SJC Faculty Publish Technology Textbook

July 30, 2014

PATCHOGUE, N.Y. – JULY 30, 2014 – St. Joseph’s College (SJC) is pleased to announce that two Long Island Campus faculty members, William McAllister and S. Jane Fritz, recently published a textbook, Programming Fundamentals Using Java: A Game Application Approach (Mercury Learning and Information, 978-1-938549-76-2, $89.95, August 2014). 

“Because of this book's new pedagogical approach, student smiles have replaced frowns, enthusiasm has replaced complacency and ‘teach us this’ has replaced ‘do we have to know that?’” said William McAllister, professor of mathematics and computer science at SJC. “Our classrooms have been transformed from a lecture-based venue to a highly engaged interactive learning environment.”

The textbook is intended for use in introductory programming courses, in which students have no prior programming experience, or for use in an advanced programming course. The co-authors use game programming as a tool to increase student engagement, learning outcomes and retention. However, this approach does not compromise the amount of material taught in a basic programming course or hinder the instruction of a professor who is not familiar with game programming. The textbook can be used in college- and high school-level programming courses, and to teach those whose majors are within and outside of the computing fields. 

The first edition of the textbook will be in limited distribution beginning August 2014. The second edition will be available for purchase in December 2014 with no limit on distribution.

For more information on technology courses at SJC, call 631.687.4500.