java: A Multimedia Approach (Paperback)

I used this book to teach a college-level course in Java Programming this year. 70% of the students had taken a 'CS1' level course in Java, and I didn't want to bore them with the same examples. At the same time, the students new to Java needed to get over the syntax and OO hurdles.

The author introduces DrJava early in the book (chapter 2), and provides a set of simple classes that students extend by adding their own methods. The use of Turtle graphics (Turtle class) really helped students 'see' what was happening, and the Picture class allowed them to view and manipulate graphic images as well as learn about arrays.

The Picture class is used extensively, which allowed students to build their own set of methods to manipulate pictures, and use them in a big project to build a collage. Pictures provide a way to get interesting data into a program without reverting to using random() or keyboard input. DrJava allowed students to write their new methods in the 'Definitions' pane, and then test them using the 'Interactions' pane.

Integrating web pages using the URL class as the basis for File I/O is also a great idea. It connects programming to 'real' pages that the students can see in their browser.

The only concerns I have about teaching Java using this book are:

1) Strings are covered quite late and not very deeply (chapter 12)

2) No Swing GUI coverage (students want to write GUIs)

3) Late coverage of 'main' method (p. 366)

-- Students became somewhat dependent on DrJava's interactions pane to test their apps

4) Dependency of book classes for Picture handling

-- Students had to use the getBufferedImage method to display pics on a swing container

I was able to supplement with other GUI material to help students over some of these instead of covering sounds chapters.

Overall, the students did very well. Two-thirds of the students new to Java were able to follow and did very well. All of the students with previous Java experience did well. A few students that had struggled to pass the 'CS1' course showed significant improvement in the ability to complete complex projects.