Teacing breadth-first depth-first

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that current approaches to teaching the introductory course for the CS major fail to provide students with an accurate sense of the nature of our field. We propose that an introductory course focused on a single sub-field of our discipline could better prepare potential majors by using that sub-field as a vehicle to present an overview of the techniques and principles fundamental to computer science. We discuss our experience with such a course based on the field of computer networks.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION

General Terms:
Documentation, Human Factors