[GAP] CrossTalk CS Education article

[Anthony S Ruocco]

Unfortuantley, this is somewhat a preaching to the choir issue.  As a small program, fighting for every student (and then fighting to retain them) I can add some other perspectives.  I cannot count the number of parents who come to open houses wanting to ensure their child will learn Java as a freshman to 'make sure they can get a job.'  I have never been given an explanation of why CS needs to prepare students for jobs based on a freshman course.  I know of no parent of engineer students asking about CAD-based courses for freshmen to ensure a job four years later!  
 
Math is a major issue.  CAC accrediatation does require 15 credit hours of math beyond college algebra, but only specifies Discrete Math as a requirement.  At RWU we have an embedded Math minor as part of the program.  This requirement was supported by our most-likely employers (Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, MediTech). We had to step back from that as very few prospective students were entering prepared for that level of rigor.  Fewer and fewer are prepared to begin calculus, and some are not ready for college algebra!  
 
One of my continuing concerns based on attendance at numerous conference (FIE, SIGCSE) is the notion that students need to have fun in courses.  While I agree that having fun helps and can be part of an exercise, it seems to have hit the point where fun is its own measurable attribute of a course.  Faculty members spend inordinate amount of time ensuring some exercise focuses on being fun for the student, with the intent the student will 'pick up the key points along the way.'  Unfortunately, no one ever goes back to tell the student what the key points should have been!  Many students graduate with no fundamental understanding of 'sequence-selection-iteration' never mind pointer semantics. 
 
I admit that my program has less fun than many others.  On the other hand, by the time my sutdents graduate they understand problem solving.  We also strive to instill in them a sense that once the problem is understood, the language should be a design decision and the one chosen for implementation becomes a syntax issue, not a problem soultion issue.
 
Tony RUocco, RWU
----- Original Message -----
From: gap-bounces at gnat.info on behalf of Jamie Ayre 
Sent: Fri, 1/4/2008 5:42am
To: GNAT Academic Program discussion list 
Subject: [GAP] CrossTalk CS Education article 
 
 
Hello everybody,

Firstly, let me wish you all a very happy new year and plenty of  
success for 2008!

Secondly, I thought you may be interested to read Robert Dewar's and  
Ed Schonberg's recently published article in CrossTalk:

"Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of  
Tomorrow?"

<http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/CrossTalk/2008/01/0801DewarSchonberg.html>

Abstract:

"It is our view that Computer Science (CS) education is neglecting  
basic skills, in particular in the areas of programming and formal  
methods. We consider that the general adoption of Java as a first  
programming language is in part responsible for this decline. We  
examine briefly the set of programming skills that should be part of  
every software professional’s repertoire."




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