Teaching Computer Architecture: How to Introduce the Class

unveiling How to T severallying is simple. It does not al ship expressive style require creativity to do it right. It is the fine art of apply the right program line order for the right savant reputation in the right environment. How such(prenominal) a particular student learns in a tendency is actually governed partially by that learners native capacity and preceding preparation but in whatever case by the consistency of his acquire style and the teachers learn style. Teachers instruction devices crumb exceed the accomplishment do work for the students and lot improve their culture tint as well if it is well-matched the students knowledge styles.The concept of learn styles which states that different learners have different needs, slip instruction of touch and adapting information, and in that locationfore need to be taught differently so that their information and doing ar more effective has been a significant bea of investigation in learning the ories for over thirty years. In this paper I am inclinationing a teaching final cause driven by students learning styles and compatible with the basic two types of learning styles optical and oral learning styles.Teaching info processor electronic figurer computer computer computer computer architecture has been examined in many fashions akin prototyping 1, learning with experience 2 3 but it hasnt addressed by interconnected the teaching style with the students learning styles. I chose the first lesson of the computer architecture introducing computer architecture rowing to the students as an example to prove the sweetener of this cash advance in teaching computer architecture. The paper is divided to just ab prohibited sections.The first one is actting the base knowledge of the terms that get out be use through this paper kickoff from explaining learning styles consequently going to clarifying the optic and auditory learning styles. After that, I am going to i mplement the faced background in computer architecture context of use to computer architecture course (ACCESS) at University of cobalt at Colorado Springs. Finally, I forget suggest how to evaluate the applicability and the sweetener of this landosed visualize followed by a brief dissection. page 1 Motivation First, I was motivated by the importance of computer architecture course. Second, my motivation was similarly the challenges that I faced in this course thus I didnt satisfactorily experience its concepts. My reason of not fully getting the contented was private my background knowledge that was required to this course wasnt adequate. Then I asked myself how much have the former(a) students, who have fulfilled the prerequisite, learned? Did they get the essentials of the course?And these questions have formulated my cause symboliseed in this paper here in order to some(prenominal) facilitate their learning and improve their learning quality of this substantial cours e. Background A. receiveing styles Learning in an organized educational situation may be thought of as a trip the light fantastic process encompassing the reception and processing of information. Learning styles can be defined as the preferences of an individual in a particular learning situation 4. It refers to the preferred way of a learner to absorb information.Individuals ar dissimilar in how they learn. In 5, Richard M. Folder had proposed a model of learning and teaching styles in engineering education that consists of five learning styles propertys sensational and intuitive, visual and communicative, inductive and deductive, active and reflective, and finally sequential and global. To match the teaching method with a category of the students learning styles, it varietys the way to present information or the way to organize it and sometimes both. B.Visual and Verbal Learners In his model, he had considered the visual and verbal learning styles and had categorized them in the input dimension that deals with the component of the learning process in which information is observed. People foregather information in many ways. These ways may be divided into three categories, sometimes mentioned to as modalities visual ways that refers to sights, pictures, diagrams, symbols auditory ways that use sounds, words kinesthesia ways such as taste, touch, and smell.Thus, there ar visual, verbal, and kinesthesia learners. Visual learners have a reference of seeing pictures, diagrams, flow charts, time lines, films, or demonstrations and they remember best what they see. They usually similar to see the teachers body language and expressions to better understand the content of lessons, set off the important points of the lesson with pretty colors, and they Page 2 illustrate the concepts to fully understand and memorize it.If information is simply said to them, they will forget it easily. audile learners remember best what they listen to. They acquire a lot out of discussion, learn efficiently by explaining things to ACH other, take the underlying meanings of speech through focusing their listening to tone of voice, read the compose materials out vocal to absorb and memorize them well, and they prefer verbal clarification to optical demonstration. consort to Richard M.Folder, well-nigh people of college age and older are visual duration most college teaching is verbal?the information presented is predominantly auditory (lecturing) or a visual representation of auditory information (words and mathematical symbols written in texts and handouts, on transparencies, or on a chalkboard). This present a problem to many learners. C. How we learn? How People Learn Brain Mind, Experience, and enlighten book 6 has concluded seven primary points of how people learn 1.Leaning is facilitated when knowledge is structured around major concepts and principles. 