new blogger templates

I'm working on setting up the blogs for my 3 Fall classes and 1 Winter term class. This site will be in flux until these are set up, but I'll try to post periodically about my status, etc.

oldest lecture halls discovered

BBC News reports that the oldest lecture halls in the world have been discovered in the ruins of the Library of Alexandria.

...the 13 lecture halls uncovered could house as many as 5,000 students in total.

A conspicuous feature of the rooms... was a central elevated podium for the lecturer to stand on.

freshman experiences free speech, post-911

Here is a story about a UT student who requested the maps of underground tunnels on his campus as part of the Freedom of Information Act and was visited by the FBI instead. The lesson here is: Sure the information is "free", but ask for the wrong thing and you will indeed "pay".

Math And The CS Major

Slashdot has a very good conversation going about Math And The Computer Science Major which gives some interesting insights from people with real jobs about how much computer science they actually use in their jobs, how much math they use in their jobs.

A quote:

There really should be some sort of IT degree that has a focus on practical knowledge rather than mathmatics. You will use high level mathmatics if you are working on video games, or CAD applications. But most programmers end up writing database interface tools.... I'd like to see some type of IT degree that taught programming, networking, and troubleshooting. I'd rather hire a programmer that had a strong foundation in networking concepts than one who aced calc 3.

Now that is a real testimony to our CIS degree here at Elon, because that's exactly what we teach!!!

Brian Kernighan on the role of the university in CS education

Here is an Interview with Brian Kernighan with a Romanian magazine in which he explains his opinions on what the university should be teaching and not teaching. An excerpt:

[...] I don't think universities should be in the business of teaching things that you should learn at a trade school; I don't think it is the role of a university to teach people how to use, let's say, Visual C++ and its Integrated Development Environment. Teaching students skills so that they can step immediately into a Windows development shop and are able to write COM programs is just not right. That's not what universities should be doing; universities should be teaching things which are likely to last, for a lifetime if you're lucky, but at least 5 or 10 or 20 years, and that means principles and ideas....

[...] If industry wants people who have more than a "useless" theoretical knowledge [laughs], what it should be doing is making sure it gets these bright kids from school and gives them interesting summer jobs that round out the theoretical ideas and the general insights with specifics of a particular application....