Title: Teaching Programming

Abstract: I will discuss my philosophy of programming and of teaching programming, especially in the first programming course. I will explain the tools and techniques I use when teaching. While we all say we teach concepts and not a programming language, the language does strongly influence what and how we teach, so I will discuss this issue. I will also demonstrate a new introductory programming text, ProgamLive, which I have written with Paul Gries. It comes on a CD and has over 250 recorded 2-3 minutes lectures with synched animation. I will discuss the implications of this new approach to teaching material.
 
 

Bio
A native of New York, David Gries received his doctorate in math from the Munich Institute of Technology in 1966. He taught at Stanford for three years and then settled at Cornell. For the past two years, he has been at the University of Georgia.

Gries is known for his research in compiling and programming methodology and for his texts --e.g. ``Compiler Construction for --> --Digital Computers'' (1971), ``The Science of Programming'' (1981), and ``A Logical Approach to Discrete Math'' (1993, with F.B. Schneider). Gries received four national/international awards for contributions to education --from AFIPS, ACM, IEEE, and ACM SIGCSE. At Cornell, he was among the first ten (out of over 1000 faculty) to receive a Weiss Fellowship for contributions to undergraduate education.