3 ms·

Woah there - let's not write off the CS department of every UK institution, shall we? This is definitely a case of 'YMMV'.

by ciaranm 11y ago

dijit 11y ago
ok, but even if you did full time hands on study of computing then you're still starting from a 0-basis foundation of knowledge on entering since there is no formal education before that. and a little like hub networking we can only operate at the rate of the slowest peer. We can't "negotiate up" the curriculum. so it's a waste of time and resources for many people. - like another poster said though there is a lot of mathematics involved so it's not like I'm saying it's useless, just that it's certainly not necessary and that we should be (and are) putting computers into the hands of children rather than teaching people -only once they arrive at university- about how computers function.
- arethuza 11y ago
  "there is no formal education before that." I don't know about the rest of the UK but Computing Science is on the curriculum at schools in Scotland - I studied computing at school in the early 80s and had projects doing 6502 assembler on an Apple (NB and I did not go to a fancy school). Here is a SQA Advanced Higher paper - looks pretty good to me: http://www.sqa.org.uk/files_ccc/ComputingScienceSQPAH.pdf http://www.sqa.org.uk/files_ccc/ComputingScienceSQPAH.pdf
  - dijit 11y ago
    "there is, now" for the last 10 years there hasn't been. (even at college level) the closest that comes near is the BTEC National Diploma in IT systems support (which I took) which teaches you the OSI model and how to crimp cables. (and also that Worms are "bad" and viruses are also "bad" and hackers are "bad" etcetc) it's definitely not computer science but it's a somewhat close approximation for the low skilled workers that will someday become level 1/2 support. if that's your intro into university then it's still a very low base to take you forward.
    - chrisseaton 11y ago
      I went to university over a decade ago to do CS, and before that I did an A level computing, and an A level discrete maths module which taught basic algorithms like path finding, shortest tour, bin packing etc. That's a pretty good foundation for CS.
  - flooq 11y ago
    In the 90s, when they introduced the Advanced Higher they changed the Higher Grade to remove a lot of the deeper computer science components. Having been in one of the last years to sit it I then ended up studying a lot of the same information in my first year at university anyway. Unfortunately having a good school curriculum didn't automatically make the degree level education better.
- spacecowboy_lon 11y ago
  Exactly you don't get to start A Physics or Chemistry Degree without doing it at GCSE and A Level.

Woah there - let's not write off the CS department of every UK institution, shall we? This is definitely a case of 'YMMV'.

by ciaranm 11y ago

Woah there - let's not write off the CS department of every UK institution, shall we? This is definitely a case of 'YMMV'.

dijit 11y ago

ok, but even if you did full time hands on study of computing then you're still starting from a 0-basis foundation of knowledge on entering since there is no formal education before that. and a little like hub networking we can only operate at the rate of the slowest peer. We can't "negotiate up" the curriculum. so it's a waste of time and resources for many people. - like another poster said though there is a lot of mathematics involved so it's not like I'm saying it's useless, just that it's certainly not necessary and that we should be (and are) putting computers into the hands of children rather than teaching people -only once they arrive at university- about how computers function.

arethuza 11y ago
"there is no formal education before that." I don't know about the rest of the UK but Computing Science is on the curriculum at schools in Scotland - I studied computing at school in the early 80s and had projects doing 6502 assembler on an Apple (NB and I did not go to a fancy school). Here is a SQA Advanced Higher paper - looks pretty good to me: http://www.sqa.org.uk/files_ccc/ComputingScienceSQPAH.pdf http://www.sqa.org.uk/files_ccc/ComputingScienceSQPAH.pdf
- dijit 11y ago
  "there is, now" for the last 10 years there hasn't been. (even at college level) the closest that comes near is the BTEC National Diploma in IT systems support (which I took) which teaches you the OSI model and how to crimp cables. (and also that Worms are "bad" and viruses are also "bad" and hackers are "bad" etcetc) it's definitely not computer science but it's a somewhat close approximation for the low skilled workers that will someday become level 1/2 support. if that's your intro into university then it's still a very low base to take you forward.
  - chrisseaton 11y ago
    I went to university over a decade ago to do CS, and before that I did an A level computing, and an A level discrete maths module which taught basic algorithms like path finding, shortest tour, bin packing etc. That's a pretty good foundation for CS.
- flooq 11y ago
  In the 90s, when they introduced the Advanced Higher they changed the Higher Grade to remove a lot of the deeper computer science components. Having been in one of the last years to sit it I then ended up studying a lot of the same information in my first year at university anyway. Unfortunately having a good school curriculum didn't automatically make the degree level education better.
spacecowboy_lon 11y ago
Exactly you don't get to start A Physics or Chemistry Degree without doing it at GCSE and A Level.