Pavel Boytchev

Pavel Boytchev
Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" · Department of Information Technologies

PhD

About

82
Publications
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329
Citations

Publications

Publications (82)
Chapter
This paper presents the design and development of a visual pandemic simulator, which is still a work in progress. The goal is two-fold: to make a simulator capable of demonstrating various pandemic and social situations including the current COVID-19 outbreak; and to serve as a platform for activities for graduate and undergraduate education. The p...
Conference Paper
Gamification is the processes of introducing game-specific elements into a non-game context. It allows the application of the Game-based Learning approach in traditional educational contexts. This paper presents our efforts in gamification of students’ evaluation. The learning environment Meiro, used for demonstration and exploration in the domain...
Article
Full-text available
The process of converting non-game educational content and processes into game-like educational content and processes is called gamification. This article describes a gamified evaluation software for university students in Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) courses, based on competence profiles of students and proble...
Chapter
The process of converting non-game educational content and processes into game-like educational content and processes is called gamification. This paper describes issues regarding gamification of students’ evaluation in STEAM. The characteristics of such gamification pose unique requirements for the learning tools, which cannot be handled by genera...
Conference Paper
This paper proposes an application model of the "Flipped classroom" approach in the undergraduate course "Inclusive Education". The course is for students from the Bachelor's programme "Mathematics and Informatics" of the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Sofia University, who are trained for teachers of mathematics, informatics and informa...
Conference Paper
This paper discusses the role of open educational resources (OER) in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning. Usually the media used in OER are video lessons, presentations, some open textbooks, etc. But how does this paradigm apply to interactive learning environments? Can users have permissions to engage in the 5R activit...
Book
Full-text available
The monograph presents the results of over 20 years of work in three domains – the creation of educational software, the creation of university disciplines and the creation of educational content. The software provides a learning environment for the disciplines, for self-learning and for generating new educational content. At the same time, the dis...
Article
Deconstructionism in education is a powerful approach, which is still insufficiently researched. Griffin’s presentation of the pedagogical aspect of deconstructionism is a success story, which may inspire others. Having experienced some of the issues, in this commentary I also provide examples from my own practice.
Article
Teaching computing concepts and computational thinking via short tasks could be considered as an implementation of a minimalism movement in education. Minimalism in this context does not mean less educational or less creative. This commentary will attempt to provide additional insights of minimalism in the form of cards with short tasks, supported...
Article
Supporting the inborn curiosity of children is the motivation for our involvement in developing novel curricula, textbooks and microworlds. Our main goal of implementing the constructionism as a fundamental educational strategy is to keep the students “as question marks,” i.e., to encourage them to pose questions, to make experiments, to invent the...
Conference Paper
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This paper presents the evaluation in and the assessment of four university courses in which new technologies are widely used. Different factors of the evaluation are analyzed, along with their positive and negative aspects for both students and educators. It is investigated how the assessment of this evaluation is used to improve the courses thems...
Article
This paper presents the design and the development of two metadata editors for the RAGE project. The work is based on two conceptually different approaches. One of the editors follows a data-centric approach, while the other follows a user-centric one. Discussed are the design challenges, the internal structure and a comparison of both metadata edi...
Conference Paper
The authors represent three generations of informatics educators who profess the Logo educational philosophy, promoting the programming as a means for active learning, formulating of materialized hypotheses and creative self-expression.
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents the architecture of the RAGE repository, which is a unique and dedicated infrastructure that provides access to a wide variety of advanced technology components for applied game development. The RAGE project, which is the principal Horizon2020 research and innovation project on applied gaming, develops up to three dozens of soft...
Article
This paper presents the long-term impact factor which a singleperson may have on a researcher. This is a description of the author’sresearch topics and the creation of educational software, which were eitherdirectly or indirectly affected by Prof. Edward Friedman.ACM Computing Classification System (1998): A.0, D.2.6, I.3.4, I.6.8, J.2, J.6, K.3.1.
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This paper describes the structural architecture of the RAGE repository, which is a unique and dedicated infrastructure that provides access to a wide variety of advanced technologies (RAGE software assets) for applied game development. These software assets are reusable across a wide diversity of game engines, game platforms and programming langua...
Article
Video games proved to be an attractive media for presenting cultural heritage issues. They can use virtual worlds to present cultural and historic information in amazing and highly appealing way. Each video game is implemented using set of valuable artifacts (components) reflecting technological, socioeconomic and historical issues. These software...
