Catherine Ricardo

Trends in the evolution of the database curriculum

This paper focuses on the current database curriculum and how it reflects changes in the practice of data management. The content of the database course is determined using a series of three surveys given to groups of database educators over a period of four years. The results of these surveys are presented in the paper and are used to indicate trends in database courses as they are actually taught. The paper examines the different focus choices used in the introductory database course and describes how these have changed during the period, 1999-2002. The paper also examines how actual database curricula compare with the CC2001 curriculum recommendations.

Managing the introductory database course: what goes in and what comes out?

It is difficult to find a business organization of any size that does not use a database management system to organize its most important asset: data. According to [3], the annual expenditure on database software is

Multimedia across the disciplines

10 billion. Therefore, one might argue that the database module is a focal course in the computer and information sciences curricula. As database management systems advanced, and database theory supporting these systems evolved, so too the database course has been modified significantly, and it continues to change. How have instructors kept pace with these revisions? Often, it appears that topics are constantly added, but none disappear, and the course may become unmanageable. The SIGCSE community has recognized this phenomenon by discussing the ingredients of what appears to be an essential follow-up database course (papers [4] and [5], and an enthusiastic, overflowing Birds-of-Feather session [2]). The current panelists will now turn to the introductory course itself and share their experiences. Among the questions they will address are:

Every seventh year: sabbatical opportunities (abstract)

The use of multimedia, including voice, music, text, still images, and full motion video is becoming more and more widespread in education at all levels. Faculty must consider how to utilize the power of this technology to motivate students and to improve learning. The presenters will discuss how they have developed and used multimedia to enhance classroom presentations in various disciplines and how students have responded to this new technology.

The next decade of the database course: three decades speak to the next

This paper reviews the dominant interpretations of the Hebrew sabbatical and jubilee laws that have been offered by theologians, social scientists and biblical scholars. In general, these authors believe that the laws imply such a massive, uncompensated redistribution of wealth that they could never have been practiced, and may not have been intended as practicable. After reviewing the contents of the laws (summarized in Leviticus 25), this paper offers an alternative interpretation. Drawing on contract theory, the paper argues that the laws would have been workable, would not necessarily require coerced participation, and would have a positive effect on commercial vitality. Possible challenges to this argument are considered and parallels are drawn to modern bankruptcy laws. JEL Codes: D86, P48, Z12.