Extending Introductory Computer Science with Algorithmic Multimedia

多媒体和超媒体使许多人接触到计算机，并向他们展示了计算机的易用性。与此同时，许多学生报告说，他们不再觉得计算机科学入门课程的主题有趣或相关。通过在我们的入门课程中使用基于多媒体的示例，我们可以继续强调算法，同时使它们对更广泛的学生更有趣。对于那些经常被科学和文本处理的例子所吓倒的科学以外的学生来说尤其如此，这些例子仍然主导着许多入门课程和文本。 许多重要的算法和问题都可以用多媒体数据来表示。我们可以问学生如何模糊或涂抹图像的一部分，而不是让他们找到数组的平均元素。我们可以让学生如何识别超文本系统中的孤儿节点，而不是让他们开发图形可达性算法。我们还可以使用多媒体来介绍关键概念。例如，可以通过将基于图像的函数和视频操作相关联来引入映射（因为许多视频操作是将基于图像的函数映射到图像序列上的结果）。 借鉴我们在多媒体研究（Rebelsky）和改进CS教学法（步行者，石头，Rebelsky）的经验，我们将开发基于多媒体的练习和支持图书馆的四个入门课程。这个项目需要（1）一个小型（四个工作站）基于Macintosh的多媒体装置，（2）现代投影设备，我们的计算教室和实验室，和（3）升级到我们的实验室和教室工作站，以支持多媒体计算。有了这些设备，我们不仅可以增强Grinnell的本科生学习体验，使我们的入门课程更广泛地获得，而且还可以在入门计算机科学中提供算法多媒体的国家模型。

Multimedia and hypermedia have brought many people to computing, and have shown them that computers are easy to use. At the same time, many students report that they no longer find the topics in introductory Computer Science courses interesting or pertinent. By using multimedia-based examples in our introductory courses, we can continue to emphasize algorithms while making them more interesting to a wider variety of students. This is particularly true for students from outside the sciences who are frequently daunted by the scientific and text-processing examples that still dominate many introductory courses and texts. Many important algorithms and problems can be represented in terms of multimedia data. Rather than asking students to find the average element of an array, we could instead ask them how to blur or smudge part of an image. Rather than asking students to develop graph-reachability algorithms, we could instead ask them how to identify orphan nodes in a hypertext system. We can also use multimedia to introduce key concepts. For example, mapping might be introduced by relating image-based functions and video operations (as many video operations are the result of mapping an image-based function on a sequence of images). Drawing upon our experience in multimedia research (Rebelsky) and improving CS pedagogy (Walker, Stone, Rebelsky), we will develop multimedia-based exercises and supporting libraries for four introductory courses. This project requires (1) a small (four-workstation) Macintosh-based multimedia installation, (2) modern projection equipment for our computing classroom and laboratory, and (3) upgrades to our laboratory and classroom workstations to support multimedia computing. With this equipment, we will not only enhance the undergraduate learning experience at Grinnell and make our introductory courses more widely accessible, but also provide a national model of algorithmic multimedia in introductory computer science.