perelgut@utcsrgv.UUCP (Stephen Perelgut) (02/28/84)
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I am currently looking into the use of personal computers in formal
teaching environments. I am particularly interested in how pc's can be
used in introductory programming courses.
It seems that every year more students enter university to take their
first courses in computer science already owning a pc of some sort. Others
will by pc's during the year (especially with the various special deals between
some universities and some manufacturers.)
1) Are there any universities that already teach introductory courses
based on pc's? How do they rationalize the fact that wealthier
students will have an advantage since they can afford to purchase
a machine whereas the others will have to share the machines
purchased by the university? How many students per machine does
the university count on? How many personally owned machines does
the university expect? Are students expected to form consortiums
to buy (or rent) a machine?
2) If courses are based on pc's, should the software take full advantage
of a particular machines features or should the software be more
general than that and run on a family of machines.
The University of Toronto is recognizing that the percentage of students
in the university who own personal computers is increasing every year. The
Computer Systems Research Group is currently converting the Turing language
to run on pc's (8086/8088/80186/80188 based, MS-DOS). Turing was recently
adopted at the university as the sole language for department of computer
science introductory programming courses. We are now interested in whether
or not introductory courses should be taught on pc's.
I am particularly interested in all comments from Dartmouth, Brown, MIT,
and any other sites on the network that have already started converting to
a personal computer format. What are you doing? Why are you doing it?
Are there any formal studies leading up to the decision (I would appreciate
copies mailed to me directly at:
Stephen Perelgut
Computer Systems Research Group
University of Toronto
10 Kings College Rd Rm. SF2102A
Toronto Ontario Canada
M5S 1A4
Any and all comments will be gratefully received (mail would be preferred,
either electronic or hard-copy). I will summarize at weekly intervals if
volume warrants. Electronic addresses below.
--
Stephen Perelgut
Computer Systems Research Group University of Toronto
Usenet: {linus, ihnp4, allegra, decvax, floyd}!utcsrgv!perelgut
CSNET: perelgut@Toronto