CSE 101:
Explorations in Information Technology
Fall 2004

Course Description

Computing and information technology are becoming increasingly pervasive in our lives. Because of this, each of us needs to achieve a level of fluency with information technology that will enable us to use it effectively. The aim of this course is to ensure that all students will obtain such fluency and can maintain this into the indefinite future by ensuring that students understand basic principles sufficiently to enable them to independently acquire new skills as information technology and its applications evolve. Computer scientists build applications to improve the lives of others; students in this class will acquire an awareness of how this is accomplished. The course will be project-based, focusing on two sustained projects.

This course follows a set of recommendations from the National Research Council on the need for information fluency, based on the design of the first such course (with accompanying textbook) by Larry Snyder at the University of Washington.

Coursework: Two lectures and one lab per week (each one hour).

Exams: Two in-class midterms and a final exam

Homeworks: Various small lab assignments, and two multi-part projects: The first design of an extensive website, the second a series of Javascript problems (of increasing difficulty) involving animated web applications.

Text

Fluency with Information Technology: Skills, Concepts, and Capabilities. by Lawrence Snyder, University of Washington © 2004 / 0-201-75491-6 / Addison-Wesley

This course is NOT open to SEAS students.

Tentative Syllabus