Teaching Introduction to Computer Programming
I recently started teaching a course for the Computer Science Department at Kent State University. I am teaching a course called Introduction to Computer Programming. It is a course teaching non-computer science majors the basics of programming.
In this course the students learn simple concepts and ideas behind programming, and along the way will learn to develop simple applications. The students who take this course come from many different areas: Technology, Education, Art History, Visual Communication Design, etc.
I am enjoying teaching the course, and it is beneficial not just to the students but to me as well. As I am teaching this course I am refreshing my memory on a lot of different areas of computer science which I believe are very important to software development.
Python is the programming language of choice for this class. It has been chosen for many reasons, but a few choice ones are: Python's being a very high level language, ease of use, quick development, works with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. We have Mac, Linux, and Windows users in the class so it is nice to use a language which is easy to develop in and works well in each of the operating systems.
In an effort to start posting more to my blog perhaps I can post a few of the interesting concepts which are applicable to all programming not just Python.