Bits and Bytes 1.0

Bits & Bytes is a collection of five lessons created by MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) and oriented to people who want to get involved with software developing technologies. The purpose of the collection is to provide the students with an introduction to programming concepts. The following are the lessons’ titles:

Lesson 1: Problem Solving in Life and Technology.

Lesson 2: Things, Things, and More Things.

Lesson 3: The Data Game.

Lesson 4: Computer IQ.

Lesson 5: Life before Mice.

You can either take this lesson on-line from the MSDN web page or you can download it to your computer. When you download it and install it a new folder will be created containing three files: “Bit & Bytes – Lesson 1.doc”, a 16 pages Microsoft Word document with the lesson content and a few questions; “EULA.ftr”, a Rich Text Format document containing license information; and “Bit & Bytes – Lesson 1.mp3”, a 26 minutes audio file from which you can listen to the lesson.

In order to give an idea of the structure and content of the lesson, the main sections are listed below:

• How do we get there from here?

o Problems with clear-cut answers and solutions

o Problems with a fairly defined outcome but with many solution strategies

o Problems with no defined solution or defined solution strategy

• Learning Problem solving strategies

o Request-Response-Result Strategy

o The IDEAL Problem solving strategy

o The Circle-Back Model

• Strategy + Knowledge = Effective Problem Solving

o Self-Help Strategies

o Try it out

• Formalizing a plan of attack

o Algorithms – The Recipe in Computer Science

At the end of each section there’s a test to help you know if the concepts are understood. The correct answers are included so you can check your own answers.

The lesson uses graphics, sketches and images to help in the learning process and also make it more entertained. This funny and well organized lesson is available for free for anyone who’s eager to learn. This lesson doesn’t require any prior knowledge.