U.S. colleges retool programming classes - Yahoo! News

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Andrew C Burnette <acb () acb net>
Date: May 28, 2007 8:46:12 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] U.S. colleges retool programming classes - Yahoo! News

Interesting read.

I have found (having worked as a regular joe employee at several  
universities) the faculty in general not interested in teaching at  
all. Marshall Brain (founder of http://www.howstuffworks.com) was  
denied tenure at my particular employer university because his  
availability to students threatened other professors' appearance in  
the community (yes, he was dropped in a slightly more polite way, but  
you get the idea, he was far too popular among staff and students).   
I can only imagine the cringe on the department head's forehead when  
he recently appeared on Oprah. Good Job Dr. Brain:)

I attended a small college, where class sizes maxed out at 15-20  
students typically, and an "real live(tm)" Ph.D. taught each and  
every class. Professors were available to students, and the student  
to teacher ratio was low enough that this interpersonal communication  
was not a burden on faculty. The focus at my particular university  
was in fact education. Mine was a double major in math and CS. Turns  
out, my background in math is of more value in my career.

Perhaps it is time to reevaluate how undergraduate education is  
taught, content aside, to reward professors with tenure track  
positions for teaching, and producing outstanding graduates. Even  
better, should it not be almost trivial to produce a matrix which  
evaluates how many undergrads go onto graduate school and determine  
which faculty inspire the students to reach for the gold?

Now, here in NJ, former home of former bell labs and all the good  
brainpower formerly associated with it, high school counselors are  
telling students "don't major in CS/EE/etc" because of the horrible  
treatment the average programmer gets on the job; no job loyalty,  
long hours, lousy benefits.  I realize star performers in just about  
any field in addition to star companies are exempted from that low  
standard, but the standard is low nonetheless.

At one former Lucent spinoff, currently the process is called  
"shadowing" where an overseas employee shadows you around for 6  
months, learns your job, and you then receive your pink slip.

My young cousin is in law school now. He wanted to be a programmer,  
but I would not lie to him about his future in an industry that  
essentially does not offer potential for longer term gain (sans a  
very small minority of the industry).

During the economic expansion, IT and related industries have seen  
salaries stagnate or decline, employers outsource, and employees left  
holding the empty bag.

It truly feels like a 180 degree turnaround from the day in the early  
1990's when I joined bell labs, and the level of disinvestment in the  
industry has produced the mediocre results we see in products  
throughout the marketplace.

Just the view from here.

Cheers,
andy

David Farber wrote:
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070527/ap_on_hi_te/ 
> reprogramming_programmers
> *
> U.S. colleges retool programming classes*
> By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer
> Sun May 27, 6:33 PM ET
> ATLANTA - The lesson plan was called "Artificial Unintelligence,"  
> but it was written more like a comic book than a syllabus for a  
> serious computer science class.
> "Singing, dancing and drawing polygons may be nifty, but any self- 
> respecting evil roboticist needs a few more tricks in the  
> repertoire if they are going to take over the world," read the  
> day's instructions to a dozen or so Georgia Tech robotics students.
> <snip>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> --
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