"downfalls" of higher education
Posted by Emma Hryniewicz
sooo... I constantly hang out in chatrooms. The past few days on AIM, I've launched into a few angry tirades of "I hate school, I hate technology, it's going to be a long night, a long week and I feel like I'm doing a decapitated chicken routine".
And I know most of it's uncharacteristic because I'm an IT major, technology is in some sense my life force. I just have really bad luck when it comes to laptops (My Dell just fried this weekend--yeah, i know you get what you pay for with a Dell laptop). And I've learned generally that by no means am I a coder. I simply don't have the thought process for it. I'm a tester. My passion is in playing and experimenting, not building.
Today, said rant lead to a very interesting discussion with a Science Education/Computer Science double major about coding team projects, professors, and the downfalls of the academic system.
He's older so I do think he has some valid points.
His view is that essentially most Computer Science professors are researchers, not teachers. I will say that I think Simmons does fairly well, but that I think that I would learn better with someone with direct degrees in education alongside their work in Computer Science and Technology. I really do need a helping hand when it comes to working in this field. I love it, but I need some better structured work methods...and I need direct information. I can do some digging, but I can't go digging through over 100 pages of notes and links just for one assignment. It's ridiculous and impractical. And "Just Google It" only goes so far...
The other thing we talked about was the failure of having capable TAs who can handle classes. Another thing that I think Simmons does fairly well when it comes to classes, even if there's a shortage of TAs generally speaking.
Well... back to more work. and I know there's an SGA post-election pajama bash on Wednesday... but I'm probably not going because I have a date....
Posted: November 3, 2008 9:06 pm | 0 comments
Tags: academic system, coding, computers, extracurriculars, higher education, thought process
