SPEAKER 1: Called
algorithms as we'll soon
see that implement what is
underneath there, the hood.
But these inputs--
DOUG LLOYD: So I'm about to sort
of dive into our first major topic
here, which is binary numbers,
which might be a little bit
surprising, if you think about
it in your science class.
We really are starting it at the
very, most fundamental concept here.
DAVID J. MALAN: It is, but I've
wrestled with this opening to the class
too, because there's a lot
of students these days that
are a little uncomfortable
with mathematics
or just assume that it's going
to be a very math heavy field.
And I've not wanted to send the
message through arithmetic even,
at the start of the semester that
that's exactly what your fears are
and confirming those.
But the reality is,
I actually think this
is pretty empowering, to use these
first few minutes of the class,
and empower students
to actually understand
something they've probably heard about.
Ones and zeros and binary.
And really just open that--
take the hood off and look
inside and understand, oh,
it's really just like my
grade school based ten system.
DOUG LLOYD: Exactly, you bring
them right back to something
that they're really familiar with.
Ones place, tens place,
hundreds place and extrapolate
that to ones, twos,
and fours and suddenly
five minutes into their first computer
science class, possibly students
are capable of conversing in binary.
DAVID J. MALAN: Yeah, no absolutely.
And the fact that it is so relatively
simple, just the arithmetic behind it,
I think is also pretty reassuring.
Like, oh OK, this
makes sense, especially
if you bring it back to a topic with
which they've long been familiar.
It really isn't as new or as
scary as they've perhaps thought.
DOUG LLOYD: Yeah, exactly.
