Category Archives: Courses Taught

CSC 111 Introduction to Computer Science

Location: College of Saint Rose
Term(s): Fall 2012, Spring 2013
Class size: ~20

In this course, students develop their computational thinking skills through guided inquiry discussions. Topics such as the nature of computation, binary, boolean logic, computer architecture, networking, and programming are introduced. Students are challenged to reverse engineer programming solutions in order to explore functional decomposition and other computational concepts.

Prerequisite: None
Credits: 3

EPSY 687 Assessment and Evaluation for STEM educators

Location: University at Albany, School of Education, Department of Educational & Counseling Psychology
Term(s): Spring 2013
Class size: TBD
Co-taught with Paul Zachos

Backward design, formative assessment and action research will be applied to practical problems chosen by participants to develop critical assessment and evaluation concepts and skills for STEM-related education. The course will support participants in creating innovative lessons or productively addressing classroom, school, and state challenges such as high-stakes testing and professional performance reviews.

Prerequisite: Participants must be actively teaching during the course. Participants are expected to build and refine a learning module related to their own teaching, to conduct and share the results of assessments of student learning on a monthly basis and to work in consultation with fellow participants and course instructors to produce and evaluate a completed module. This work will be in lieu of extensive readings and a formal paper.
Credits: 3
Format: Online with regular synchronous chat sessions

 

CS4302.01 Advanced Computing Projects

Location: Bennington College
Term(s): Spring 2012
Class size: 4

In this course, we will apply computing methods in order to develop solutions to real world problems. We will focus on problems that require computing in order to create, collect, process, or visualize data and that offer opportunities to hone our coding and software development skills. Students are invited to bring their project ideas or existing projects in need of development into the class.

Prerequisite: Permission of Instructor
Credits: 2
Time: F 2:10 – 6:00 pm
(This class meets during the first seven weeks of the term)

CS2106.01 Understanding Alan Turing

Location: Bennington College
Term(s): Spring 2012
Class size: 13

Alan Turing is a central figure in the history and theory of computing. Turing gave the first precise definition of algorithms and computability and a guideline for understanding artificial intelligence: the Turing Test. Turing played a role in the cracking of German military encryption during World War II and in the post-war development of the first digital computers. Turing lost his security clearance and was largely forgotten for the last half of the 20th century because he was homosexual. We will explore the man, his ideas, and his lasting contributions to modern computing.

Prerequisite: None
Credits: 2
Time: T/F 2:10 – 4:00 pm
(This class meets during the second seven weeks of the term)

CS2113.01 The Nature of Information

Location: Bennington College
Term(s): Spring 2012
Class size: 16

What is information? How do you measure it? Is information perishable? Is it scarce? Understanding what information is and how (and whether) it can be created, shared, manipulated, or destroyed is increasingly critical in understanding science, public policy, and civic engagement. This course will explore how our understanding of information has changed over the past 100 years and how that understanding changes how we behave individually and collectively.

Prerequisite: None
Credits: 4
Time: T/Th 10:10 – 12:00 noon

CS4120.01 Contributing to Free & Open Source Software

Location: Bennington College
Term(s): Spring 2012
Class size: 9

Most of us use free/open source software (the Web, Open Office, R, Linux) or services that rely upon FOSS (Yahoo!, Facebook, Google). In this course we will explore how these software projects are managed, the community of developers working to improve these projects, and the tools and languages they use. We will learn how to read, understand, and contribute to these projects.

Prerequisite: Permission of Instructor
Credits: 4
Time: W 2:00 – 6:00 pm

CS2130.01 Mobile Web Applications Development

Location: Bennington College
Term(s): Fall 2011
Class size: 10

We will learn how HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript can be used to create Web (i.e., non-native) applications for smart phones. We will build several applications that demonstrate the potential to address mobile computing needs.

Prerequisite: Ideally, some experience with HTML, CSS, and/or JavaScript. For those without such experience, a short workshop (TBA) will be offered
Credits: 2
Time: M/Th 4:10 – 6pm
(This class meets during the SECOND seven weeks)

CS4150.01: Seven Languages in Seven Weeks

Location: Bennington College
Term(s): Fall 2011
Class size: 15

For students with some programming experience, we will explore the structure, syntax, and philosophy of seven different programming languages in an effort to understand the reasoning underlying each model of problem solving and the types of problems to which each is well-suited.

Prerequisite: Programming experience or permission of instructor.
Credits: 2
Time: M/Th 4:10 – 6pm
(This class meets during the FIRST seven weeks)

CS2110.01: Computing Fundamentals

Location: Bennington College
Term(s): Fall 2011
Class size: ~ 20 students/term

Students will rediscover the foundational ideas that gave rise to modern computing including Boolean logic, binary arithmatic, algorithms, Turing machines, transistor logic, stored program computing, and modern computer hardware and software architectures. Students will learn to program in at least one computer language and will explore the problem solving idioms unique to computational thinking.

CS2105.01: Making Computing Socially Relevant

Location: Bennington College
Term(s): Spring 2011
Class size: ~ 20 students/term

Educators are beginning to attend to the challenges of developing meaningful computer science education: identifying a common core of intended learning outcomes, instructional designs, and assessments. Computer scientists are beginning to attend to the challenges of making computing relevant to communities and society and educating the next generation of computing professionals.

