Joe Oldham: SMP

Spring 08 I tried using this blog to manage courses. Semi-painless semi-flop. Too many static pages, which will only grow worse and worse over time. It would be great if I could use webCT, since that is supposedly designed for the task. But I find the interface so awful I will only use webCT for material that needs to have access restricted to a specific class. Static web pages had the growth problem — the archive is a mess. I’m not going to try to roll my own. So this time around I’ll rely more on the wiki. Here are the hopes:

• The interface is decent.
• Students can watch a page, so they can get email when things change. SHould help with “keep up” — maybe better than an RSS feed here.
• Part of the role of the wiki is archiving communal knowledge. As it pertains to a course, that iterates over semesters, the wiki seems to make sense. There will be an end-of-semester winnowing burden; separating the parts that need to persist from parts that need to be archived.
• Archiving may be manageable. Wikis hold lots of static pages. The course article can link to its own archive kind of naturally.
• Heavier use of the wiki for courses may promote use of the wiki, which is something we want to see happen.

Wonder what the approach will be next time…

The judging was on impression alone.

The winner, 1st and 2nd runner ups, and honorable mentions are in.

All to be announced in class Wed Apr 30.

For Wed please read Tannenbaum 112 – 138, for Fri extend it through 146. Expect a Quiz W or F. Please be able and willing to advise me after you read this — did you understand it? If not, how do I help? Either way, what is the best way to approach this as a class?

The quiz today will focus on the lab from Wednesday — dictionaries — rather than revisiting scope.

Expect Quiz #10, and expect it to pertain to lab #17 and the associated material from lecture. By the way, Many of the ideas associated with the whole binary clock effort are represented in chapter 9 of Zelle. Please read that chapter.

So Heathrow’s new shining terminal is beset with woes at least in part due to baggage handling software. Remember the Denver baggage handling disatser — a famous failure? Now we have the heathrow repeat… because evidently we do not pay attention. (Of course someone will be explaining why this is quite different in the minutae…)

Here is where we are on things asked for so far this term:

• I asked you to post on the wiki. I rolled taht into “participation at midterm”. If you continue to post (I now have email-to-me on post) then taht will continue to benefit you.
• I asked you to turn in lab 4. If you have not done so then be sure to do so by April 8.
• I asked you to turn in lab 5. If you have not done so then be sure to do so by April 8.
• Caveat: I’ll score the labs, but not terribly rigorously — more for effort — I think that is more in the spirit of this term.
• Midterm, you submitted, I returned.
• You have an image project due 4/4. For goodness’ sake if you have questions ask — do not dother around stuck unless you really expect to get yourself unstuc. If a classmate can help, great — just note the help when you turn in the assignment.

I do solemnly promise to try to be more organized or whatever it is that I seem to have lacked thus far this term, for the rest of the term (but without changing the general tenor of the course — that is, I will not certainly turn into an academic martinet.)

Exam thru 2.4 on Monday 3/31

Check page for assignment due 4/4, expect to discuss in class Wed 3/26

I will accept revisions of technical homework 2 in CSc 117 up until Midnight Wed 3/26 (i.e. beofre 3/27 begins) for up to 60 points total on the assignment

We have a plan for the CSC 112 midterm. We’ll begin it on 3/12. See the class page