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CS for All

cs.hmc.edu

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Re: CS for All

#51

Post by tracker1 »

afarrell wrote: post #39
morenoh149 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I believe very strongly in the importance of touch-typing. I went to an inner city school for elementary and high school. And when I arrived at university computer science I felt like I was light years behind my peers. A lot of that stemmed from not being able to type as fast as them. Hunting and pecking typing while trying to wrap your head around making abstractions and recursion is enough to make anyone frus…

My elementary school (circa 1998) struggled to teach me touch-typing with both in-person instruction and Mavis Beacon. I also tried learning at home. It was fruitless. How did I actually learn to touch-type? AOL Instant Messenger.

agreed, for me it was a few years earlier with BBSes in the early/mid 90's after High School... When you have to not only type for you conversations, but add in commands to send direct and channel messages, you get fast, or you don't chat.

Re: CS for All

#52

Post by tracker1 »

starshadowx2 wrote: post #48
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"... people would rather watch someone unbox candy on youtube." That made me laugh out loud. Then it made me sad again. Look, I get we can't all know everything. I mean, we can't all be mechanics, right? But every driver should know how to check their fluids, air, etc. Maybe change a tire. Same with computers. I don't think everyone should have to learn to code. I think that's not an ideal scenario. But I do think ev…

This is exactly what I rant to people. Working IT support at a library where I sometimes help out patrons on public computers, it boggles my mind that many people still don't know how to do simple things like double-click or copy text. We've changed our policy where we don't provide instructional services anymore, only tech support, because it would take up so much of our time trying to teach basic concepts.

Why not approach a local user group to offer to do tutorials one Saturday a month? I know a lot of guys at Linux user groups in particular would be willing to help... they may not like helping with mac/linux as much, but many would be happy to do so just the same.

Re: CS for All

#53

Post by mathattack »

rebekah-aimee wrote: post #49

What if colleges started offering this as an alternative to the basic MS Word class most schools make everyone take? Then people who didn't know how to use a computer would be too intimidated by it, but students who already knew the basics could move on to this more interesting course. You should still be able to test out, though. That way, if you're totally uninterested, you can test out of the MS Word class and mov…

Do schools really make people take an MS Word class? I've never seen anyone have the courage to put that on a resume or transcript.

Re: CS for All

#54

Post by matchu »

marincounty wrote: post #43
marincounty wrote: post #34

Great--I think every student should take a CS class! That said, this course suffers from so many CS courses. 1. It's too wordy! 2. As usual, I don't like the layout. 3. Funnel your subjects. (I'll give that a B.) 4. Funnel your paragraphs, or eliminate most of them? 5. Most people(students) find this material extremely dry. Introductory books should be "tight"! They should go through numerous edits? Take out every no…

I was too hard with my review--sorry! I was doing some yard work and felt really quilty. I know getting across computer science concepts/theories is terribly difficult. Part of my anger is I don't have a good grasp of CS theory, or why we do someting a particular way? I can get things done, but I'm missing the bigger picture--in many instances? My education into CS has just been following many steps, and listening to…

I think it's probably solid feedback if you include more tangible action items. What's an example of wordiness in the text? What would be a better phrasing? What don't you like about the layout? Why?

Don't feel back about feedback :) Suggestions for improvement are always helpful, especially if you also include the stuff you do like.

Re: CS for All

#55

Post by pakled_engineer »

xasos wrote: post #31
mynameisvlad wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The University of British Columbia also has something similar, CS110 which uses a subset of Racket (Beginning/Intermediate/Advanced Student Language) to teach core CS concepts to a wide range of students. The course videos are all available on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7dEjIUwSxSNcW4PqNRQW8w/pla... and I believe the "Systematic Program Design" courses on EdX are an expanded version of the course.

Really interesting that UBC uses Racket for the intro CS course, because UWaterloo does as well

U of Chicago uses HtDP with typed racket. https://www.classes.cs.uchicago.edu/archive/2014/fall/15100-...

