Title :
Work in progress - putting a course in context
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Comput., Teeside Univ., Middlesbrough, UK
Abstract :
An undergraduate course can be characterized by its breadth and its depth. Breadth is a measure of the range of topics covered and depth is a measure of the rigor with which they are taught. To provide students with the tools necessary to help them find employment, undergraduate courses in computer science concentrate on depth at the expense of breadth. Consequently, students often lack a historical perspective on their own subject and do not know how it developed. All too frequently students are not even aware of alternative approaches to computer-based problem solving. No where is this truer than in computer architecture education. This work in progress describes the construction of a Website that provides a background for computer architecture courses by putting material in a historic and social context and by introducing alternative computing mechanisms such as neural networks, analog computers and quantum computers.
Keywords :
Internet; computer aided instruction; computer science education; educational courses; ethical aspects; Website; analog computers; computer architecture courses; computer science; computer-based problem solving; computing mechanisms; neural networks; quantum computers; undergraduate course; Analog computers; Building materials; Computer architecture; Computer networks; Computer science; Computer science education; Employment; Neural networks; Problem-solving; Quantum computing;
Conference_Titel :
Frontiers in Education, 2004. FIE 2004. 34th Annual
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-8552-7
DOI :
10.1109/FIE.2004.1408710