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GitHub goes to school

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Re: GitHub goes to school

#51

Post by jackowayed »

theboss wrote: post #35
Fomite wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This too. I have an "Archive" folder, and before that one called "Dissertation" which was in reality like, 8 different projects.

This is a good solution. Have a archive private repo that everything I'm done with goes in. Perfect.

I just git clone old projects into a Dropbox private folder. I can easily keep the whole repo history even if there are multiple branches, but it doesn't take up GitHub usage at all. Of course, if you had Issues or the like, none of these solutions really work.

I do wish GitHub had a way to deactivate projects to save money. Maybe put it in a read-only state, still count it against your disk quota, but you'd have to make it active to actively work on it and update it. I feel like a lot of systems do similar things (eg. charge per user but allow deactivating users in case they go on leave or quit but may return--pause paying for that user without losing the data in case you want to reinstate.)

Re: GitHub goes to school

#52

Post by hawkharris »

chmullig wrote: post #49
hawkharris wrote: post #38

Tech companies that offer discounts usually cater to college students. What about young professionals who want to continue learning? Most students receive financial support from their parents and have ample disposable income for products like GitHub [0,1,2]. Recent grads who want to keep learning about technology are more in need of discounts. I'm not discrediting GitHub's campaign — I'm happy that the company is rea…

That's an incredibly classist point of view. I have plenty of friends at a top institution that can barely afford rent and to eat after their 2 hour commute. If they had to, sure, they'd find a way to sacrifice something to pay for github, but it surely isn't "ample disposable income." Please look outside your bubble.

I think you might have misunderstood my comment. Consider where your friends will be after they graduate.

If they're having financial trouble now, those trouble will likely be exacerbated when they first try to enter the workforce.

I'm advocating that companies not only extend financial support to students, but offer ongoing assistance to those students as they try to start their careers.

I think your friends - and all young professionals - could benefit from those incentives.

Re: GitHub goes to school

#53

Post by zecho »

unethical_ban wrote: post #26
Zikes wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GitHub is just as anti-educational as proprietary textbooks, proprietary class management software like Blackboard, proprietary hardware like Macs or Dells, and proprietary software like Windows and OSX. You're welcome to your principles, but they're not always practical.

Well, proprietary textbooks about ancient math is kind of silly. And Blackboard is anti-educational. Have you ever tried to use it?

If it's not anti-educational, it's an affront to education.

Online education is an actually interesting problem space in the world and Blackboard, Desire 2 Learn and some horseshit software from Oracle is like the best stuff out there. It's terrible.

Re: GitHub goes to school

#54

Post by skrebbel »

Completely off topic: The GitHub Education page shows a blackboard with a picture of a chemistry set up. Did anyone here on HN, ever, do a school project that involved a setup that looked like that? I was always jealous of that stuff, it looks so awesome! With tubes and big spherical bowls and steam and fire and bubbles, wow! Can I send my kids to a school that has that?

Re: GitHub goes to school

#55

Post by zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC »

Apart from proprietary software being antithetical to education - I think that schools never ever should teach a product. It's not necessarily wrong to use products in order to teach something, but it is bad to teach a product. Like, using a book that you have to buy in order to learn algebra is fine (though cheaper/more easily available education is better, of course). But teaching MathCorp[tm] Algebra[tm] (patented by MathCorp[tm]) is not. Any knowledge that requires you to buy a particular product from a particular vendor to make use of is not appropriate for being taught in the classroom/for being a requirement for a passing grade. The school has particular power to force you to learn stuff, and that power should never be used to the advantage of a particular private entity, especially so when that private entity bribes the school by providing the product for free.

Re: GitHub goes to school

#56

Post by joncalhoun »

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC wrote: post #55

Apart from proprietary software being antithetical to education - I think that schools never ever should teach a product. It's not necessarily wrong to use products in order to teach something, but it is bad to teach a product. Like, using a book that you have to buy in order to learn algebra is fine (though cheaper/more easily available education is better, of course). But teaching MathCorp[tm] Algebra[tm] (patented…

From my viewpoint, I went to college in order to prepare me for my future. If my future likely includes the use of a proprietary product, then I think it is in the best interest of both the students and the school to teach that proprietary product.