2. A learners prior knowledge is the starting point of effective learning. 3. Awareness and self-monitoring of learning (meta-cognition) are important for acquiring proficiency. 4. Learners belief about their ability to learn affects their success. 5. Recognizing and accommodating differences in the ways people learn are essential. 6. Learning is shaped by the context in which it occurs. . Learning can be strengthened through collaboration.These points also were the foundations of the vision for the future science and engineering learning environment that was judge in the new electrical and computer engineering curriculum in 2013 and beyond 7. In my paper, I am suggesting a end that is in line with both points number 1 and 5. Implementation To implement a teaching plan that focuses on visual and verbal learning styles in the computer architecture context, I will be using visual and aural tools to present the content and I will mix using them magic spell I am explaining each concept.The aural tools will be spoken words or written presented text. On the other hand, t he visual tools will Page 3 vary in the midst of pictures, diagrams and charts. This teaching plan is intended for introducing computer architecture course ACCESS/5200 at University of Colorado at Colorado Spring. The laconic teaching refinements for this lesson are 0 0 0 0 Student defines computer architecture. Student recognizes the role of the applied science trends in computer architecture. Student distinguishes between computer architecture and counseling set architecture. Student lists two types of correspondence.And it will be organized as the following 1. demand classes. 2. A foreword. 3. computing machine architecture definition. 4. Computer architecture intersection. 5. Computer architecture classifications. 6. Why does it upshot? 7. Course content. 8. Conclusion. 1 . Prerequisite classes Dependency or process diagram is going to be use to show the computer organization prerequisite classes. Computer organization 2. A foreword. Computers have different ways of ho w we see them. Computer Architecture private Mobile devices Desktop Computing Servers Clusters/ warehouseman computers Embedded computersEach of these unlike computers has its give birth characteristics, requirement, and computing technologies. However, they all have at least a processor, memory, 1/0 device, and a way to communicate between them. Another way to see computers is this picture. Page 4 Applications System software Hardware baby SIS in this picture is abbreviation of instruction set architecture, the boundaries between the ironware and the software. 3. Computer architecture definition So, what is computer architecture? What do the computer architects do? The definition will be driven from the presented pictures above. Computer architects design imputer systems.Hence, it is not equal to designing SIS any more (old definition) SIS is actually a part of computer architecture. The word architecture nowadays covers all three aspects of computer design instruction set arch itecture, organization or macrostructure, and hardware 8. Computer architecture has been defined as designing the organization and hardware of the computer to meet goals and Measurement and synopsis Design Requirements and Castrations functional requirements 8 (figure 1). 4. Computer architecture intersection SIS compiler Logical design Computer architecture is not a stand-alone subject.In order to obtain better computer design, it calls for familiarities with several topics like What do the computer architects do? Figure 1 compiler, history of computers, and operating systems (figure 2). A useful suggested tool to visualize the above Computer Architecture prop languages SO Computer history Figure 2 computer architecture interaction http//loving. Host. Sky/attendant/Operating-System-Extended-Machine. HTML Page 5 content would be Venn diagram. 5. Computer architecture classification The most popular know classification of the computer architecture is Flans taxonomy.It insiders onl y the computer processor of the intentional computer system. The memory, interconnections, 1/0 devises arent involved in Flans taxonomy. The processor receive two kinds of information flow whether data or instruction. According to Flans taxonomy, both of the instruction or data streams can be single or multiple. Architecture categories Flans Taxonomy SITS SIMD MID MISS Another architecture classification is found on the type of parallelism that is exploited in the designed computer system. Tow type of parallelism at the computer application correspond architecture Data level parallelismTask level parallelism level data level parallelism and task level parallelism 6. Why does it matter? Architects design architecture for a given engine room. engine room parameters quickly change over time. So, it is important to trace the technology trends and plan for it as architects (figure 3). literary argument Time Page 6 Figure 3 Technology trends Technology Integrated circuit technology drachm, Flash Magnetic disk technology Bandwidth and Latency Transistors and Wires Power and Energy Thermal Design Power (TIP) combat-ready Energy and Power Static power consumption Cost DRAM pence Microprocessors price Integrated Circuit Cost 7.Course topics Computer architecture three-figure approach 8 is a popular book for teaching computer architecture class in many universities, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs as well. So, I am going to adopt the content of this book to introduce the computer architecture topics. Here is a habituation diagram to present the course topics and the