Re: CS for All

#56

Post by pakled_engineer »

morenoh149 wrote: post #30
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #15

Before we move to CS for all, can we at least solve the problem of Computer Literacy for all!? There's a huge population of people who simply cannot effectively use a computer. Can we fix that first? Otherwise we're leaving them behind and that's not right.

This. I believe very strongly in the importance of touch-typing. I went to an inner city school for elementary and high school. And when I arrived at university computer science I felt like I was light years behind my peers. A lot of that stemmed from not being able to type as fast as them. Hunting and pecking typing while trying to wrap your head around making abstractions and recursion is enough to make anyone frus…

I could already touch type sloppily in the 90s when I took a keyboarding class in Gr 9. The class taught me proper hand/wrist positioning to avoid strain which I attribute to helping me avoid wrist problems over the years. Of course I also taught myself how to program the 90s typewriters so I could create macros and slack my way through the rest of the semester.

I don't think it mattered in programming classes that I could touch type, just meant I could multi task distractions easier like being on IRC during lectures and appearing to be paying attention.

Re: CS for All

#57

Post by modeless »

PascLeRasc wrote: post #10
mjn wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a good idea, but fwiw it's not CS-specific. Harvey Mudd's idea isn't that CS is so uniquely important that everyone should take it, but rather than everyone should take a lot of things, regardless of major, and CS is one of those things. The curriculum is designed with a philosophy of fairly broad education, kind of in line with a liberal-arts college ideal, but with more of a STEM flavor. I was a CS maj…

What do they cover in the basic general engineering course?

The things I learned in the basic engineering course that really stuck with me were convolution, the sampling theorem, and the Fourier transform. That knowledge has been invaluable.

Re: CS for All

#58

Post by mdpopescu »

mathattack wrote: post #53
rebekah-aimee wrote: post #49

What if colleges started offering this as an alternative to the basic MS Word class most schools make everyone take? Then people who didn't know how to use a computer would be too intimidated by it, but students who already knew the basics could move on to this more interesting course. You should still be able to test out, though. That way, if you're totally uninterested, you can test out of the MS Word class and mov…

Do schools really make people take an MS Word class? I've never seen anyone have the courage to put that on a resume or transcript.

I've had people show up with Word and Excel on their resumes when I was advertising hiring C# programmers...

Re: CS for All

#59

Post by drakenot »

Retra wrote: post #42
morenoh149 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I believe very strongly in the importance of touch-typing. I went to an inner city school for elementary and high school. And when I arrived at university computer science I felt like I was light years behind my peers. A lot of that stemmed from not being able to type as fast as them. Hunting and pecking typing while trying to wrap your head around making abstractions and recursion is enough to make anyone frus…

You learn touch typing by having something to type, not by having it drilled into at school. There are better things to teach.

I completely disagree with this. Despite being a fast typist when I first started high school from years of computer use, I still consider my typing class to be one of the best bang-for-the-buck classes I took in terms of what I have gotten out of it since graduating.

My form was not perfect before taking the class. I would often do something slightly weird with my right hand where my it would "walk" to slightly incorrect positions to reach keys that my other hand should be hitting.

My typing teacher put covers over the keyboard so we couldn't see our hands and then had us do typing drills. She would strictly enforce that we maintain our hands on the correct home-row position, wrist positioning, etc.

After a semester of this class, despite an initial drop in my speed, I can now touch type correctly and my speed is now faster than ever.

I work with professional programmers who hunt and peck and it drives me crazy. For something that you interact with daily and is the instrument of your profession, taking an hour a day for a few months is a no brainer to perfect your form.

Re: CS for All

#60

Post by mathattack »

mdpopescu wrote: post #58
mathattack wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do schools really make people take an MS Word class? I've never seen anyone have the courage to put that on a resume or transcript.

I've had people show up with Word and Excel on their resumes when I was advertising hiring C# programmers...

Are these long resumes playing Keyword Bingo, or shorter resumes?

I've kept my resume to 1 page and avoid the table stakes skills.

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