Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About "An Introduction to Computers"

David A. Patterson

EECS Department
University of California, Berkeley
Technical Report No. UCB/CSD-86-288
February 1986

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1986/CSD-86-288.pdf

A new course to introduce computers to liberal arts students was taught for the first time at U.C. Berkeley in the Spring 1985. This course is neither a computer literacy course nor an introductory programming course; it emphasizes the application of computers to solving problems in the liberal arts. It relies on Macintosh personal computers, starting with applications and then Pascal programming before finishing with projects that solve real problems in the students' majors. The goal is to convert traditionally computerphobic students into computer fanatics. This report describes this non-traditional approach, giving the rationale for each decision, and documents its successes and failures.

BibTeX citation:

@techreport{Patterson:CSD-86-288,
    Author = {Patterson, David A.},
    Title = {Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About "An Introduction to Computers"},
    Institution = {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year = {1986},
    Month = {Feb},
    URL = {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1986/5378.html},
    Number = {UCB/CSD-86-288},
    Abstract = {A new course to introduce computers to liberal arts students was taught for the first time at U.C. Berkeley in the Spring 1985. This course is neither a computer literacy course nor an introductory programming course; it emphasizes the application of computers to solving problems in the liberal arts. It relies on Macintosh personal computers, starting with applications and then Pascal programming before finishing with projects that solve real problems in the students' majors. The goal is to convert traditionally computerphobic students into computer fanatics. This report describes this non-traditional approach, giving the rationale for each decision, and documents its successes and failures.}
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Report
%A Patterson, David A.
%T Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About "An Introduction to Computers"
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 1986
%@ UCB/CSD-86-288
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1986/5378.html
%F Patterson:CSD-86-288