I wouldn't go to a design school that didn't teach photoshop. These days I don't think many programmers will leave college and not use git or github at least once in their career, so I don't see a school using it as such a travesty.

Re: GitHub goes to school

#57

Post by csomar »

skrebbel wrote: post #54

Completely off topic: The GitHub Education page shows a blackboard with a picture of a chemistry set up. Did anyone here on HN, ever , do a school project that involved a setup that looked like that? I was always jealous of that stuff, it looks so awesome! With tubes and big spherical bowls and steam and fire and bubbles, wow! Can I send my kids to a school that has that?

Where are you from? I live in a poor country and we used to have such setups (high school). In some classes each student can have his own setup and play with it.

It's not quite amazing, though.

Re: GitHub goes to school

#58

Post by zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC »

joncalhoun wrote: post #56
zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC wrote: post #55

Apart from proprietary software being antithetical to education - I think that schools never ever should teach a product. It's not necessarily wrong to use products in order to teach something, but it is bad to teach a product. Like, using a book that you have to buy in order to learn algebra is fine (though cheaper/more easily available education is better, of course). But teaching MathCorp[tm] Algebra[tm] (patented…

From my viewpoint, I went to college in order to prepare me for my future. If my future likely includes the use of a proprietary product, then I think it is in the best interest of both the students and the school to teach that proprietary product. I wouldn't go to a design school that didn't teach photoshop. These days I don't think many programmers will leave college and not use git or github at least once in their…

I guess the important part is that it should not be a requirement. Offering optional courses on products, maybe, but don't give any credits towards a degree.

After all, why do you expect to be taught photoshop? Because it's a de-facto monopoly! What is one of the reasons for it being a de-facto monopoly? Because it's being taught (as a requirement) in schools! That's positive feedback supporting that de-facto monopoly, and that's bad, as it presents a barrier to entry of new market participants. And it's highly questionable that it is good for the students that they get to depend on a de-facto monopoly for their work, as that, for example, probably makes it more expensive for them to work in the field.

For github, it's similar. Teaching git is perfectly fine, obviously, as that is free software, so the knowledge that you gain there you can use without any restrictions, teaching github is not, as that makes it easier for github to gain customers, at the expense of its competitors, and makes it more expensive for the student to become a customer at a competitor.

Re: GitHub goes to school

#59

Post by lclarkmichalek »

skrebbel wrote: post #54

Completely off topic: The GitHub Education page shows a blackboard with a picture of a chemistry set up. Did anyone here on HN, ever , do a school project that involved a setup that looked like that? I was always jealous of that stuff, it looks so awesome! With tubes and big spherical bowls and steam and fire and bubbles, wow! Can I send my kids to a school that has that?

I did a bit, in (UK) A level chemistry, distilling something or other. If I remember correctly, the experiment finished when I mixed up the beakers of clear liquid and ended up throwing away the product we had distilled. Regardless, I was proud of our vial of water.

Re: GitHub goes to school

#60

Post by robgough »

skrebbel wrote: post #54

Completely off topic: The GitHub Education page shows a blackboard with a picture of a chemistry set up. Did anyone here on HN, ever , do a school project that involved a setup that looked like that? I was always jealous of that stuff, it looks so awesome! With tubes and big spherical bowls and steam and fire and bubbles, wow! Can I send my kids to a school that has that?

It's been a long long time, but I'm pretty sure that looks like the set up used for alcohol titration ... which at least at my school we did in teams for 4 or so. Did you not do this? If I did it, I'd assume that it's a standard part of the UK Curriculum (though again, that was some time ago).

A quick google appears to back me up to some degree?[1] (See "Student Activity 3")

[1]: http://www.scienceinschool.org/2012/issue24/wine

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