This thread is focusing so much on the Universities, but in my experience, when people are applying to University, Computer Science/IT is usually a 5-6th option. That means over 60% of students doing Computer science/IT are people who just failed to get their first choices.
So the focus needs to be in the secondary/primary schools. For someone to participate in an event like GSoC, I don't think all you need is a few lectures on Java/C++. You need to have been developing, and should have developed a few programs and have a basic understanding of good coding practices. You don't get that from the university, since most of the first year barely touches programming. But if students are encouraged to tinker with programming languages while they are younger, maybe we'd have more Ugandans/Africans creating stuff with computers. Daniel, Payplus > -----Original Message----- > From: Emmanuel Mulo [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 5:33 PM > To: Linux Users Group Uganda > Subject: Re: [LUG] Google summer of code > > hehe! Mulenge girls!! hehehe.. why dont you set that one up.. I would be > curious to see. :) > > I did not say compete with facebook, although now that you brought it up > and I think about it, this is actually what any lecturer is doing. You are > competing with 1000s of stimuli students experience during university life > (some things even more popular than facebook ;) ) > > So yes, you have to make your offering compelling... as compelling as you > possibly can. That does not make you a circus monkey. That means creating > an interesting engaging environment that activates the students' > minds/imagination (easier said than done). Then its up to the students to > decide how to divide their mindshare (or to make their days 28hours long to > include everything). > > > > On 14/09/2010 16:05, Paul Bagyenda wrote: > > 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. > > --------------------------------------- > _______________________________________________ > 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. ---------------------------------------
