Computing Theory with Relevance

In computer science education, the topic of computing theory is one that is commonly not well received by stu-dents. Career-oriented students often view the topic as irrelevant, and would rather learn new skills and tech-nologies that they perceive will improve their future em-ployment prospects. This paper outlines an approach that attempts to blend these two apparent extremes by using "popular " technologies, including XML, to motivate and illustrate concepts of computing theory in a first-year un-dergraduate computing subject. Kevwords: computer science education, computing the-ory, XM

XML in the computing Curriculum

XML in the Computing Curriculum: XML (Extensible Markup Language) provides a way of structuring and describing data in a simple text format understandable for human beings and in the same way easily interpretable by computer programs. It is widely used in industry and it forms a fundamental standard for a number of emerging technologies, including Web Services, RDF (Resource Description Framework), RSS (Really Simple Syndication), as well as derivatives languages such as WML (Wireless Markup Language) and XHTML (Extensible HTML). This paper describes the experience of teaching XML at our department and the approach of embedding XML topics in already existing courses. It also points out the underpinning theoretical concepts related to XM