Introductory computer literacy has always posed a challenge to instructors. Although students generally enter college with a lot of personal computer experience, those students taking introductory literacy courses can still pose a challenge when trying to convey a sense of how computers operate internally. As with many topics, a hands-on approach seems most effective. For teaching internal computer operation, many rely on simulations of a computer's Central Processing Unit (CPU). At the University of St. Thomas, a CPU simulation called the "SimpleCPU" is introduced. The simulation operates within a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Since Excel is already part of the introductory literacy course, the CPU simulation simply adds on to a program the students have already learned.
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