Software Design
Spring 2006
Homework 0
Due: Any time between now and the last day of instruction, which is 3 May.
Life-long learning
The purpose of this homework is to encourage you to think about life-long learning as one of the goals of your education, and to give you an opportunity to practice some of the skills of life-long learning, which include finding and reading technical information, and developing your understanding of new material by trying to explain it.
Unfortunately, by posing this assignment as an evaluated exercise, I am undermining one of the other skills of life-long learning, self-motivation.
- In addition to the required textbook for this class, you should
also acquire at least one other book about Python, or about programming,
or about a related topic. I have a collection of Python books you can
look at, and there are several on reserve in the library. Try to choose
one that is appropriate for your level of preparation.
- Read this book over the course of the semester. If there are
references in the book that interest you, or if you find other sources
of related information, feel free to follow those leads.
- At some point in the semester, you should find something interesting
about Python, programming, or a related topic. Ideally, you should find
a topic that is not covered in the class, but that you think would be
interesting or useful to your classmates.
- Write a short description (1-2 pages) about what you found.
Your description should be in plain text so that you can send it
out by email. Send your description to the class mailing list,
software_design@olin.edu (or feel free to send it to me first
if you would like my suggestions before you broadcast it).
This assignment will determine my evaluation of your competency in life-long learning. This is the last time I will mention this assignment. Part of the assignment (maybe the most important part) is remembering to do it.