On Sat, 21 Oct 2000, fooler wrote:
> "Ian C. Sison" wrote:
>
> > My point is that the playing field should be level. A person should be
> > judged by what his has done. both inside and outside the classroom. And
> > the policy that gives people of "higher education" greater preference [and
> > salaries] over equally brilliant yet non degree holders is to my mind
> > unfair and unjust.
> >
> > I'm not knocking the educational institution. I'm knocking the prejudice
> > and fixation that the corporate world has on "Titles" both academic and
> > corporate.
>
> yes ian , i understand that but this is the normal practice of all systems in the
> world and that is why i encourage to those talented young geeks, as much as
> possible, if you have the time in this world, go get one! nothing will loss from
> you. its an additional gaining knowledge and respect to yourself.
As one of the "have-nots" who has not yet hit the glass-ceiling, my
observation is that many a University/school may not be offering what
-should- be advantageous to degree holders. As much as many of us may
think that we can learn on our own, there are other aspects of University
education that simply cannot be done in isolation. Yes, many of us can
learn so much more from books, from online resources, etc, but we miss out
on some things that traditionally, Universities have provided and still
provide. Alternative modes for this to be provided to the interested have
yet to be put up and implemented. Until this happens, I will still pursue
obtaining "credentials" and the other valuable aspects of University life
that the degree symbolizes but does not guarantee.
A book that provides some insight on this and other important issues, "The
Social Life of Information"[1] points out some aspects that I think are
missing in some of our local institutions and available and visibly
advantageous in others. In their chapter on "Re-Education", Brown and
Duguid talk of the community of practitioners that the student is put in
touch with when she enrols and gets her education in a University. This is
tied up with the research function of the University, where ideally,
professors are actively engaged in research work of which they share
aspects of to their students. The students get involved in research as
well as get in contact with practitioners in the field. It would work well
especially in a mentoring situation, where practitioners share with
students the problems that they encounter in actual practice and which
theories and fundamentals they can apply (whatever field it might be). We
can ask though how many of our students get exposed to professors who do
engage in research and make THAT a part of their classes. New knowledge
crossing over from the research labs into the classrooms is something that
I would really like to see more of. I know that this happens in a few of
our universities, but then, how many schools and universities have tie ups
with industry and have real research programs that seep into their
classrooms?
>From what I see, many graduates end up learning on-the-job much more than
what they had expected to learn in school. And this leads to the creation
of corporate classrooms, "universities" and schools which grant 'degrees'
such as CCNEs, MCSEs, all other accreditation that may or may not be
valuable. Not that I'm knocking those as useless either, but in the end,
what some of us really want is to be able to do what we do better and
perhaps get more experienced people look over our shoulders to give a tip
or two here and there.
Excuse the long-winded post. I just had to put my 8 bits in.
[1] Brown, John Seely and Paul Duguid. 2000. The Social Life of
Information. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
(http://www.slofi.com)
--
eric pareja ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) <O> Here, have a clue. Get the picture.
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