REFRESHING THE COMPUTER LITERACY COURSE: COMPUTING FOR THE GENERAL EDUCATION STUDENT

Abstract

DOI: 10.14684/intertech.13.2014.45-49 Computer literacy classes for non-computing majors are received with less than enthusiastic regard by many students. Viewed as simply another general education requirement toward graduation, these classes do not command the attention we would like from students forming the next generation of professionals and policy makers. Previous work featured a series of demonstrations and experiences specifically designed to engage students with both computing principles and possibilities. These included topics ranging from programming and theory to artificial intelligence including demonstrations of robotics, haptic human-computer interaction, medical imaging, evolutionary computing, and art. This work expands the previous course to include demonstrations and activities designed to gain insight into contemporary topics such as 3D printing, natural-language processing, affective computing, encryption, data sonification, and brain-computer interfacing. Taken together, we believe that these updated experiences provide broad insight into computing that can serve the non-computing students in their future work. Index Terms - Computers in Society, Computer Literacy, General Education, Technology Education.