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The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

theatlantic.com

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Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#111

Post by watwut »

mikece wrote: post #59
GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The “debate” on racism was lost a long time ago. I would hope it’s well understood it’s a net negative for society. I don’t think debating it over and over again as if there’s merit to racist ideas is remotely a good idea. It’s like letting the flat earthers continue to teach science classes even though we know the earth is round.

"having a debate" != "teaching a class" > The "debate" on racism was lost a long time ago. When is the last time you asked someone who is a strident racist to explain their ideas in the form of a full essay or 30 minute presentation? Have you ever seen this done without the implicit or explicit assertion that the target of their animus is a lesser human or perhaps not human at all? Anyone with two brain cells to rub…

I mean, this is not true? Impressionable young people raised in racist environments are impressed by racist arguments - whether emotions based ones or pragmatical ones.

Simply said, own supremacism feels good. Even if you know it is based false argument it can still feel good. Compliments do feel good even if false. It is definitely not a threat.

Also, my own supremacism is practically beneficial to me. I gain from that even if if is based on false arguments. That makes the supremacist arguments much more easy to accept.

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#112

Post by senux »

battery423 wrote: post #33
ubercow13 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you scale assessment of exercises further than eg. coursera already does?

Coursera is not the central learning platform, its a course platform. You don't log in to see your learning graph which will give you the CS Bachelors Degree. You need to choose a course which will give you a CS Bachelors Degree. Imagine you log into Coursera and you want to have a comparable Degree. You would choose courses to learn 'nodes' of your learning graph. But you could choose which one. You could learn the…

I think your sentiment is great overall and I agree with it in essence. But realistically, there are way more obstacles to something like this than just creating a platform, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Especially when you mentioned above, "why not start when you're a baby" which I think you meant start at a young age. kinder-gardens, preschools, schools, are not only used as a place for education, unfortunately. Parents NEED their kids to be in someone else's care for a good part of the day. The current pandemic has made that even clearer if it already wasn't.

Additionally, the sheer number of people that need education is not only enormous, it's growing. Not only that, we are all different, with different needs. Some don't have computers, some don't have internet, or paper, or pens, or food. Some won't be able to learn how to read from home or learn math. Some are deaf or blind.

Again, that's all before getting to higher education. Universities, despite their bad record and resistance to change, are a place where a lot of research happens. I'm not talking only about the US. Let's forget about the US for a second since the scope of your comment goes beyond that. We are talking about identifying, recording, and distributing courses from professors from around the globe. How do you decide who's good enough? How to decide who's getting paid and who's not? Most Universities and Colleges have more than one professor per subject area.

Again, I agree with the sentiment but I wanted to share a larger perspective because I thought your comment was interesting and worth discussing.

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#113

Post by _curious_ »

carlinmack wrote: post #107
xvedejas wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not necessary to attend university to learn things you didn't know existed, or to learn things that seem less important in the moment. Whenever I've taught myself something out of interest, when I've seriously set aside time to explore a topic, it's not hard at all to expose oneself to many new concepts. This is assuming the field has a wealth of literature to read, and CS is one of those fields. Whether you hav…

maybe so, but there is a certain level of self-discipline and privilege needed to be able to study just from books. Lots of people on CS and other courses want friendly exposure to new ideas, not a recommendation of a list of text books

Do you view the ability to study and learn from books as a privilege?

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#114

Post by markus92 »

throwlogon wrote: post #100
turbinerneiter wrote: post #83

Ya'll use University wrong. The classes, etc. ... whatever! During my time at Uni, I: * designed a demonstrator car frame to show off a bunch of new manufacturing techniques, which was actually built in the end * was part of a team who tested a new type of fiber optical vibration sensor on a sounding rocket * worked with a PhD student on developing a sensor to measure water flow through a tank to validate his simulat…

For students who arrive at a university without already knowing these opportunities exist, it's not always apparent that they do exist and may be available to them.

They show these kind of things in freshman's week don't they?

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#115

Post by jeltz »

burntoutfire wrote: post #60
dougmwne wrote: post #16

I was having another one of those moments yesterday where I was questioning the value of higher education while reading a HN thread about teaching yourself CS. There was a healthy debate about whether the typical CS curriculum helps a modern software engineer at all. Some thought the degree was stuck back in the 70's. Others thought there was value, but had trouble articulating it. It seems that when the information…

Here in Poland there's a split between Computer Science (mostly lots of theory and fundamentals) and Software Engineering, which gives you some of those as well, but also prepares you for a typical programming job in a typical company.

Same here in Sweden, and I think also the rest of the Nordic countries.

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#116

Post by maram »

turbinerneiter wrote: post #83

Ya'll use University wrong. The classes, etc. ... whatever! During my time at Uni, I: * designed a demonstrator car frame to show off a bunch of new manufacturing techniques, which was actually built in the end * was part of a team who tested a new type of fiber optical vibration sensor on a sounding rocket * worked with a PhD student on developing a sensor to measure water flow through a tank to validate his simulat…

> University is a place where teachers and students who are interested in a field meet to learn and research together. Modern Uni has often forgotten that.

Universities are like venture capital investments...it’s that one single class that will matter the most. 1/10 classes will have the biggest impact on your life...

It were the night courses at the Art Institute of Chicago for Walt Disney.

It was the calligraphy class for Steve Jobs.

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#117

Post by searine »

turbinerneiter wrote: post #83

Ya'll use University wrong. The classes, etc. ... whatever! During my time at Uni, I: * designed a demonstrator car frame to show off a bunch of new manufacturing techniques, which was actually built in the end * was part of a team who tested a new type of fiber optical vibration sensor on a sounding rocket * worked with a PhD student on developing a sensor to measure water flow through a tank to validate his simulat…

This is also a common stumble in an Art School setting. Art school is about giving you the time and materials to create art, not how to learn art from scratch. The same is true for STEM.

University is an opportunity to do rather than just learn out of a book.

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#118

Post by xvedejas »

_curious_ wrote: post #113
carlinmack wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe so, but there is a certain level of self-discipline and privilege needed to be able to study just from books. Lots of people on CS and other courses want friendly exposure to new ideas, not a recommendation of a list of text books

Do you view the ability to study and learn from books as a privilege?

It certainly is in comparison to someone raised illiterate, or in any number of unfortunate situations. But in comparison to the privilege of a university education? I'm a bit surprised by the suggestion. If self-taught knowledge is really the marker of privilege in 2020, I'd expect it to be far more attractive than going to university by now. On the contrary, it is not, because learning from books has a much lower bar. You can't use it to select for the well-connected.

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#119

Post by _curious_ »

tams wrote: post #92
_curious_ wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could the essence of this comment been captured and communicated without running the risk of coming off as braggadocios?

It's fine as it is.

Didn't say it was, only a question, and AFAIK bragging is allowed here...but why is it the top comment? How does that work?

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#120

Post by rs999gti »

dougmwne wrote: post #16

I was having another one of those moments yesterday where I was questioning the value of higher education while reading a HN thread about teaching yourself CS. There was a healthy debate about whether the typical CS curriculum helps a modern software engineer at all. Some thought the degree was stuck back in the 70's. Others thought there was value, but had trouble articulating it. It seems that when the information…

> indicator of quality

Any other hiring managers have difficulties with Bachelor of Arts in CS versus Bachelor of Science?

The BA applicants don't seem to have the logic and concept knowledge that the BS applicants have.

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