However, existing approaches to teaching computing tend to focus on small projects, solely for the consumption of the teacher and students in the class (“toy projects”); formal methods (the “traditional” approach); game development (“projects about toys”); or examples intended to be meaningful to the digital generation (“relevant” projects, but with a lower-case “r”).
Continue reading CS2105.01: Making Computing Socially Relevant

CS4202.01: Advanced Projects In Computing

Location: Bennington College
Term(s): Fall 2010
Class size: ~ 7 students/term

Students will engage in group critiques of both individual project program code and free & open source program code to explore idioms and best practices in several programming languages: JavaScript, Ruby/Rails, and Processing, for example.

Students will be expected to present on at least one technology and one project as well as to actively engage in providing feedback on others projects.

CS2103.01: Social Nature of Information

Location: Bennington College
Term(s): Fall 2010
Class size: ~ 7 students/term

How does information influence individuals, groups, organizations, communities, governments, and society? Why do we share information? Is information a scarce resource? Understanding what information is and how it can be created, shared, manipulated, or destroyed is increasingly critical in understanding public policy and civic engagement. This course will explore how access to or lack of access to information changes how we behave individually and collectively. We will consider policy areas such as education, health care, the environment, science research, intellectual property, and governance and analyze how information supports and detracts from these discussions.

KUIT476: Web Marketing & eCommerce

Location: Kaplan University, Online
Terms: Summer 2009, Spring 2010
Class size: ~ 15 students/term

IT476 is a course designed to encourage students to prepare a business plan for an ecommerce venture. Students also create a website to support the business. Attention is given to the legal, advertising, financial, and operational aspects of the business with an eye toward preparation of a workable business proposal.

Reading Materials

  • CIW (2009). eCommerce Strategies and Practices. Tempe, AZ.

IST673: School Library Media: Technology, Theory, Application & Assessment

Location: University at Albany, State University of New York
Terms: Spring 2010
Class size: ~ 15 students/term

IST673 is a capstone course in which graduate students collaborate with undergraduate students and in-service educators from local K12 school districts to design, develop, deploy, and assess Web sites developed for use in participating schools.

Reading Materials

  • DiGiano, C., Goldman, S. V., & Chorost, M. (2008). Educating Learning Technology Designers: guiding and inspiring creators of innovative educational tools. New York, NY: Routledge.

IST301x: The Information Environment

Location: University at Albany, State University of New York
Terms: Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010
Class size: ~ 80 students/term

IST 301x is an introduction to information studies including definitions and properties of information: creation, transfer, classification, encoding, evaluation, storage, retrieval, and use. The Role of information organizations including libraries, print and electronic publishing industries, and archives is discussed.

Reading Materials

  • Lester, J., & Koehler, W. C. (2007). Fundamentals of information studies: Understanding information and its environment (2nd ed.). New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers.

KUIT255: eCommerce Development

Location: Kaplan University, Online
Terms: 2
Class size: ~ 5 students/term

In IT255, students prepare a business plan for an ecommerce business they wish to develop. During the class, students prepare sections of the plan including a market analysis and marketing plan, financial projections, and a comprehension operations plan. Students use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create a draft website for the business and enable payment processing using hosted shopping cart and payment processing services.

Reading Materials

  • Schneider. (2007). New Directions in eCommerce. Thompson Course Technology.

KUIT245: Web Development

Location: Kaplan University, Online
Terms: 3
Class size: ~ 20 students/term

Students in IT245 create websites using standards-compliant technologies: XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Students learn about site planning, page design, site development, and workflow control. They also implement basic forms processing using hosted forms solutions.

Reading Materials

  • Adobe Systems. (2009). Adobe Dreamweaver CS4: Classroom in a book. Berkeley, CA: Adobe Press.

CSI201: Introduction to Computer Science

Location: University at Albany, State University of New York
Terms: Fall 2008, Spring 2009
Class size: ~ 180-220 students/term

CSI201 is an introduction to computer science for majors using Java and the media computation framework developed by Mark Guzdial and Barbara Ericson. Students learn about core topics in computer science and programming (problem solving, iteration, recursion, search, sort, decomposition, etc.) while learning to manipulate digital media files (images, sounds, and videos) using the Java programming language.

Reading Materials

  • Guzdial, M., & Ericson, B. (2007). Introduction to computing & programming with Java: a multimedia approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

IST361: Web Development

Location: University at Albany, State University of New York
Terms: Fall 2005, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009; Fall 2009
Class size: ~ 30 students/term plus an additional ~15 graduate student collaborators

IST 361 is capstone course applying HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to the creation of websites for use by K12 students in the Albany City School District, Albany, New York. Undergraduate students from IST361 work with graduate students in school library media, K12 educators (teachers and school library media specialists), and K12 students collaborate to establish the site design, or “look & feel,” of the final site. Graduate students provide their undergraduate teammates with details of the website’s goals, as negotiated with the K12 educators and students. Undergraduate students, in turn, develop several distinct user interface designs appropriate for the grade level and subject area involved.

Reading Materials

  • Berkun, S. (2005). The Art Of Project Management: O’Reilly Media.
  • Freeman, E., & Freeman, E. (2005). Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML: O’Reilly Media, Inc.
  • Gerantabee, F., & AGI Creative Team. (2007). Dynamic learning, Dreamweaver CS3 : with video tutorials and lesson files (1st ed.). Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.
  • Lynch, P. J., & Horton, S. (2008). Web style guide: basic design principles for creating Web sites. 3rd. Retrieved January 1, 2010, from http://webstyleguide.com/