Notional machine

The fol­lo­wing arti­cle per­fec­tly outli­nes the con­cept of Notional Machine. The sec­tions to focus on are chap­ters 1,2,4,5,7,8; the other sec­tions will be cove­red in other parts of the course.

• Sorva, Juha. Notional Machines and Introductory Programming Education. ACM Transactions on Computing Education. 13. 8:1–8:31. (2013)

Points for reasoning/discussion

• As usual, iden­ti­fy rele­vant aspec­ts of the pro­po­sed arti­cle, either posi­ti­ve or negative.
• Looking back at the pro­gram­ming cour­ses you have taken, have you ever refe­ren­ced the con­cept of notio­nal machi­ne, even without expli­ci­tly naming it?
• Following the cha­rac­te­ri­stics descri­bed by Morgan (page 9), would you be able to “ana­ly­ze” a men­tal model you have deve­lo­ped regar­ding a notio­nal machine?