15 Apr
2011
15 Apr
'11
11:47 a.m.
On 13/04/11 14:45, Dave McGuire wrote:
> If someone tried to feed me that garbage in a school, I'd demand my
> money back. Bravo for trimming the fat from your stuff.
Actually, that is minor compared to some of the garbage I was 'taught' at
school. I fact I don;t think I ever had a clueful matehmatics of physics
teacher.
I think the wordst was when I was aksed to descrtivbe a method of
measuring something (the capacitance of a capacitor). I did so (an AC
bridge) and was told 'That is a compariston and not a measurement', I am
still waiting for a definition of 'measurement' (or an esample of one) which
does not involve a comaprison to a standard.
Universities are great at this sort of crap... or at
least mine was (not
Actually, I found school to be a lot worse than universiry...
named for obvious reasons, namely I don't feel
like poking the huge
fire-breathing dragon that is their in-house legal team)
This year (for the second year in a row) the MSc. Computing and
Information Systems course was merged with the MEng. Software Engineering.
Problem: CIS is intended as a fairly easy course for non-UK students who
have no formal qualifications in comp-sci or any related subject. About
80% of the students on the course have backgrounds in business (mainly
MBAs from various sketchy "universities" - quote-unquote, insert sarcasm
^^^^^^^^^^^^
I assume oens that i tend to refer to as the 'ex poly parrots' :-)
here, et cetera).
The MEng is -- or at least was -- a completely different course. To get
on it in the first place you needed to do the BSc Software Development
course first (four years) and hit an average of 60% over the final three
years of the course AND the industry placement. No ifs, buts, arguments,
or "2% grace". You get 60% or you leave with a BSc. Fail a single
module, tough, you leave with the BSc.
As a result of the merger, the course has been dumbed down
significantly. The assignment for the Advanced Software Development
module, for example, is a basic Java maintenance task: refactor some
code (change function names, move some functions into separate classes,
and so on). Basic stuff any second-year BSc Software Dev student should
be able to do.
One of the Infosec lecturers heard about this and tried to run a few
extra modules (non-credit) while the networking/security lab wasn't in
use. Reverse engineering, data analysis, pattern matching, all sorts of
neat stuff. The Head of Department put the brakes on this pretty damn
quickly: "Misuse of university resources."
I am wondering in what sense teaching students something that is probably
usefu lis 'misuse of university respirces'... I guess it;s like the time
I was kicked out of the school ibrary (and had to get special permision
to carry on) becasue I was reading the books.
-tony