Reaction Algorithm Animations by Matt C

This paper is interesting because it shows that just because we are fond of visualizing everything here at Brown, we may not be as effective as we think we are. CS 16 does a lot of visualization, both in class demos and to confirm that you are doing the assignment correctly. It is my understanding that many do not find the visualization to be that helpful, and in fact sometimes wish that they could simply test it via a text interface. I know that many people felt this way about cs15's linked list assignment.

The imporant thing that I got from this is the need to not just rely on the visualization tools to teach people, but use them as supplementary material. Perhaps our demos are place where this could come into play. Not only should the demo run and show the output of whatever concept we are teaching, it should also do its best to explain how it is using the concept. I think that we try to do this in lectures, but maybe we need to make sure this is clear in the code as well, since students should be looking at that too.

Brown relies heavily on programs that are visually represented. We must make sure that the graphics are not gratuitous, and are really supplementing the learning process.


Reactions


Danah:

In terms of effectiveness, see my questioning the experiment in Amdur's reaction. I do agree that visualization is not for everyone.


Jon:

Well, just to be a pain in the butt, I wouldn't say that all of Brown's CS courses focus so much on visualization. Classes that do focus a lot on that are 15, 16, and 123. Some courses that use few to zero graphics are 31 (unless you count diglog), 51, 126, 127, 152, 157, 167... Most of the early courses have a visual focus, but that seems to disappear as the classes progress. (Note that this could be a discussion all by itself.)


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