I’m in the throes of reworking my Introduction to Computer Science course for the coming fall. I was thoroughly dissatisfied with how I taught the course this year: I’m at the stage of teaching where I know how I want it to go, but can’t always make it happen. Of course, this may not be [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Computer Science’
Who needs to know assembly code?
No one. That’s who. Well, not as many of us as we might have thought. Since the real power of “thinking like a computer scientist” is leveraging abstraction as a means of managing and containing complexity, it makes sense that we are moving away from an era in which every computer scientist needs to have [...]
The Wisdom to Know the Difference
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.”
– Reinhold Niebuhr
I gather that Alcoholics Anonymous has appropriated this prayer. I think I’ll follow their lead. Preparing for exams is always a whirlwind, and it turns out [...]
Using What We Teach to Teach Better
My first year teaching, a bright young thing just out of college, I spent the summer before-hand in a state of panic: I assumed that, having gotten a job teaching AP Computer Science, that I would now need to be an infallible expert in computer science. This level of pressure had me practically hyperventilating before [...]
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