Hi Phil, I wonder if I can see you at work from my house across the
grave-yard. Yuuuuuuu Hoooooooo, Hiiiiii Theeeere :-)
I used to set such coursework in the other place.
On Thu, 4 Apr 2002, Phil Lakin wrote ... (in a slightly different order):
>
> A degree is meant to be only directed learning, and students are meant to
> learn most things out of their own initiative.
There is some truth in that. Teachers do not seem to be able to
*make* people learn and people do seem to have an *innate* desire
and ability to learn.
But, it is not an easy process to direct for large numbers of people
at once, and, courseworks often try to be both a learning experience
and an assessment of learning, all at once, despite the big conflicts
between these roles.
> If a student has some problems based on some lab work that they are doing
> at the time, then I help out, although if it seems to be more coursework
> based, then I refer them to their lab supervisor, or their module leader.
> ...
>
> My stance on this sort of thing is to point them towards their lecturer,
> they should have been given plenty of directed reading, and suggested
> books to help them through there problems, if they are still stuck on
> something, there is always a lecturer willing to lend an ear if the
> problem is serious.
Excellent!
Yes. I'm sure most lecturers will want any feedback they can get about
the progress of their coursework - especially if its causing you problems.
Eventually, they are going to get loads of
"Sorry its late, the computer has been down all week,
the printer queues were all blocked up
and we have run out of filespace!",
so its helpful for all concerned if you do have the time to at least
keep an eye on how things got into such a state!
I'm also sure *you* havn't got enough time to help them all do their
coursework. But, it is often hard to draw the line between what is
a coursework problem and what is a system administration problem.
We used to employ postgrads to sit in the terminal rooms when mass
coursework sessions were on. Mind you, the sysadmin guys were still
often kept busy. Pheew, I can still remember the smell of hundreds
of sweaty trainers and t-shirts in the terminal rooms at such times.
> On Thu, 4 Apr 2002, Paul Sladen wrote:
> >
> > I have somebody (he appears to be a CS student at NTU, and he keeps bugging
> > me about via the support account) about wanting to learn C++. So we
> > can spark a dicussion about the ethics of this and helping students pass
> > they're exams, and hopefully I might be able to get him out of my inbox
Yes, its the big, broad, vague, requests like this that are the most
frustrating. I wonder if he's really asking for a user account, access
to a terminal, or the name of a book. Has he ventured down the road of
learning any C++ at all yet?
As a lecturer, I remember trying to learn C a long time ago. I had a book
(Kernighan and Ritchie) and got as far as trying the first few exercises
before I totally lost the plot. It was a sys admin guy at NU (wja) who
eventually got me back on track again. Even in later years, I used to
check coursework and exam questions with him sometimes, before exposing
them to the students. He must have had the patience of a saint, looking
back over it.
Lecturers developing new courses are often only a few steps ahead of
the students - I must have learnt plenty from students over the years,
let-a-lone system administrators. I'm sure that any help you have time
to offer the students will be greatly appreciated. Just make sure that
you are *not* passing their exams for them and *do* still have time for
tea and lunch-breaks :-)
I used to help anyone, if
a) I had time,
b) I could,
c) they were trying.
Well it seemed like that was my job as an educator, anyway.
For a system administrator, I think you may have other priorities,
and helping students with coursework problems must take second place
to these.
I did get a bit short with questions like "How do I do C++?" though.
Well actually, trying to develop a new C++ programming course was a
third of the reason I took early retirement!
Ted.
-- Ted Marston <ted@nowtsfree.freeserve.co.uk> http://www.nowtsfree.freeserve.co.uk -------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.lug.org.uk http://www.linuxportal.co.uk http://www.linuxjob.co.uk http://www.linuxshop.co.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------
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