Happy 100th post!!!!!
I started this back in August and now I hit post number 100. Hurray!!
So, what do I talk about for post number 100...Lets see
A story was posted on slashdot about American kids 'outsourcing' their homework. Skrubby made note of a website back in data structures where you could go bid on work and also put up work for others to do. I was looking at that in class oh so long ago to see if, by chance, someone had posted wanting someone to do their DS work for them, and sure enough someone had. Being the student that I am I brought this to his attention (of course this was before I joined his circle of friends) and he immediately had a small list of names of whom it could be. Skrubby was vigilant about cheating, which is a quality which seems to be lacking from some professors these days.
Things like this is why our country is falling behind in Math and Science. Several people are too lazy to do their own work. I understand for some people the class was hard, I admit it was difficult. We were being introduced to a lot of new material rapidly which is quite important to understand for later classes (and your career if you want to amount to anything). It was compounded by a language change as well. While some may say it shouldn't be too hard and I somewhat agree. Its within the same paradigm and extremely similar syntax, however the differences are great enough to cause problems for some. I don't consider myself a great coder but I had problems too. However, its that kind of work which makes one better.
As computer scientists we should come out of school with the basic knowledge of programming language theory and some insight about its design. We should have the basic knowledge to figure out resources for the syntax and semantics of a new language.
The enrollment is down at school and probably for a good reason. I'm sure some people come into the program and see that the intro courses are...well...bobo, then transfer to a new program because of this. From what I can see, there is no real challenge in the beginning. I also feel that doing group projects too early is detrimental to a student. In order to flourish in this dicipline, you must have a firm grasp of the basics, which doesn't seem to be happening in this case. Group work is also a very important part of learning, but it must be introduced at the right time to be effective. Once you have the basics and have a solid foundation, then you move on to larger projects. These larger projects then lead to group projects.
I was speaking to a faculty member today and we spoke about some of this. We then got onto the future of the program. The next 5-10 years will be quite interesting with faculty turnover due to retirement. What's going to happen between now and then? What's going to happen after that point in time? I know...as Matt pointed out before we will all be owned by the Japanese.
The End
~Kisea
So, what do I talk about for post number 100...Lets see
A story was posted on slashdot about American kids 'outsourcing' their homework. Skrubby made note of a website back in data structures where you could go bid on work and also put up work for others to do. I was looking at that in class oh so long ago to see if, by chance, someone had posted wanting someone to do their DS work for them, and sure enough someone had. Being the student that I am I brought this to his attention (of course this was before I joined his circle of friends) and he immediately had a small list of names of whom it could be. Skrubby was vigilant about cheating, which is a quality which seems to be lacking from some professors these days.
Things like this is why our country is falling behind in Math and Science. Several people are too lazy to do their own work. I understand for some people the class was hard, I admit it was difficult. We were being introduced to a lot of new material rapidly which is quite important to understand for later classes (and your career if you want to amount to anything). It was compounded by a language change as well. While some may say it shouldn't be too hard and I somewhat agree. Its within the same paradigm and extremely similar syntax, however the differences are great enough to cause problems for some. I don't consider myself a great coder but I had problems too. However, its that kind of work which makes one better.
As computer scientists we should come out of school with the basic knowledge of programming language theory and some insight about its design. We should have the basic knowledge to figure out resources for the syntax and semantics of a new language.
The enrollment is down at school and probably for a good reason. I'm sure some people come into the program and see that the intro courses are...well...bobo, then transfer to a new program because of this. From what I can see, there is no real challenge in the beginning. I also feel that doing group projects too early is detrimental to a student. In order to flourish in this dicipline, you must have a firm grasp of the basics, which doesn't seem to be happening in this case. Group work is also a very important part of learning, but it must be introduced at the right time to be effective. Once you have the basics and have a solid foundation, then you move on to larger projects. These larger projects then lead to group projects.
I was speaking to a faculty member today and we spoke about some of this. We then got onto the future of the program. The next 5-10 years will be quite interesting with faculty turnover due to retirement. What's going to happen between now and then? What's going to happen after that point in time? I know...as Matt pointed out before we will all be owned by the Japanese.
The End
~Kisea
posted by Brian Wright at 11:32 PM
1 Comments:
Preach on brotha!
Post a Comment
<< Home