If you were punished and had to write "I will not talk in class" 100 times, would your hand get tired? Would you wish for a magic spell where you could write it just once and use arrows to point to the rest? Congratulations! You think exactly like a computer scientist.
We often assume that "information" refers to words written in a book—the more words, the more information. But computer scientist Claude Shannon taught us ...
When computers transmit data, it’s a lot like passing notes in class. Sometimes the ink smudges, or the paper tears (Data Corruption). But magically, computers have a mechanism to "automatically spot the mistake" and even "automatically fix it."
One of the most common mistakes in teaching Computer Science is giving definitions straight away. For example, pointing to a pixelated image and saying, "Computers use 0 and 1 to store images. 0 means black, and 1 means white."
Binary is the cornerstone of Computer Science, yet to children, it often looks like a boring pile of 0s and 1s. The common "Binary Cards" (dot cards) activity is excellent, but many teachers inadvertently turn it into a math drill.
Part 1: What Exactly is a Computer? (Redefining the Computer)
