Introductory presentation to establish vocabulary

[reid-a]

Based on feedback from a NIST teaching session, where learners complained about inconsistent use of terms like "node", "server", etc, which are used without definition or introduction in the lesson.

A candidate solution is to have the first unit be a presentation where broad concepts and vocabulary are introduced.

[reid-a]

Proposed outline:

• Introduce the laptop, as is currently done in the first part of lesson 11.
• Replace "when tasks take too long" with an introduction to different kinds of computers, their roles, and terminology.
  • Large single computers, conceptually like a laptop with a bigger CPU and more RAM.
  • Mainframes (?), big integrated multi-CPU machines with a single memory space
  • "The Cloud" -- arrays of disparately-sized computers doing different parts of a computational problem
  • Clusters and supercomputers, arrays of similar computer systems, differing by degree of integration, workload
• Introduce "server", "node", maybe "network", "machine", and be clear about their meaning within the lesson.
• Move on to more detailed examples, incorporating parts of the 2nd part.
  • Audience participation to jolt learners back into the flow.

[reid-a]

Draft text now available on the Codi.

[tkphd]

Closed by #377