I love Facebook as much as the next chap. (Not!) And I understand and accept that it is loved. But surely you are not asking the lecturer to play circus monkey, trying to compete with Facebook for the student's attention? Making the work as compelling as possible surely does not require me to aim to compete for mindshare with Facebook? No teacher in their right mind would want to play that game! Because next they'll put up an all-day casino, complete with mulenge showgirls, and ask you to compete. It is silly. I don't believe I owe it to any student to play that game.
P. On Sep 14, 2010, at 16:20, Emmanuel Mulo wrote: > I am getting a whiff of tech-snobbery on this list. When did spending time > on facebook equate to one not being curious or misusing the resources > available to them? The student life is filled with many things and one of > the biggest is a social part. As a lecturer your duty which you *owe* (yes! > you owe it to them) to the students is to make your work as compelling as you > possibly can. And if you are indeed that compelling they shall follow you. > > > > > On 14/09/2010 12:39, Ronald Kato wrote: >> If only people utilized resources around them, then alot can be >> achieved. I get baffled when I see students in MUK whining and making >> comparison or sometimes under estimating the resources before them. Take >> for instance if you went to lab and found it empty or partially filled, >> then there is a high chance that there isn't internet connection. >> When you find it filled, nearly all students are chatting away and one >> would wonder when we would ever catch up to the slandered of students in >> the US. >> In the end of comes down to intereste driven by a strong sense of >> curiosity. The desire to know how things work or how to make life better >> is what drew many geeks to the level they are in now. >> >> Some times the government will towards innovation and research matters >> alot in advancing technology. The American gov't spends alot of money in >> keeping NASA running, yet here we spend it on buyng 200m cars for gov't >> officials. >> The government together with the private sector like Apple >> or Microsoft in the US have made computers and academic devices more >> affordable, so as to have nearly everyone joining the digital world. >> >> Lastly most of us here lacking a reading culture. Regardless of how much >> information you have before you but if you don't take time to read and >> understand it, then is wasted. We prefer to read something either >> ''juicy'' and gossips or anything with little intellectual input. >> >> We need an a complete overhaul to our mindsets if we are to achieve more >> in technology. >> >> Regards, >> Ronald >> >> On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 9:03 AM, Paul Bagyenda <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> >> I agree with you on not using GSoC as the measure. It is only a >> crude measure. Just as others have in the past used Project Euler as >> a crude measure. >> >> On the question of what we (software company people and lecturers) >> are going to do about it, my view is that we are doing our bit. I >> think I tried. More to the point, ask not what your country will do >> for you. And so on and so forth. In the last fews years I taught at >> Makerere I was always amazed how much students moaned about >> conditions, and yet were unable to see the opportunities presented >> to them. Of course this is normal human behaviour. The Faculty of >> Computing at Makerere has more Internet-connected computers than any >> other organisation in this country. And yet you always saw them >> doing Facebook! >> >> Then there was the small matter of your typical student's >> inability to leverage the Internet for learning purposes, despite >> your lecturer's best efforts. >> >> The short of it, Eugene, is that the hard reality of this world is >> that we owe you nothing. And yet one day you will leave that >> cosseted setting and we will demand a lot from you. What you are you >> doing do about that? >> >> P. >> >> On Sep 12, 2010, at 21:39, [email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]> wrote: >> >> > People write code to solve problems that are facing them, so how >> can you tell a guy from Kihihi to code for a robot? The guy thinks >> that robots only exist in movies. My solution is maybe we should not >> gauge ourselves on Google summer of code and try to write codes to >> solve our current problems. >> > I am sure that universities abroad receive huge sums of money >> from their governments to do what they do and yet for us even >> getting internet is a challenge. So maybe we should stop looking at >> them and look at ourselves. Some of the people complaining about >> this are lecturers and people who own software companies, so what >> are you going to do about that yourselves?? >> > Eugene MUNYANEZA >> > Makerere University >> > Faculty of Computing and Information Technology >> > Bachelor of Science in Computer Science >> > Year 3 >> > _______________________________________________ >> > LUG mailing list >> > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >> > http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug >> > >> > LUG is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ >> > >> > All Archives can be found at >> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> > >> > The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them >> (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible >> for them in any way. >> > --------------------------------------- >> > >> > >> >> _______________________________________________ >> LUG mailing list >> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >> http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug >> >> LUG is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ >> >> All Archives can be found at >> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> >> The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them >> (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible >> for them in any way. >> --------------------------------------- >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> LUG mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug >> >> LUG is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ >> >> All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> >> The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including >> attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. >> --------------------------------------- >> > _______________________________________________ > LUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug > > LUG is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > > All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including > attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. > --------------------------------------- > > _______________________________________________ LUG mailing list [email protected] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug LUG is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---------------------------------------