Conference Paper
Software assets are key output of the RAGE project and they can be used by applied game developers to enhance the pedagogical and educational value of their games. These software assets cover a broad spectrum of functionalities – from player analytics including emotion detection to intelligent adaptation and social gamification. In order to facilit...
Article
Full-text available
This deliverable (D1.4) is an intermediate document, expressly included to inform the first project review about RAGE’s methodology of software asset creation and management. The final version of the methodology description (D1.1) will be delivered in Month 29. The document explains how the RAGE project defines, develops, distributes and maintains...
Article
I describe my perception of deconstruction, including the controversial point of view that deconstruc-tion is actually construction. I also provide more details about the some of the design decisions in the software, and how these affected the students' experience.
Article
There is a movement to change education so that it is adequate to social expectations and uses the full potential of technology. However, there has been no significant breakthrough in this area and there is no clear evidence why. > Problem: A potential issue explaining why education falls behind is the way educators focus on education. There is a p...
Article
Full-text available
The weSPOT project aims at propagating scientific inquiry as the approach for science learning and teaching in combination with today’s curricula and teaching practices The project focuses on inquiry-based learning with a theoretically sound and technology supported personal inquiry approach and it contains three main development aspects: (a) defin...
Article
Full-text available
This paper discusses a pilot case held in First Private Mathematical School, Sofia, Bulgaria that explores the Inquiry Based Learning through a specially developed virtual classroom. The paper describes the motivation for using Inquiry Based Learning and how it will be gradually implemented through several pilot experiments. It reveals the design a...
Article
Full-text available
weSPOT is a new European initiative proposing a novel approach for personal and social inquiry-based learning in secondary and higher education. weSPOT aims at enabling students to create their mash-ups out of cloud-based tools and services in order to perform scientific investigations. Students will also be able to share their inquiry accomplishme...
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents an approach of embedding μLearning concepts into educational content. Two general domains of content are discussed: interactive virtual μWorlds and short μAds. The μWorlds are small standalone 3D environments, which students can use to learn and experiment with basic topics from Stereometry. The μAds are short animations express...
Chapter
Digital visualization is a relatively new concept compared to other concepts known for centuries. This paper presents an attempt to convert the mathematical concept of conic sections into several software applications designed and implemented by the author. These applications utilize virtual reality and their goal is to represent the basic properti...
Article
Full-text available
In this paper, we discuss some ideas and tools for Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) capable of spanning over and integrating a multiplicity of subject fields. Multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and pandisciplinary educational content, its presentation in different forms, as well as methods and technologies for its integration in TEL are consid...
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents the role of contemporary digital libraries with educational resources in Europe. The importance of enriching digital resources with complete, descriptive and accurate metadata is discussed as well as how these metadata are supported within an European project – Share.TEC. The paper presents the results of a workshop with members...
Conference Paper
This paper describes one unplanned experiment of a 6th grade student writing her first computer program for 3D graphics before learning any programming language. Some intriguing aspects in her program are analyzed, especially the emerging understanding of key concepts like enumeration, naming conventions of variables and symmetry in 3D space. The p...
Conference Paper
The paper presents a digital repository of metadata resources for teachers education, as well as a portal for the community of practices, build around the repository. Both the repository and the community are developed in the frame of the European project Share.TEC. Some approaches for endowing digital libraries with adaptability capabilities in or...
Chapter
Storytelling is a core element of the design of Serious Games. Traditionally it is implemented by chaining narrative blocks. This paper presents a proposal for a new approach – stories are built via removal of blocks. The internal structure is briefly discussed along with the main advantage of using this approach – the possibility to shape a story...
Conference Paper
This paper discusses the role of the contemporary European digital libraries in teachers education. It presents a digital repository of metadata resources for teachers education, as well as a portal for the community of practices, build around the repository. Both the repository and the community are developed in the frame of the European project S...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This paper presents the role of contemporary digital libraries with educational resources in Europe. The importance of enriching digital resources with complete, descriptive and accurate metadata is discussed as well as how these metadata are supported within an European project – Share.TEC. The paper presents the results of a workshop with members...
Article
Full-text available
The EC funded Share.TEC project aims to provide culturally aware access to resources across Europe related to Teacher Education. The semantic core of the system is the Teacher Education Ontology (TEO), which not only supports the multilingual interface but also underpins fundamental functionalities like searching and browsing. This paper describes...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This paper deals with some approaches for providing adaptability for end users when working with digital libraries. The paper is focused on several techniques and methods for achieving adaptability in general, and provides specific examples and guidelines for their implementation related to the user interface of digital libraries.
