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From: kolb@handel.colostate.edu. (Denny Kolb)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Student preparedness
Message-ID: <978@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU>
Date: 12 Jan 89 21:56:13 GMT
References: <4893@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <6435@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> <8125@aw.sei.cmu.edu> <2334@hou2d.UUCP> <533@eecea.eece.ksu.edu>
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Reply-To: kolb@handel.colostate.edu..UUCP (Denny Kolb)
Organization: Colorado State University, Ft. Collins CO 80523
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In article <533@eecea.eece.ksu.edu> gordon@eecea.UUCP (Dwight Gordon) writes:
>
>Question 1 - Is it really helping them prepare for their jobs of the
>future?  Who will summarize for them on the job in this fashion?
>(No sarcasm is intended here.  I'm very seriously considering posting my
>notes for one of my courses.  My reservation is that I may be defeating
>part of the purpose of the course.  Former students suggested posting my
>notes - I really don't care either way.  I just would like to do the best
>I can for my students.)  Comments please.

   Depends, corporations routinely offer in house classes for their employees
   to familiarize them with new topics; however, in a great many cases
   one is required to do the legwork one-self.

   A suggestion, at least for CS type classes, would be to at least publish
   the example programs that are used in class, with plenty of room around
   them for marginal comments.  Instead of handing out the notes, how about 
   including just a summary of what is covered?  Additionally, include study
   questions, which would possibly get the students to think a little about
   the material, and not try for simple rote memorization.  Hopefully, this 
   would all be done in such a way that students would realize that they still 
   need to listen in class to get all of the details.
>
>More fundamentally -
>Question 2 - Are we (as educators) attempting to teach the students the 
>information itself, or how to learn (or, perhaps, how to teach themselves)?
>Comments please.
   
       How to learn!  People are seldom hired, especialy new college graduates,
    exclusively for what they DO know, but rather for what they CAN learn.  The 
    more the students are encouraged to learn for themselves, the more valuable 
    they will be to any prospective employer, and the farther, and faster they
    will advance in their career.  This is partly the reason why graduates with 
    an MS are more valuable to prospective employers;  the whole point to an MS 
    degree, IMHO is to learn how to teach yourself.

Regards,
Denny