Models and Clickers for Teaching Computer Science
Matthias Hauswirth · 2011
Many courses in a computer science curriculum, from computer ar- chitecture over programming languages to operating systems, discuss complex and intricate mechanisms and systems. Engineers who develop such mechanisms and systems (e.g. an operating system) use models to deal with their complexity. Instruc- tors who teach the concepts behind those mechanisms and systems often implicitly use models to make those concepts more approachable: they present simplified ab- stractions and draw diagrams to focus on the essential. In this position paper we propose to make this implicit use of models explicit. We propose to use models as a teaching tool in all courses where they are helpful, not just in a course on models or model-driven development. Moreover, we present an infrastructure, Informa, that provides support for integrating models into an interac- tive classroom.