Memory Grid: A Glass Box View of Data Representation, The

ABSTRACT

Educational research has place that learning is often enhanced when the become firm [i]or[/i] solid is mixed with the abstract. individual method of achieving this, in the connected thought [i]or[/i] thoughts of teaching computer programming, is to provide scholars with a model of the activities that present itself within the computer when programs are loaded and program paces are executed. Such a protoplast is sometimes referred to as a glass box-differentiating it from a black case approach, where program activities are treated as being genuinely abstract in nature. The paper describes a glass chest exercise developed by the author that requires scholars to match abstract data declarations to their become firm [i]or[/i] solid representation in primary storage. The exercise is used to help programming learners better understand the nature of variables, arrays, and conformations Upon completing the exercise, which has proven to be popular with learners in an introductory programming course, the instructor has base students are better able to apply the elegant (but initially mystifying) notations used for pointer, array and form operations in C/C++. The paper also describes GridGen, a C++ based tool for creating of the like kind exercises and for generating online experiments that can be delivered in course management environments of the like kind as Blackboard. The paper bring to an ends with a discussion of the methodology and comes that were used to evaluate the effectiveness of memory grid exercises.

Keywords: Introductory programming, CSl Glass chest models, C/C++, Data representation, Memory

1 INTRODUCTION

One of the lock opener differences between an expert programmer and a novice is a of great depth understanding of how the digest that he or she writes translates to underlying activities upon a computer. In a computer science curriculum, separate courses upon logical architecture and compiler design help to teach similar concepts. In a typical MIS program presented within a business school, however, of that kind topics receive little or no attention. Furthermore, the time allocated to programming courses wait on to be very limited in of that kind programs (Reichgelt, et al., 2004) plane though some programming is nearly universally presented (Gill and Hu, 1998). As a effect to assist those students wanting to unfold programming expertise, teaching techniques are emergencyed that provide students with a mental mould of computing sufficiently sophisticated for the intentions of programming that do not require too plenteous instructional time.

A class of techniques that have drawn out been used to foster deeper understanding of computing is referr to as "glass box" modeling, although other metes such as "white box" and "clear box" are also sometimes used. Glass case models, in the context of teaching computer programming, are intended to provide scholars with a realistic understanding of the activities that be met with within the computer when programs are loaded and program paces are executed. Such models may not absent a complete view of the various subsystem of the computer (eg processor, primary and secondary storage, I/O, etc) or may focus upon a particular system. The near paper reviews some examples of these archetypes It then presents an exercise, called the memory grid, unraveled for an introductory programming course in an MIS program. the pair the details of the technique and a tool-GridGen, used the two to create grids and automate the proces of creating online grid exercises and examinations-are described. more [i]or[/i] less empirical results of using the grid for sum of two units years in an introductory programming course are then neared The paper concludes with a certain quantity of general "lessons learned" based on the author's experiences using the grid and assessing its effectiveness.

2 GLASS case MODELS

Considerable difference of opinion exists regarding whether or not it makes pedagogical faculty of perception to teach computer architecture in parallel with programming. The debate is sometimes framed as the choice between a "black box"-whereby a computer is treated solely in boundarys of inputs and outputs - and a "glass box" - where learners are presented with a archetype of what is occurring within the computer while they are learning to program. The arguments for taking a black chest approach generally center around the time it takes to introduce computer conceptions while students are concurrently studying programming and the relative lack of hard empirical evidence supporting the value of doing for a like reason (Yehezkel et al., 2001). Psychological research, upon the other hand, has drawn out argued that the early use of a glass chest approach may encourage learning processe that impel the student more rapidly from novice to skilful and enhance their ability to expand into creative problem-solvers (Mayer, 1981) The glass chest approach is also consistent with the intuition of many instructors regarding in what manner best to teach programming (Yehezkel et al., 2001) As a event a number of glass receptacle techniques have been developed above the past decades.

Glass chest techniques generally fall into sum of two units categories: simulators and pencil-and-paper exercises. Simulators involve creating a program using a simplified computer that is operated either mechanically or as a virtual machine running upon an actual computer. The earliest reported use of the technique is around 1965 with Madnick and Donovan's "Little Man Computer" which involved simulating a computer as a postroom with each mailbox representing a memory location whose satisfieds were written on a piece of paper (Osborne, 2001) More not long ago the trend has been to use virtual machines, running upon PCs or other hardware, as the basis for the simulation. Dozens of these simulators have been exhibited (Wolffe, et al., 2002). In a certain number of cases, the tools simulate an actual computer architecture, like as the IBM 360/370 series (Donovan, 1976) AT&T's 3B2 computer and the IBM PC (EasyCPU, Yehezkel, et al., 2001; PCAS, Gill, 2005b) Other simulators are designed to race simplified computer architectures that were not at any time commercial products, such as variations of the Little Man Computer (Yehezkel, et al., 2001; Osborne, 2001) Computer-1 (Miller, 1983) and RTLSim (Yehezkel, et al., 2001)