Yes, there's a big trend. But that's not due to programming or CS. That's due to the universities. They are slow, and ridiculously expensive (at least in the US). The computer world is fast-moving, and almost incomprehensibly cheap, once you've got the basic tools that all potential university students already have anyway for other reasons (a computer and an internet connection). What would you like? Cheap and fast, or Slow and expensive? The choice is obvious.
Learning programming is clearly far better suited to an autodidactical model. With the increased social connection offered by the internet. The "natural" programmers (those who in the past would start their CS course having already written at least a few toy programs in BASIC on their C64, back in the day) have already picked up on this. They simply no longer see a university as the only, or even an efficient, way of learning still more about programming and computer science. Instead they'll read lambda the ultimate. Or write their own compiler. They can hang around in newsgroups and IRC channels, leverage the internet for free papers, tinker with instant feedback from the internet-using public, use vast amounts of open source software, and otherwise continue learning all the way up to the very highest levels without the use of that slow, ridiculously expensive university. This leaves the ones that don't care all that much for programming who nevertheless think for some reason that CS is the course for them, and thus the % of CS freshmen who don't really like programming or have never tried it is increasing. This is not a bad trend. On the contrary: It's a good trend. The computer world is blazing a path to an educational model that is more scalable and all-around better than what universities currently offer. On Oct 5, 2:02 pm, Carl Jokl <[email protected]> wrote: > I don't know how many individuals on this forum have dealings with the > Academic world and so it might be a harder question to answer. > > I had a conversation with a member of staff about the state > programming being taught at the university. Coming from a programming > background I wondered if it could be improved. At the moment it does > not seem to be in a good state at all with the assessment not really > being appropriate to demonstrating proper understanding (I can see > some of this as slightly political as if a lot of students struggle > with a subject there is a tenancy to try and make it easier so a > fairly consistent number pass rather than just letting students > fail). > > Part of the discussion interested me. It seems as time goes on the > impression from the staff is that students have seemingly had a harder > and harder time understanding programming concepts. More students are > pushing to try and avoid their project involving any programming if > they can help it. This sentiment is even starting to be manifest in > some of the Masters (Postgrad) students. > > I wondered it this is a problem or trend confined just to the > University I am involved with (which I could accept) or if this is > part of a more widespread problem which others have observed > elsewhere? > > Is the computer world in which they grew up different to the point > that they have different expectations from computing than we may have > had? > > I find the ability to program empowering and find it a real shame that > so many students brand programming as "boring". I do think though that > using examples like ATM machines is hardly going make students exited > about programming. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
