This summer, my 11-year-old son is starting an informal internship here at Room 34 Creative Services, where I will be giving him some hands-on experience building websites, and also giving a series of — hopefully interesting — lectures on the basics of various aspects of computing.
Last Friday was his first day, and also the first lecture. Entitled “Bits”, it was an introduction to the most basic elements of computing — binary switches, or bits — and following through the mathematical implications of binary numbers to the specific applications of hex code colors in HTML/CSS and 32-bit IP addresses — along with a supplementary discussion of domain names and how they relate to IPs. (That supplementary discussion being the original intended topic of the whole lecture, but I digressed… or, I guess, regressed.)
I have decided to begin a companion series of blog posts, grouped under the new category The Computer Course, not replicating word for word the lectures themselves (since the lectures are mostly off the cuff), but using the same basic outlines as the lectures, and adapting the content in a way that suits the medium.