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>even programming exams were hand written Which strikes me as a terrible way to teach and test programming skills. If you're teaching to program without so muc

by amarant 6mo ago

>even programming exams were hand written Which strikes me as a terrible way to teach and test programming skills. If you're teaching to program without so much as syntax highlighting, you're not preparing your students for anything that even remotely resembles the industry they aspire to work in. Honestly, these days universities should probably find a way to incorporate AI into their teaching, rather than fight it. Anything else is betting that AI will not stick around, which strikes me as a hopelessly naïve bet. Especially for software development. I don't pretend to have all the answers, I don't know how to teach systems thinking in a appropriate way either. But I'm pretty sure typewriters isn't it, unless your students are hoping to get hired by Ada Lovelace, it's just not going to be relevant.

halJordan 6mo ago
> remotely like the industry they'll work in Education isn't any churning out a cog fitted to a bigger gear. A college education should not be preparing you for intellij or familiarizing you with va code. It should be teaching foundational skills with the discipline. And I just don't understand how you look at the amazing things we've accomplished since ww2 and say "the education system that taught this fucking sucks"
- amarant 6mo ago
  What I don't understand is how you can look at all the progress we've made since ww2 and decide we don't have to update our education to keep it relevant, and argue in favour of teaching tech that's been obsolete for 80 years. Students today aren't studying to repeat the progress made since the forties, that's been done by their grandparents, they're looking to drive the next 40 years of innovation, and if that involves typewriters I'll eat my hat
  - Balooga 6mo ago
    That way of teaching got us to the moon, created transistors, produced the internet, smartphones, quantum computers, the very AI that everyone is talking about, vaccines, sent probes into space, cured diseases, fed millions, jumbo jets, basically every single thing that society has come to depend on.
- senbrow 6mo ago
  IMO, it's a bit disingenuous in 2026 to argue that technical college degrees exist for the sake of pure education and that we're best suited to continue pretending as such. The vast majority of students and employers treat them as vocational certificates in practice, and the profession would almost certainly benefit from adapting curricula to more closely match that reality. Foundational concepts are still necessary, but I don't buy the argument that we should continue teaching like it's 1946.

by amarant 6mo ago

halJordan 6mo ago

> remotely like the industry they'll work in Education isn't any churning out a cog fitted to a bigger gear. A college education should not be preparing you for intellij or familiarizing you with va code. It should be teaching foundational skills with the discipline. And I just don't understand how you look at the amazing things we've accomplished since ww2 and say "the education system that taught this fucking sucks"

amarant 6mo ago
What I don't understand is how you can look at all the progress we've made since ww2 and decide we don't have to update our education to keep it relevant, and argue in favour of teaching tech that's been obsolete for 80 years. Students today aren't studying to repeat the progress made since the forties, that's been done by their grandparents, they're looking to drive the next 40 years of innovation, and if that involves typewriters I'll eat my hat
- Balooga 6mo ago
  That way of teaching got us to the moon, created transistors, produced the internet, smartphones, quantum computers, the very AI that everyone is talking about, vaccines, sent probes into space, cured diseases, fed millions, jumbo jets, basically every single thing that society has come to depend on.
senbrow 6mo ago
IMO, it's a bit disingenuous in 2026 to argue that technical college degrees exist for the sake of pure education and that we're best suited to continue pretending as such. The vast majority of students and employers treat them as vocational certificates in practice, and the profession would almost certainly benefit from adapting curricula to more closely match that reality. Foundational concepts are still necessary, but I don't buy the argument that we should continue teaching like it's 1946.