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From: bzs@bu-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Resources and education
Message-ID: <6855@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: Wed, 22-Apr-87 12:44:57 EST
Article-I.D.: bu-cs.6855
Posted: Wed Apr 22 12:44:57 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 24-Apr-87 02:25:33 EST
References: <780@killer.UUCP>
Organization: Boston U. Comp. Sci.
Lines: 59
In-reply-to: elg@killer.UUCP's message of 20 Apr 87 09:25:01 GMT
Posting-Front-End: GNU Emacs 18.41.4 of Mon Mar 23 1987 on bu-cs (berkeley-unix)


From: elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green)
>First, we have to figure out what we're here to do. If the person knows enough
>to get ACM algorithms to get a bubblesort, then when the person is on the job
>and needs a bubblesort, he can just pick up ACM algorithms.
...
>In other words, the whole purpose of the thing is to get the program written.

No, no, no, no, no, a thousand times, no.

If the whole purpose of the thing is to get the program written I
would write it myself. I certainly do not need 40 copies of a bubble
sort algorithm written by freshmen, trust me. Or perhaps *I* would
copy it out of a book.

The whole purpose of the thing is to LEARN SOMETHING! That's why you
are in college.

Why is this concept too subtle for some people to grasp?

In math you work math problems which you can probably find solutions
to right in the back of the book. Does this mean you should just copy
the answers out of the back of the book because that's what a "real"
mathematician would do? That's absurd.

The point is to get practice in thinking through problems yourself,
within a very artificial setting that has been tuned to your level of
training.

If we gave intro students (after all, who could an assgt to write a
bubble-sort be for?) original problems who's answers were not
published they would (almost) all drop dead on the spot.

So what do we have to do? Manufacture artificial problems that we are
quite sure are of the right challenge level just to make it impossible
to copy them out of a book? How useful are these problems going to be?
How much are they going to reflect the whims of the instructor's
interests? (gee, you shoulda been in my Real Analysis course...)

Yes, it is useful, nay, critical, to know how to use reference materials
to solve problems by the time you get out of an undergraduate CS program.
No argument.

But it is also useful to learn how to solve problems yourself because:

	WHEN IT COMES TO REAL LIFE YOU CAN'T ALWAYS LOOK IN
			THE BACK OF THE BOOK!

All you are asked to do is to determine when it is appropriate to use
outside materials and when it is appropriate to work a problem entirely
on your own (typically using a text.)

If you have any question as to which is which, ask your instructor. I
am sure s/he will know.

Think about it, why does a person jog when they can obviously get where
they are going faster in a car?

	-Barry Shein, Boston University