Larry's COSMOS blog

Chaos reigns

2005-07-19T08:13:00.000-07:00

In class yesterday, I had the students enact several sorting algorithms. My expectation was that the first method - letting people sort themselves out without having any prior instructions on how to do it - would lead to a chaotic mess, taking several minutes. Instead, everyone went to their approximately correct position almost immediately, and the whole process was finished before I managed to get my stopwatch turned on. So the supposed lesson - that a carefully-designed algorithm could make big improvements - was foiled. Still, we were able to show that QuickSort seemed better than BubbleSort. Note to future: if I do this again, give the students words that all begin with the same letter.

It was interesting hearing the student's views on when computers will appear more intelligent than humans. I had another thought about this: perhaps the reason that computers don't yet appear smarter is that people aren't smart enough to program them to do so. But if people were smarter, they'd have to make the computers even smarter to be equally intelligent. This sounds a bit like Achilles and the Turtle. Still, if people weren't so smart, they'd never have been able to make computers, let alone ones that appear intelligent. So I posit that the surest sign of intelligence is being able to create a greater intelligence. If this is true, and we make smarter computers, they will make still smarter ones, etc.

We're about 1/3 done already, and it seems like there's almost no time left at all. This week, we instructors have to suggest projects for the students, so that they will be able to choose one by next Monday. Actually, I suspect (and hope) that some of the groups will come up with projects completely of their own design. So at the end of week two, I'll be about one week behind in my supposed syllabus. But this program is not about "covering material", it's about learning what computer science is all about, and we're doing that perfectly!

Wednesday Went Well

2005-07-14T08:59:00.000-07:00

I thoroughly enjoyed teachng Wednesday's class. We took some unplanned digressions into how microprocessors attempt to rearrange their instructions to allow them to do more things simultaneously. Perhaps I should go over this again using a well-prepared example, since people need several exposures to complicated concepts before they completely make sense. But there is limited time. Any feedback would be appreciated.

We didn't have time for the lab, but I can get to that on Monday. I vow that future labs will be less frustrating than Tuesday's!

Tuesday's trials and tribulations

2005-07-12T15:16:00.000-07:00

Class Monday seemed to go well. I actually enjoyed the computer simulation, and I was really impressed how everyone gave interesting and articulate presentations of the random computer terms, even though they only had about 15 minutes to prepare. Everything goes faster than I thought they would.

My lack of experience with Visual Studio is bumming me out. I can't tell if the libraries are set up correctly, but there is something strange going on with the libraries. But in general, the lab computers are working pretty well - the network problems of yesterday seem to have cleared up.

It's started

2005-07-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

I met a bunch of parents today, but haven't connected with students yet. One Dad told me about doing Instant Messaging on the Arpanet back in '73 (of course, it wasn't called IM in those days), and setting up a card punch business. Another Mom has a computer scientist for a sister. Maybe next year we should have a mini-course for the parents!

I think we're all set for tomorrow. Should be fun.

COSMOS starts tomorrow

2005-07-09T14:20:00.000-07:00

Things are a bit chaotic, but they are coming together. Where's the Java compiler? Will there be any chairs?? At worse, we'll sit on the floor.

Nor do I have a clear picture of what the students know. They have a wide range of experience. This could turn out to be a great feature, since the more advanced ones can assist the others. It's nice not having grades - I hope no one will feel the need to prove how much they know.

All will start to become clearer tomorrow.