Reaction for: "Developing an Interactive Illustration" by Jon

Hmmmm... I think I recognize these names...

Interactive demos that help students learn a subject is something that is "obviously" worthwhile, but difficult to implement. One of my complaints about CS classes that use the Sun Lab is that the demos and other activities in the class are completely passive learning. Having more hands-on interaction would probably help many people learn.

However, coming up with useful interactive demos is the challenge. As it says, the demo must demonstrate the concept, have a good user interface to interact with, and be fast enough so lag does not affect the interaction. While speed can be solved by algorithmic improvemnt, or code optimization, the first two categories are the mental stumbling block most of the time.

For example, what is the best way to demo something like polymorphism? Is an interactive demo useful for that? How about a circuit simulator? I feel that determining which problems are most suited for an illustrated demonstration like that must be carefully looked at. If the topic really does not match with the form of presentation, then it is not helpful to present the topic in that manner.


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Danah:

When well thought about, I firmly believe that _most_ concepts could be used in an interactive illustration. I encourage you to check out the other interactive illustrations created (most are for 123, concepts that you are familiar with...).


Jon:

Well, I think that interactive illustrations naturally mesh very well with graphics, since both are very visual. However, what about something that's not at all visual? How would you make an interactive illustration to demonstrate the halting problem? (Note: the halting problem is the standard unsolvable problem in theoretical CS. The problem is to have a program which determines whether an arbitrary program will halt, or run (loop) forever. It is proven that it does not have a solution.)


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