17.7. Future plans for the field guide

The initial version of the guide being developed in 2012/2013 is intended to cover the new NZ achievement standards in CS. However, there are other topics that aren’t covered that would be good to mention, and they are recorded here as possible future chapters to add.

17.7.1. Computability

http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/loopsnoop.html Ed Dalley’s story about the halting problem cs4fn

17.7.2. Logic circuits

Gates (see unplugged Peruvian activity) http://www.cs4fn.org/binary/nim/nim.php uses xor Online logic simulator? Binary additions (see also marble and wood logic devices, and other non-electronic ones) Logic: http://courses.cs.vt.edu/csonline/MachineArchitecture/Lessons/index.html

17.7.3. Big data/cloud computing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data http://www.nsf.gov/cise/csbytes/newsletter/vol1/vol1i11.html

There is some background at: http://www.techamericafoundation.org/bigdata

The Google data center gallery has cool pictures: http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/gallery/#/ or could tie in with Computational Science (from ACM curriculum)

Shadi to help Mark at Monterey interested

main concepts?
  • CAP theorem, mapreduce
  • using an API e.g. google maps, twitter
  • low level - uploading data (mashup?); higher level - APIs

17.7.4. Parallel/concurrent computing

Some people advocate teaching this first because all computers have multiprocessors and data centres. It might be the same chapter as “Big data”, but there are other approaches. For beginners, StarLogo and Scratch can be used to teach concurrent processes and the issues that arise. There’s bound to be an unplugged activity that could show issues like race conditions.

http://www.cs4fn.org/parallelcomputing/parallelrats.php

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2414446&picked=prox&CFID=269871400&CFTOKEN=70782049

ACM curriculum has a lot of material on this

Teaching map-reduce: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2414448

17.7.5. Databases (or Information Management?)

and other stuff from the Information branch of the DT standards?

17.7.6. Operating systems

Or related topics? http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/freshers/raspberrypi/tutorials/os/ From nand to Tetris project Architecture, memory management, security, VMs, devices, file systems, fault tolerance, performance evaluation Operating systems on-a-stick e.g. schools.pconme.com Operating systems: http://courses.cs.vt.edu/csonline/OS/Lessons/index.html

17.7.7. Information assurance and security

From the new ACM curriculum; could include forensics? http://www.nsf.gov/cise/csbytes/newsletter/vol1/vol1i12.html http://www.nsf.gov/cise/csbytes/newsletter/vol2/vol2i3.html

17.7.8. Mobile computing

Not sure if it’s a general area, but probably a few things that could be covered

17.7.9. Social and professional issues

Ethics? Communication? Digital divide, social implications, professional communities, codes of conduct, intellectual property, open source movement, privacy, sustainability (green computing), computer crime, how companies make money (e.g. Skype p2p, Google and Facebook with private information)