{"id":2063,"date":"2021-10-26T20:23:33","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T00:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/rhcollab\/?p=2063"},"modified":"2021-10-26T20:24:27","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T00:24:27","slug":"join-a-research-days-event-on-steps-toward-open-source-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/rhcollab\/2021\/10\/26\/join-a-research-days-event-on-steps-toward-open-source-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Join a Research Days event on Steps Toward Open Source Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Attend the next Red Hat\u00a0Research\u00a0Days\u00a0event, which will be an exciting discussion on “<\/span>Steps Toward Open Source Education.<\/strong>”\u00a0<\/span>Jonathan Appavoo<\/a>, Computer Science Associate Professor at Boston University, will share\u00a0his work to develop a hands-on live educational experience for teaching computer science in a real cloud environment that uses JupyterBook and containers powered\u00a0by OpenShift.\u00a0 Prof. Appavoo,\u00a0Prof.\u00a0<\/span>Orran Krieger<\/a>, Director of the Cloud Computing Initiative at BU, and\u00a0<\/span>Hema Veradhi<\/a>, Red Hat Senior Software Engineer in the AICoE, will explore this new way of learning about computer systems.\u00a0The event is open to all, and will support live questions and answers from learners who attend as well!<\/span><\/p>\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe MOC\/ORCI and Red Hat Collaboratory @ BU offer a unique opportunity to take computer systems education, CS education, and perhaps education more broadly, to a new level of openness and accessibility. In this talk I will discuss a concrete step towards this vision through\u00a0my efforts to prototype new material for an introduction to computers systems class.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2010 I have taught the required undergraduate computer systems class at BU (CAS CS\u00a0210: \u201cComputer Systems\u201d). This is the first class that introduces students to the fundamental\u00a0underpinnings of open source software, that the world around them is built on; Linux, Bash,\u00a0GCC, GDB, etc. However, this foundational introduction happens in an ad hoc manner, often\u00a0tangentially when teaching binary representations of data and programs from a widely used\u00a0\u201cdead tree\u201d textbook developed at CMU.<\/p>\n

These students, and I suspect all CS students today, are being robbed of a transformative\u00a0experience. We, old geezers, had the chance to \u201cgrow up\u201d slowly exploring and learning the\u00a0concepts and building blocks of UNIX from our first physical terminal sessions. As we explored,\u00a0our understanding grew and our skills to probe deeper naturally evolved. Our ability to both\u00a0comprehend and \u201cdo\u201d became one and the same. Given the massive layers of software and\u00a0CS topics that students are exposed to now, we are lucky if out of a course like CS210, they\u00a0memorize the recipes of a few shell commands and can answer some assembly questions on an\u00a0exam. Unfortunately, few if any get to glimpse the magic of computers systems and what one\u00a0can do with a foundational understanding of them<\/span><\/p>\n

We, as educators, can and must do much better! Guided, self-exploration is key to truly\u00a0understanding the world of UNIX and the details of how software and hardware interact and fit\u00a0together. We now have the opportunity to provide such an experience in the cloud in a first-class\u00a0and open way. Specifically, we can exploit technologies and trends in authoring online textbooks\u00a0(JupyterBook<\/a>) combined with the ability to containerize, complete and customized companion\u00a0Linux stacks, all powered by OpenShift and served on demand from the MOC. This lets us create\u00a0a rich, web browser accessible, educational experience that is \u201creal\u201d and does not compromise\u00a0conceptual or technical soundness nor limit exploration.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this talk I will discuss our experiences, demo some of what has been prototyped so far,\u00a0next steps and how this effort fits into the larger vision<\/span><\/p>\n

How to register?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n