[KLUG Advocacy] Let's get this CS v. CIS v. moron v. other party started -- WAS: Oh, the joys of upgrading!

[Doc Rea]

More from a "horse's mouth"...

On Tue, 2002-12-31 at 09:53, Robert G. Brown wrote:
> Adam Tauno Williams <adam@morrison-ind.com> wrote:
> >I'm not so sure it is that black and white, or what "traditional education"
> >encompsases.  I attended a technical college/program and dropped out in both
> >disgust and boredom.
> You're right, it's not that black and white, there's a lot of grey, 
> IMO mostly in two directions:
> 
>    1. Overall quailty and currency
>    2. Focus.


Quality and currency in the subject area are a major concern of mine as
well. Yet, we also need folks who know how to teach well. These items
are not the same. One can bring in an excellent Java programmer from
industry and he'she might not know how to teach well. That class would
be just as frustrating for most students as one where the person can
teach, but knows little about Java (and just uses a book as the course).

As far as focus...I'm not sure I follow. By this do you mean the focus
of the degree, the class, the instructor? All of this?
> 

> >It is the complete lack of clue about things like version control that bug me. 
> >Not that they don't know how to use CVS, but that they don't get it, even the
> >"why".
> Overall, what you're recting to is, in general, a lack of practical 
> experience in "real world" development environments.  The notion of 
> rolling back a change, or seeing how things progress from version to 
> version is easily lost on people who haven't been there. I recall when 
> I was required to use version control tools; it was quite an eye-opener!
> 

This is absolutely true and it's one of the main reasons I tell students
to get internships. The real world experience cannot be reproduced in a
classroom or a lab. Every one of my courses requires students to do a
project and I try to make these projects in the real world so students
get some experience.

That being said...If any of you have internship opportunities, let me
know and I'll advertise, set them up, and help supervise them.


> 
>         *** EDUCATORS, it is YOUR TURN!! ***
> 

I think I've been taking a few turns :]