Article
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This paper presents a general overview of possible approaches for implementing recommender systems and describes a specific implementation in the context of the Share.TEC project, which aims to foster the sharing of digital resources in the Teacher Education field. An outline of the main functionalities is given, together with a brief technical des...
Article
Full-text available
The application of modern technologies in education does not necessarily lead to positive results. An important factor is how these technologies are used. This paper describes some ideas about using technology to enhance Technology Enhanced Learning itself. Three different but complementing approaches are discussed in the paper: building interactiv...
Article
Full-text available
The article deals with some myths about teachers' role in a technology enhanced learning process. The spectrum of myths under discussion ranges from complete rejection of ICT to their overidealization. We have come across these myths in the context of teacher education both in national and international setting. The paper is focusing on several in-...
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents the Share.TEC system architecture and the first system prototype. This description stresses on the main system components and underlying technologies, standards and protocols. The main system functionalities are following logically from the main use cases and user requirements. The system design allows a tight integration betwee...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The paper presents the authors’ experience in stimulating the synergy of disciplines via active learning methods; the emphasis being on project based learning. Promoting this method is demonstrated in the context of teachers’ training courses and developing a set of IT textbooks. Numerous examples are presented showing that the synergy of various d...
Conference Paper
В статията се обсъждат няколко широко разпространени митове за ролята на учителя в контекста на информационните технологии (ИТ). Привеждат се аргументи, опровергаващи тези митове въз основа на опита на авторите от работата им с бъдещи и действащи учители. Коментира се как интерактивните методи, проектно-ориентираният подход, работата в екип, новите...
Article
Full-text available
When teaching Geographical Information Systems (GIS) it is important to explain the theoretical elements, but it is also necessary to illustrate the basic functions with examples. To help students it is advisable to separate the teaching of fundamentals from the practical application of complex GIS software. A simple programming language like Logo...
Article
Full-text available
Teacher Education (TE) is a dynamic, lifelong process that needs to fully embrace innovation and assume a broader European perspective. The EC-funded Share.TEC project aims to provide enhanced, culturally-aware access to TE-related resources across Europe by means of a federated resource brokerage system whose semantic core is the proposed Teacher...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Ontologies provide a structured knowledge representation scheme capable of supporting and informing a knowledge base system. This paper describes the rationale for an ontology-driven approach adopeted in a specific domain (i.e. Teacher Education, TE) and used to describe and share TE-related digital resources across Europe. It also gives an overvie...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Teacher Education (TE) is a dynamic, lifelong process that needs to fully embrace innovation and assume a broader European perspective. The EC-funded Share.TEC project aims to provide enhanced, culturally-aware access to TE-related resources across Europe by means of a federated resource brokerage system whose semantic core is the proposed Teacher...
Article
Full-text available
Ab stract: The paper deals with effective ways of overcoming the most typical challenges the ICT teachers are confronted with. Based on their experience the authors claim that appropriately designed methodology, textbooks and computer environments could stimulate the learners (teachers and students alike) to embrace and enhance ideas so as to bette...
Article
Full-text available
The PRIME (Providing Real Integration in Multi-disciplinary Environments) project 1 aims in modeling, creating and evaluation of a Virtual Business Environment (VBE) for learning the entire life cycle of products and processes for all involved stakeholders and for gaining practical experience in strategic manufacturing through serious gaming. The p...
Article
Full-text available
Two years ago the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Sofia University makes a decision to design a new series of Logo-based courses which make use of the modern technology. The pedagogical component of the challenge is to design a multidisciplinary course suitable for students with different skills and interests. From a development perspecti...
Article
Full-text available
How do we teach children to express and communicate ideas in a formal and informal mode? What type of language do they need in a concrete context? How should they determine a proper level of formalization of their descriptions? In an attempt to explore these issues we carried out a pilot experiment in the frames of the DALEST European project whose...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This paper reports on the design of a dynamic environment for the learning of stereometry (DALEST) and the teaching of spatial geometry and visual thinking. The development of the software was in the framework of DALEST project which aimed at developing a dynamic three-dimensional geometry microworld that enables students to construct, observe and...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This paper reports on the design of a library of software applications for the teaching and learning of spatial geometry and visual thinking. The core objective of these applications is the development of a set of dynamic microworlds, which enables (i) students to construct, observe and manipulate configurations in space, (ii) students to study dif...
