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Education Programming

How Computer Science Education Got Practical (Again) 154

jfruh writes: In the 1980s and 1990s, thousands of young people who had grown up tinkering with PCs hit college and dove into curricula designed around the vague notion that they might want to "do something with computers." Today, computer science education is a lot more practical — though in many ways that's just going back to the discipline's roots. As Christopher Mims put it in the Wall Street Journal, "we've entered an age in which demanding that every programmer has a degree is like asking every bricklayer to have a background in architectural engineering."
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How Computer Science Education Got Practical (Again)

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  • by mystuff ( 1088543 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @07:40AM (#50017663)

    Sure, but you can't ask a team of bricklayers to assemble a livable house. In fact in this analogy it's so obvious that you also need an architect, a plumber, etc, that there's no need to even mention it. But when it comes to programmers and (corporate) management it's a whole different story. They will get a team of 'bricklayers' together and tell them to build the next Youtube - or a bit close to home, the next corporate content distribution platform - and then be utterly dumbfounded when that blows up in their face.

  • It seems like a commonplace that not every line-of-business java slinger is going to make use of the more elegant mathematics being worked out on the edges of 'computer science'; but isn't this issue already addressed by the fact that things like 'software engineering' are distinct courses of study, with a different emphasis?

    Also, why do we care what a former biologist, now sci/tech article writer for the WSJ has to say about technology-related education? Is there some connection that I'm missing?
    • Re:Umm... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @08:30AM (#50017891) Homepage

      Also, why do we care what a former biologist, now sci/tech article writer for the WSJ has to say about technology-related education? Is there some connection that I'm missing?

      We already have Playboy models advising the public on medicine and Fundamentalist Christians in charge of the National Science Curriculum so hey, why not?

    • Also, why do we care what a former biologist, now sci/tech article writer for the WSJ has to say about technology-related education? Is there some connection that I'm missing?

      Wall Street dreams of coding to become yet another minimum-wage unskilled job. It probably will, simply because coding isn't all that difficult, just tedious, and as computers continue getting everywhere programming will ultimately become like literacy is now.

  • though only if you identify the scope of the work. You need a bricklayer to build the house, but he needs to be educated if he's going to be the GC / project lead. Don't hire unskilled labor for a skilled position.

    But it totally makes sense to hire basic codemonkeys for the grind work. You don't need a CS degree to maintain your site's javascript or write queries all day long.

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @08:34AM (#50017919)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @10:16AM (#50018587)

      What this author is trying to say is computer programming can be a trade of a learned skill set, much like a brick layer is a learned skill set; albeit a crude example. If companies are bemoaning about the lack of computer programmers and the skill sets in the market, then they need to realize that mandating a college degree is not needed.

      When I read the comments, in here, and the general attitude in the outside world, it always comes down to some form of this:

      "We know exactly what a student will need for their career, nothing more need be taught."

      Or some other such truism, focused on the job as it presently exists. One thing for certain, is that if you train a student in the fully practical, the student will know how ot do exactly one thing, and will become redundant rather quickly.

      A programmer knowing what a netmask is? Hell yes.

      I have found through personal experience and general logic, that a person who knows more about what they are doing knows more about what they are doing. A programmer that can answer questions that do not relate 100 percent to his narrow job description is more valuable than one who cannot. KNowing bout more things can lead to nifty stuff like promotions, raises and the like.

      My extraneous and supposedly non-relevant knowledge has over the years served me quite well, as relevant solutions are often found outside the normal solution set. In addition, I can never tell where a solution might pop up from.

      disclaimer: I read Wikipedia for fun.

      But if you want to teach someone off the street the programming language du jour, and set him or her in a cubicle raking in that minimum wage, then yeah, you can teach that in short order. That isn't worth much more than minimum wage, as you are producing an almost valueless throwaway employee.

    • by PPH ( 736903 )

      There is a gulf difference between what I consider Computer Science and Computer Programming.

      Actually, a good CS degree is built upon a knowledge of computer programming. And the latter should be a prerequisite for the former.

      It's like asking an architect to prepare a design for a building who cannot read blueprints. I don't expect the CS to have the same experience or productivity as the bricklayer. But I do expect them to understand the process and advantages or limitations of the materials selected.

    • Bricklayer is a bad analogy. If they wanted to give an example of a skilled trade, a stonemason would make more sense. A bricklayer is the guy you hire to build a patio, BBQ, fireplace, or facade of a house which does require skill, but it lacks the depth required. A stonemason can have skills in a broad range from building a small monument or mausoleum to an entire cathedral depending on skill. We need people who can turn architectural design plans into reality and do so with accuracy and technical mastery

  • If you are hiring a bricklayer to do the work of an architect, or vice versa, you probably have the wrong person for the job.
    If you are hiring a script kiddie to doe the work of a software engineer, or vice versa, you probably have the wrong person for the job.

    Just keep in mind that in many areas, using an unlicensed engineer on certain projects is illegal. When is software engineering going to finally step up to the plate?

    • Just keep in mind that in many areas, using an unlicensed engineer on certain projects is illegal. When is software engineering going to finally step up to the plate?

      Not any time soon. This situation where it's difficult to prove whose fault it is benefits everyone but the consumer, which is why it won't change.

  • The fact that most CS grads (under most current programs) can't program their way out of a wet paper bag is a symptom of a larger issue. Too many students spend four years (and $100,000 or more) learning all kinds of "theory" and learning how to learn, and graduate with a useless piece of paper and no marketable skills. Time was when employers recognized that the theory and learning skills meant the graduate was easily trainable and would not need a whole lot of background to become useful to them. But,

    • If you think CS grads only marketable skill is programming - than you have a far more serious problem. Look up systems analyst.
      • by BVis ( 267028 )

        I don't think you got the point of what I was saying. I was saying that a minority of students (including CS grads) have ANY marketable skills when they leave college.

        System analysts get paid FAR too much for someone with no experience fresh out of school.

      • If you think CS grads only marketable skill is programming - than you have a far more serious problem.

        Honestly, if CS grads can't program, WTF is the use of them?

        Yes, CS encompasses a broad range of stuff, but if you haven't learned the fundamental skill of programming ... you're someone who has no practical skills, insufficient industry experience to be useful, and generally bring nothing to the table. So why would anybody hire them?

        Look up systems analyst.

        So some kid straight out of school with no actual

  • I've more or less moved out of programming now but I did it for 30 odd years in the finance industry across various projects. I've used something like 8-10 operating systems and 20+ languages. My code is pretty robust, during dev maybe 1-2 bugs a year were raised against my code and post go live I'm aware of 1 bug that turned out to be me and that was a fairly trivial one. 90% of what I did was donkey work, read a message from IBM MQ, parse it, dump it out to a db, make a few decisions, call a stored proc e
  • "Like nursing or welding, it's something in which a person can develop at least a basic proficiency within weeks or months."

    I do not want to be treated in a hospital where the nurses have just a basic proficiency which they achieved within weeks or months.

    • by bspus ( 3656995 )

      And no software buyer wants their application to be designed and built by green programmers either. That's not what he is trying to say

      Not wanting that to be true does not change the fact that it is, but that's not to say they are all equal.
      A veteran programmer will generally be better than a green. Same goes for any such skilled profession, including nurses.

      The problem with Computing jobs in particular is that many employers (and the general public as well) still cannot tell the difference between very dif

  • And believe it or now the computer industry has cylic slowdowns, like after dot.bust and just before the Web.
  • Today, computer science education is a lot more practical

    One can easily learn to hire a H1B Head. "Do you like apples?"

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