N. R. Nandakumar

Real-world problem-solving, pedagogy, and efficient programming algorithms in computer education

Modern research and curricular reforms equate pedagogical soundness with the connection of instructional content with real-world problems. Software engineers facing real-world computer problems are continually concerned with the efficiency of the program that they write. Divorcing programming concerns from efficiency unsatisfactorily presents the responsibilities and full concerns of computer programmers. Therefore, when programming tasks are simplified to avoid concerns for efficiency, the assignments become antiseptic, lose the nature of real-world problems, and become inconsistent with the true nature of computer programming concerns. This brief investigation considers real-world problems, pedagogy within computer programming education, and the often-missed consideration of efficiency within instructional computer programming assignments. If-then-else algorithms are compared with algorithms using arrays in light of programming efficiency and pedagogy in computer education.

Does your graphing software real-ly work?

Abstract Many popular mathematical software products including Maple, Mathematica, Derive, Mathcad, Matlab, and some of the TI calculators produce incorrect graphs because they use complex arithmetic instead of real arithmetic. This article expounds on this issue, provides possible remedies for instructors to share with their students, and demonstrates that using complex arithmetic has some important advantages.