Welcome to CS110
We think this is a wonderfully exciting course that will introduce
you to some of the cool things that computers can do and
put some of that power in your hands!
Outline
- Big Ideas
- Course Overview
- Course Administration
- Introduction to HTML
Big Ideas
- Digital Representation of Information:
numbers, text, images, video, sound, web pages, programs,
encryption, compression.
- Impact of the Digital Revolution:
information access, publishing, organizing, security, privacy, copyright.
- Problem Solving:
divide/conquer/glue, abstraction, modularity/reusability,
programming, debugging.
- Project Development Lifecycle:
requirements, design, implementation, testing.
Course Overview
- HTML = HyperText Markup Language: specify the structure/content of a web page.
- CSS = Cascading Style Sheets: specify the appearance of a web page.
- JavaScript (not Java): specify the behavior of a web page.
- Concepts and tools for graphics, sound, forms, animation, and movies.
- Social, legal, ethical implications of the digital revolution
(Blown to Bits topics).
- Designing a website and implementing it using HTML, CSS, and
JavaScript.
Why Programming?
- Computer Science is about computation as a tool for
understanding the world: building models, experimenting, and
finding implications
- Programming is a formal notation for specifying
algorithms = computational recipes = procedures for doing things
Term Project
- Form teams of two students and an advisor.
- Find a client in need of a website,
or choose a project of your own.
- Specify client's requirements.
- Design, implement, and test
web pages.
- Deliver final product.
- Present your website in class.
See the Project Hall of Fame for
examples.
Course Administration
The course administration and
course schedule pages provide important
information about course organization and policies, and links to materials for lectures,
labs and assignments.
To Do
The CS110 To-Do List lists some things to do
during the first weeks of the semester. There are a few items to do
today, which we'll talk about.
How this Course Works
Technical material is not fully absorbed in just one reading; you will
probably have to read things several times. Full command of the material
requires practice.
- Please read the online material before class (but not the
class activities
). We will keep the online readings short, but
you should allocate an hour or more for it, because they can be dense.
- The book readings are optional but encouraged. Sometimes
a second and distinctly different presentation of the material will
really help things click.
- Ask questions in class. We will usually review some of the
material in class, but we won't say everything that is in the
reading. If there's something that confused you, please ask!
- We will do clicker questions and in-class exercises
(the
flipped
classroom). There is a lot of pedagogical
research to show that that is the most effective way to learn, but
it won't work if you haven't read the material.
Supplemental Instruction
Maggie Jennings is our Supplemental Instructor. I'll give her
a few minutes to talk about that.
What's New?
We've made some changes to CS 110 this year:
- Clients for the project are optional; you can be your own
client. Partners are still required.
- A list of pre-approved JavaScript applications, which we'll learn
in class and practice in lab and on assignments.
- More homework assignments to practice concepts (but each is less intense).
- Reduced content for greater comprehension.