Article
Full-text available
The purpose of the present study was twofold; first to examine students' mathematization processes as they worked on a mathematical modelling problem and second to investigate students' interactions with Potters Wheel, which is a computer software for generating solids by revolution. One group of three students worked for two 40 minute sessions on...
Book
Full-text available
This book reports on a project to devise and test a teaching programme in 3D geometry for middle school students based on the needs, knowledge and experiences of a range of countries within the European Union. The main objective of the project was the development (and testing) of a dynamic three-dimensional geometry microworld that enabled the stud...
Article
The phrase Lorem Ipsum came from the classical Latin literature and was used by Cicero more than 2000 years ago. Since 1500’s Lorem Ipsum was used as a dummy text in order to visualize the graphical layout through a meaningless text. The goal was to let readers concentrate on the visual representation only. The current paper focuses on the Lorem Ip...
Article
Full-text available
Technology Enhanced Learning is one of the most discussed achievements in this century. This paper discusses the problematic issue whether the use of technology is advantage or disadvantage. What factors can be controlled in order to increase the positive influence of technology to the learning process. As a demonstration a new approach to Object-o...
Article
Full-text available
The paper is focused on research software called Elica that allows students to build basic geometrical objects like spheres and cubes, and modify them geometrically. These objects can be grouped into higher-level metaobjects that can be further modified. The software includes translator of a programming language, with which all constructions are de...
Article
This paper describes how historical events more than 70 years ago still provide enough inspiration to build challenging problems. These problems uncover various possible areas for the application of Mathematics, Computer Science and Digital Art. The paper is focused on presentation of a variety of curves generated by imaginary flights to and from t...
Article
Full-text available
The Educational Logo Interface for Creative Activities (Elica) is one of the newly developed programming environments that enables the interactive visual programming with the well-established Logo language. It is based on a limited set of Logo commands that provide a complete and rapid take off towards very complex programs. The concepts of Elica m...
Article
Full-text available
The paper presents research activities carried out within DALEST Project (Developing an Active Learning Environment for the Learning of Stereometry). Some of the computer 3D applications based on Elica are considered together with possible educational activities in the context of nets of solids. The first impressions of the pilot experiment are pre...
Article
Full-text available
The paper presents research activities carried out within DALEST Developing an Active Learning Environment for the Learning of Stereometry).Some of the computer 3D applications based on Elica are considered together with possible educational scenarios.
Article
This paper announces the beginning of the design and the implementation of a new Logo compiler -Lhogho. Discussed are the motivation for starting this adventure and the current results. The Lhogho compiler is a real compiler. It translates Logo programs into machine code. The first version, written in GCC, targets the Pentium family of processors u...
Article
Full-text available
Some of the latest improvements in Elica are in the area of proper error reporting. Many Logo implementations do not provide enough context information about syntax and run-time errors. This is a topic routinely ignored by many software vendors. The presented system, however, tries to feed the user with error-related information that is complete an...
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents special techniques for building 3D models. The main idea is based on having these models programmed entirely in Logo. Some of the models have been used in Logo-based 3D Computer Graphics course for high-school students with minimal programming knowledge. The presented methods demonstrate how students can be involved in the proce...
Article
The application of educational software in mathematical learning is a challenging goal. Unfortunately, many attempts to apply modern technology in the conventional learning process fail to reach the level of benefit which is expected. This paper discusses the main factors which determine the success of educational software and provides information...
Article
Few computer applications, which fall into the class of graphical applications, support curve drawing. Of course we can exclude several specialised applications that are designed just for drawing such curves. All the rest applications can draw circles and a limited class of ellipses while parabolas and hyperbolas must be explicitly programmed. The...
Article
Research Logo System (RLS) is programming environment based on the Logo programming language. It is developed to provide research environment suitable for pupils, students, teachers and scientists. RLS is a base upon which the user can construct different modelling environments and can investigate relationships between objects, thus simulating the...
Article
OOP is a collection of concepts, tools and styles that are supposed to help programmers build more complex programs and support them easily. However some OOP benefits become disadvantages. The Natural OOP (NOOP) in Elica, does not use any specialized syntax to utilize OOP. The evolutional metaphor applied to NOOP changes the focus of OOP by treatin...
Article
Digital visualization is a relatively new concept, compared to others that are known to people for centuries. This paper presents an attempt to convert the mathematical concept of conic sections into several software applications designed and implemented by the author, which utilize virtual reality. The goal is to represent the basic properties of...

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