blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2007/08/23/improving-undergraduate-computer-science-education
Uncategorized These are the notes for a talk that I'm giving tomorrow at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. I'm posting them here because it is a convenient way to write and others might find these interesting. I'll talk about MIT because that is where I have the most experience teaching. MIT operates the same way that it did upon opening in 1865: two semesters with long vacations in between; students do most of their learning in take-home problem sets (6-9 hours/week/course) for which they get some inspiration in lectures (2-3 hours/week); evaluation/grading is done by the same people who are teaching/coaching. You want your kid available in the winter so that you can take him down to your estate in Florida. You want him free to accompany you on a Grand Tour of Europe during the summer. In 2007, however, most college students are from middle-class families. Why would you want to pay for the kid to attend four years of college, plus spring break trips to Mexico and summer vacations, when a bachelor's degree could be obtained in 25 years on a normal 48-week/year work schedule? A lecture was probably indeed the most efficient way of getting some information to a large group, despite the fact that humans can read 3X faster than they can listen.. Compare to 2007, however, when you could simply email a list of those 100 people or provide them with a URL. Their lodgings weren't centrally heated and the temperatures in Boston can get down to -10C. They had no television, no radio, no Internet, no email, no instant messaging, no mobile phone. Students would do homework either in the library or at home. In 1865 both places lacked television, video games, email, etc. In 2007, the students who do best may be the ones with the best study habits, not those who are the most able. Companies do not rely on lecture+homework for getting work done; they create an environment with limited distractions and keep workers there for most of each day. Evaluation and grading in 1865 was done by the teachers. This is an invitation to dishonesty since you are always tempted to give students As, but there was little alternative since student work was not easily accessible to others. In 2007 in most areas of academia, student work can be viewed just as easily by someone on the other side of the planet as by the teacher. If we want to ensure quality and that students always regard us teachers as allies, why would we want to be involved in evaluation? We have some of the best and most energetic lecturers in the US Lectures are generally kept to 50 minutes (more than double the limit established by education researchers). if you tune out for 5 minutes, you will have a lot of trouble catching up. Professors do not put up PowerPoints and read them bullet by bullet. Homework assignments are weekly in most courses and are extremely demanding. The students are among the most able and best-prepared in the US Yet when you ask graduates in CS what percentage of their classmates are capable of programming and what percentage they would enjoy working with, the answer is usually 25-30 percent. A MIT student graduates ready to work for an engineer, not to be an engineer. Not too impressive considering the near-$200,000 cost and the abilities of the incoming students. This is a one-semester attempt to address the deficiencies in the rest of the curriculum. This prepares students to participate in engineering design reviews. If nobody makes a suggestion I consider important, I will make it myself at the end of a review or via email to the class mailing list after class.
the online textbook or email it to the class prior to meeting. This works great in rooms with a lot of blackboards and after 20 minutes we start asking teams to present their work while others criticize and comment. The final presentation and write-up is evaluated by a team of business executives and venture capitalists; students are told to pitch the project as though they were seeking follow-on funding.
com/seia/gallery/fall2003/entclub/ Conclusion: * Lecturing has been found to be extremely ineffective by all researchers. The FAA limits lectures to 20 minutes or so in US flight schools.
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