Introduction to Computing and Programming with Java: A Multimedia Approach

by Mercedes Guijarro-Crouch, Barbara Ericson

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780131496989
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	04/07/2006
Series:	GOAL Series
Edition description:	BK&CD-ROM
Pages:	592
Product dimensions:	291.34(w) x 358.27(h) x 43.31(d)

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.

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.

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.

Table of Contents

Preface iv

Contents xi

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