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Big Tech is getting cozy with computer science departments

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Re: Big Tech is getting cozy with computer science departments

#31

Post by LockAndLol »

Very interesting to read how so many people are OK with corporations dictating what to learn, when to learn it, how to learn it and with what it should be learned, but go on to talk about rights and freedoms or even academic integrity.

Isn't that a little contradicting? And where do you draw the line?

How are you going to judge the company influencing education? By its public image?

Do you think companies will just provide everything for education and nothing more? No agenda will be followed and the situation will not be taken advantage of for more?

Have proponents of this really thought of the likely or possible outcomes?

Re: Big Tech is getting cozy with computer science departments

#32

Post by [deleted] »

fumblebee wrote: post #23

My CS department formed an "industry partnership" with Microsoft (circa 2015). All of a sudden, we were made to spend time learning Azure, we were given Surface Tablets for building apps, there were guest lectures by Microsoft employees, we were prompted to apply for MS internships, etc. What the department intended to be a harmless collaboration, turned out to be an aggressive marketing push by Microsoft for hearts…

[deleted]

Re: Big Tech is getting cozy with computer science departments

#34

Post by mbit8 »

blackbear_ wrote: post #2

This is all wrong. The purpose of Universities is to uphold, expand and disseminate human culture, not to prepare people for a career in the industry. Big tech should not be allowed to piggyback on the reputation of educational institutions to push their products and the latest fads at the expense of the fundamentals.

>> The purpose of Universities is to uphold, expand and disseminate human culture, not to prepare people for a career in the industry.

Well, speak for yourself. The majority of people in my classes absolutely had in mind going to industry after their studies. There's nothing wrong with that. Those two goals, being prepared for industry AND science aren't mutually exclusive.

Re: Big Tech is getting cozy with computer science departments

#35

Post by username90 »

kungito wrote: post #29
readingnews wrote: post #18

As a professor in a computer science department at a state run university (that has one of the oldest CS departments in the nation), I actually am far more afraid of the book publishers than "big tech". They are going down the road of "who needs uni, just use our text, our online learning aids, our online _courses_"... With each new ad from the textbook publishing company, I see a push to have learners just use their…

Why can't the books be able to teach about "how" as well? I'm from a mediocre country where I went to the best CS college and 99% of the things I learned there was from powerpoint presentations, pdf scripts or books full of math exercises. I still got into FAMANG as my first full time job and so did many other people from there. I just never saw the value in our professors. They mostly repeated stuff from text books,…

You need positive teaching and negative teaching. Positive teaches how, negative teaches how not to. Without negative teaching people will accumulate a lot of bad or right out wrong beliefs and patterns as they study. A book cannot provide negative teaching, it can only teach you how to do things.

Re: Big Tech is getting cozy with computer science departments

#36

Post by Raed667 »

6 or 7 years ago my university did a partnership with Samsung.

Students had to work on projects where they develop apps for Tizen OS[0] and even publish it to the samsung store. (And waiving the rights/revenue of their apps to the university)

I still cringe thinking about all those wasted student effort/time..

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tizen

Re: Big Tech is getting cozy with computer science departments

#37

Post by fock »

And meanwhile, the law governing the good, state-funded and controlled university system in Bavaria, Germany is modernized: "removing all the shackles from universities in their way of expenditure and earning money" (state guarantees any debt though).

Some bon-mots: - Universities can change themselves to be governed like a foundation - no limit on pay of professors and administrator - no limit on fees, though they have to take in EU-students for free (but I guess, a suitable "test" can change that easily) - no more political student bodies allowed. If you want to have a say, please be apolitical or shut up and be happy that corporations and corruptions need you educated.

Nice, how politicians are selling out this public good, while every press outlet covers people's stupidity in handling the coronavirus.

Re: Big Tech is getting cozy with computer science departments

#38

Post by Beldin »

kungito wrote: post #29
readingnews wrote: post #18

As a professor in a computer science department at a state run university (that has one of the oldest CS departments in the nation), I actually am far more afraid of the book publishers than "big tech". They are going down the road of "who needs uni, just use our text, our online learning aids, our online _courses_"... With each new ad from the textbook publishing company, I see a push to have learners just use their…

Why can't the books be able to teach about "how" as well? I'm from a mediocre country where I went to the best CS college and 99% of the things I learned there was from powerpoint presentations, pdf scripts or books full of math exercises. I still got into FAMANG as my first full time job and so did many other people from there. I just never saw the value in our professors. They mostly repeated stuff from text books,…

As an assistant prof in CS:

- books can partially teach you the "how" and also partially the "why".

- at university, you are being taught how to teach yourself, not necessarily how to perform practical things. Age of the exercise is therefore less relevant.

- ideally, teaching a room full of 50 students is easy better than an online class with 50, which easily should beat a video. Not all classes are like this which is a shame.

Re: Big Tech is getting cozy with computer science departments

#39

Post by LatteLazy »

blackbear_ wrote: post #2

This is all wrong. The purpose of Universities is to uphold, expand and disseminate human culture, not to prepare people for a career in the industry. Big tech should not be allowed to piggyback on the reputation of educational institutions to push their products and the latest fads at the expense of the fundamentals.

Respectfully, you can't tell universities what their purpose is unless you're prepared to fund it. When these places got the majority of their funding from the state, the state could expect high minded ideals and social outcomes. But now their not, universities need to cater to their customers. Their customers are students, they expect a degree, an "experience" and a job at the end. Universities either need to provide that, or close.

Re: Big Tech is getting cozy with computer science departments

#40

Post by the-dude »

bregma wrote: post #28
the-dude wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhh, this has been happening for over 25 years now. One of the reasons is there are just too many students. How this came to be is another rabbithole though.

Too many students than can be supported in the educational commons from interested society. It is in the interest of society as a whole to have a better-educated population. That means support for individuals being educated must come from all members of society -- in other words, it's a government domain funded through taxes. Absent common support, the interests of specific groups, mostly corporate shareholders expec…

That is your opinion, not a fact. Meanwhile in NL we have to import carpenter/plumber/drywall laborers, because ... we discourage choosing such a career for our own population and don't provide the education anymore. In the not so distant past, we did.

What a lot of software 'engineers' in NL rather don't see is that you can make a very very healthy living as a 'drywaller' ( not a native speaker, can't find the word ). You can easily make more than as a software dev.

The general population just is not as malleable ( Dutch: maakbaar? ) as boomers would like to believe. So at the bottom we have an entire cohort who used to work in factories or the building industry, who rely on financial support.

The first 'food bank' in NL was started in 2000. Why?

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