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Teaching foreign policy majors to code

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Re: Teaching foreign policy majors to code

#11
post #5

Starting off with C? Ow. R or Python seem like they'd be much better choices for something students would actually use in the future, given their data analysis tools.

Or Julia if you want to prepare them for the future.

I'm a big fan of Julia, but I wouldn't say that it's a great introduction to programming. Python is the way to go IMO, unless Julia really takes off.

Re: Teaching foreign policy majors to code

#13
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it unethical to do something if all parties are happy? Does it only become unethical when a party has been tricked and become unhappy, or is tricking somebody even for their own good unethical? In that case, what would be your definition of ethics? I don't have a strong stance whether his decision was ethical or not, just interested in seeing your opinion as you seem to be implying that it might not be :P

Is it unethical for a professor to lie to their students? Yes. Is is still unethical if the professor argues that the lies were for the students' own good? Yes. Is it still unethical if, a few months into the course, the professor tells the truth? Yes. Is it still unethical if, a few months later, the professor tells the truth and one or more students says "you know, I understand now why you lied to us"? Yes. This re…

Possible overreaction alert...

Re: Teaching foreign policy majors to code

#14
post #4
post #2

I understand why the teacher in this case hid the coding requirements of the course. His reasoning makes sense. But I'm not sure it was ethical misrepresenting the course even for the students own benefit.

Is it unethical to do something if all parties are happy? Does it only become unethical when a party has been tricked and become unhappy, or is tricking somebody even for their own good unethical? In that case, what would be your definition of ethics? I don't have a strong stance whether his decision was ethical or not, just interested in seeing your opinion as you seem to be implying that it might not be :P

Who is the professor to judge what is for someone's own good or not?

Re: Teaching foreign policy majors to code

#15
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it unethical to do something if all parties are happy? Does it only become unethical when a party has been tricked and become unhappy, or is tricking somebody even for their own good unethical? In that case, what would be your definition of ethics? I don't have a strong stance whether his decision was ethical or not, just interested in seeing your opinion as you seem to be implying that it might not be :P

Who is the professor to judge what is for someone's own good or not?

That is literally the job of a traditional educator.

Re: Teaching foreign policy majors to code

#16
post #2

I understand why the teacher in this case hid the coding requirements of the course. His reasoning makes sense. But I'm not sure it was ethical misrepresenting the course even for the students own benefit.

In older use, "coding" meant only assembly and machine language programming, which would be a separate process from writing a high-level algorithmic version. A paper on FORTRANS claims that it will "virtually eliminate coding and debugging" Thus the statement that the class is no coding could be considered truthful.

http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/FORTRAN/BackusE...

Re: Teaching foreign policy majors to code

#17

Starting off with C? Ow. R or Python seem like they'd be much better choices for something students would actually use in the future, given their data analysis tools.

They don't start with C, they start with Arduino, which incidentally requires C++. The big difference is that you can easily have blinking LEDs, sensors and what not, which makes the act of programming more "concrete".

Re: Teaching foreign policy majors to code

#18
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it unethical to do something if all parties are happy? Does it only become unethical when a party has been tricked and become unhappy, or is tricking somebody even for their own good unethical? In that case, what would be your definition of ethics? I don't have a strong stance whether his decision was ethical or not, just interested in seeing your opinion as you seem to be implying that it might not be :P

Is it unethical for a professor to lie to their students? Yes. Is is still unethical if the professor argues that the lies were for the students' own good? Yes. Is it still unethical if, a few months into the course, the professor tells the truth? Yes. Is it still unethical if, a few months later, the professor tells the truth and one or more students says "you know, I understand now why you lied to us"? Yes. This re…

It could be considered a non-lie under the concept of mental reservation. In older usage, coding a computer meant writing assembly or machine language only; thus, a report on FORTRAN indicates that "FORTRAN virtually eliminates coding and debugging". This is a standard usage of the word coding although slightly archaic.

http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/FORTRAN/BackusE...

Otherwise, presenting informal proofs to students in engineering or science that would not be considered mathematically rigorous would also be a lie and unethical.

Re: Teaching foreign policy majors to code

#19
I must say I am conflicted to write on this subject. On the one hand I am a person who has a humanities background turned to coding (bachelor's on philosophy; master's on sociology) but on the other hand I am burned out now and unwilling to do anything code related thanks to previous employers so my outlook isn't a nice one.

The problem I experienced was most of the companies want a bachelor of science or an engineering degree on their job postings. I think this is because the workshop kool-aid has proven ineffective in creating good programmers but rather code workers who are good at menial jobs but unable to provide good solutions. So if a foreign policy major decides to go full on coding by self-teaching skills to himself he'd get slaughtered on job applications, without being able to show his skills on the technical interviews.

Secondly, the job politics of most companies are just dreadful. After all those humdrum job interviews, skill tests, certification badgering; what I experienced is writing code that generates a sql query to the parameters that's taken from the frontend which had NOTHING to do with interview questions or the skills demanded by the employer.

In sum, I have to emphasize that these are my experiences and maybe limited to where I live and tried to earn my keep by coding. So I hope that it is a local thing and where you live has a better environment when it comes to employing programmers who are outside of the field.

Thanks for reading anyway.

Re: Teaching foreign policy majors to code

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is the professor to judge what is for someone's own good or not?

That is literally the job of a traditional educator.

Their job is to educate, and stimulate the mind. They aren't telepathic, any "for your own good" they engage in is born of assumptions unless they know the student well.
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