book chapters at the same time in comparative manner to give the student a glance of how the topics are structured. Also, it can be extended by building up new dependency relations between the chapters as the instructor start to explain them later on the course.This method is to facilitate the learning according to How People Learn book 6 point number one. Chap 1 Fundamentals of vicena ry Design and Analysis Chap 2 Memory hierarchy design Chap 3 instruction-Level symmetricalness Chap 4 Data-Level Parallelism attachment B Appendix C Chap 5 Multiprocessors and Threadlike Parallelism page 7 Chap 6 The Warehouse-Scale Computer 8. Close the verbalise by summarizing the information. In conclusion, the computer architecture is to design the organization and the hardware of the computer to meet its functional requirements and intended goals.To do that best, architects asked for taking the technology trends in its consideration to lengthen the life of the designed architects and for taking advantages of parallelism in order to make it scalable and efficient. Measurement and Analysis Indeed, practiced one thing needs to change in the teaching plan to engage both visual and verbal learning styles- change the way to present information, provide visual aids in addition to verbal ones. Evaluation In this section, I am going to suggest an evaluating summons consist of two pa rts satisfaction evaluation and outcome evaluation.First, to evaluate the satisfaction of this Lana, instructor can look to the learning style for each student in the class using one of the learning styles stock certificate test that are provided online like http// www. Learning-storyline. Com/inventory/questions. PH? Cockiest=y or http// Then, count the percentage of students that has visual learning style, aural learning style, and other styles. After that, calculate the how much of the students learning styles are covered by this plan design, sum visual and verbal students.Finally, count the parentage of students learning styles that this plan considered to evaluate the degree of satisfaction. Second, in a teaching and learning, the most actual evaluation is that which on the basis of students learning outcomes. So, to measure this plan outcome, instructor can use either way quantitative or qualitative approach like asking some direct questions to Page 8 students to examine the ir understanding print out an assessment test and give it to each student (figure 4) asking all the students if they have any questions about the lecture.I recommend the simplest evaluating methodology like the method suggested in 9,instructors should subjugate questions or situations that could make it wizard for students to respond (Who is lost? ) or are so generic as to lead to nonresidents (Are there any questions? ). Instead, instructors should pose questions that encourage more specific responses, (e. G. , How many of you understand what we are talking about? ). Name ? What is computer architecture? Name From 1 to 10 How much important is this course?How much you think you can learn this course? As (high medium low) How much important is this course? How much you think you can learn this course? Figure 4 example of printed students assessment Discussion In USC computer architecture class, while implementing the presented approach, I notice a further unintended advantage. The main goal for this plan was to match the learning style for the visual and verbal learners. notwithstanding I discovered that it has advantages even if the learning style doesnt match the student like the case of multinational students.Indeed, this plan improves the learning for the verbal learners who are taught by a different language from what they are natively speak. There was around 15% of the students in the ACCESS at USC are international students. This approach can contribute to solve the learning difficulties that the international students face. Assuming that the international students misunderstand 5% to 35% from the spoken language in the lecture, imputable to the lack of their English vocabularies and synonyms that they are familiar with, the percentage expected to step-down when the instructor uses visual tools in their teaching.Consequently, the progress is accomplished by decrease the misunderstanding percentage of the international students. Observing the v isualization tools in this teaching plan, it was suitable for the context that they have been exploited in. One of the efficient teaching visualization tools to computer architecture course is simulators 10, it hasnt used in this suggested plan because it had addressed introducing the course but it still can be used later on the lectures.It helps explaining the main concepts in the course such as CPU 1 1, SIS, or cache memory. Page 9 Even if the computer architecture topics expand, this suggested plan will still be applicable and it will not needs significant changes. Conclusion In conclusion, the main effort in this paper was a contribution to utilize delivering the computer architecture content to the students. I have used a teaching method that focuses on students learning style and I have designed a constructible teaching plan.In my suggested designed teaching plan for the first day of computer architecture class, I have chosen two basic learning styles of student, visual and ve rbal learning styles. Then, I propose a way to evaluate the success of it. In my discussion, I discussed several points I highlighted a benefit for this approach for international students as well mentioned visualization tools are useful and recommended additional one that havent used but can be used later in the course, simulations is useful for chemotherapeutics. Bibliography 1 E. J. Barbara, H.. B.