hardware

• + explained interaction among hardware elements
• + comments on evolution over time e.g. Moore's Law
• + mouse click translated into action e.g. hardware/software interaction
• + expected to hear of hardware described in text but with commentary
• - "hardware is hard," "can touch hardware," "computer made of hardware," "different computers use different hardware"
  i.e. vague general statements don't help
• - tendency to list hardware components but provide little to no explanation

software

• + interface design
• + distinction among types of software from operating systems to applications
• + enhanced by explanations of the function of different software
• +  examples given such as artificial limbs
• + descriptions of experience in CS100
• + explained programming and algorithms
• + software transforms the hardware into different tools
• - again, vague statements such as "software can make computers faster," "software stores memory"
• - "a RAM is a software" versus the positive effect of describing how software is loaded from
  disk storage into RAM and run (with possible commentary on CPU, etc)
• - tendency to list software products with little to no explanation

giving instructions to computers versus humans
 and computers make mistakes, not humans

• + coding difficulty
• + computer reliability after correct coding e.g. arithmetic
• + computers don't forget
• + human intelligence involved in understanding instructions
• + "to err is human"
• - some very strange ideas about the types of errors made by computers but also some good insights into humans
  blaming computers for their own errors
• - tendency to only answer one side of these questions