Brian
05-11-2007, 09:54 AM
Computer Science Students Can't Use Computers (http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/11446/Computer+Science+Students+Cant+Use+Computers/)
"Here I am in one of my many undergraduate classes, a class where students are supposed to learn how to program in Assembly language and the nitty gritty of CPU design. Every student in this class is sitting in front of a computer. One student sits down at his computer and notices that the screen is upside down (has been rotated 180 degrees through the display properties). He is instantly stunned. He gasps and shows the students next to him and behind him. Laughter breaks out as he pleads for assistance. After about ten minutes of staring blankly at the screen, wondering what to do, with other students around him just as lost but laughing as well, I started waking from my semiconscious slumber (I'm not a morning person, nor do I do a good job of paying attention in class) and realized that not a single one of the students in the room knew what to do. I stood up and asked a couple times if anyone knew how to help him, wondering why no one has. I was completely dumbfounded, expressed my surprise with a select few curse words and proceeded to help the confused student solve this baffling problem.
I have known for some time that many students studying for a computer science degree don't know much about computers at all and are merely after the degree because that's where the money is. But come on... many of these students are A students, and not a SINGLE ONE had a clue as to what the problem might be. I would think that at least one of these students, whom I have shared many classes of varying computer related subject with, would have some kind of inkling... something in the far reaches of their mind... that they may understand on some level what the solution to the problem might be. Nope. The smartest of the students suggested that he ask the professor for assistance.
People like this are out there. Hundreds of them; thousands. They are graduating with honors, 4.0 GPAs, being interviewed by major corporations, managing computer systems, handling our precious data, and they don't know the first thing about computers unless it was on an exam."
"Here I am in one of my many undergraduate classes, a class where students are supposed to learn how to program in Assembly language and the nitty gritty of CPU design. Every student in this class is sitting in front of a computer. One student sits down at his computer and notices that the screen is upside down (has been rotated 180 degrees through the display properties). He is instantly stunned. He gasps and shows the students next to him and behind him. Laughter breaks out as he pleads for assistance. After about ten minutes of staring blankly at the screen, wondering what to do, with other students around him just as lost but laughing as well, I started waking from my semiconscious slumber (I'm not a morning person, nor do I do a good job of paying attention in class) and realized that not a single one of the students in the room knew what to do. I stood up and asked a couple times if anyone knew how to help him, wondering why no one has. I was completely dumbfounded, expressed my surprise with a select few curse words and proceeded to help the confused student solve this baffling problem.
I have known for some time that many students studying for a computer science degree don't know much about computers at all and are merely after the degree because that's where the money is. But come on... many of these students are A students, and not a SINGLE ONE had a clue as to what the problem might be. I would think that at least one of these students, whom I have shared many classes of varying computer related subject with, would have some kind of inkling... something in the far reaches of their mind... that they may understand on some level what the solution to the problem might be. Nope. The smartest of the students suggested that he ask the professor for assistance.
People like this are out there. Hundreds of them; thousands. They are graduating with honors, 4.0 GPAs, being interviewed by major corporations, managing computer systems, handling our precious data, and they don't know the first thing about computers unless it was on an exam."