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--- misc:thoughts_on_computing_education [2012/03/12 01:42] – mithat
+++ misc:thoughts_on_computing_education [2016/02/16 03:55] (current) – [Personal Proclivities] mithat
@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 ===== Personal Proclivities =====
-Having a formal education that has encompassed the liberal arts, engineering, and design (in both a school of fine arts and in institutes of technology), I find myself agreeing emphatically with Cross' analysis discussed above. More to the point, I believe it is possible to align computing education with all three of the cognitive approaches mentioned by Cross. In particular, "classical" computing education has not traditionally emphasized constructive methodologies. However, the culture surrounding the nascent field of physical computing has a strong constructive component---and has produced practitioners capable of simultaneously elegant and complex computing solutions. This has some interesting implications for computing education in any context that I believe are worth perusing.
+Having a formal education that has encompassed the liberal arts, engineering, and design (in both a school of fine arts and in institutes of technology), I find myself agreeing emphatically with Cross' analysis discussed above. More to the point, I believe it is possible to align computing education with all three of the cognitive approaches mentioned by Cross. In particular, "classical" computing education has not traditionally emphasized constructive methodologies. However, the culture surrounding the nascent field of physical computing has a strong constructive component---and has produced practitioners capable of simultaneously elegant and complex computing solutions. This has some interesting implications for computing education in any context that I believe are worth purusing.
 Within the context of university education, my personal preference is to focus on conceptual and theoretical issues and to use technology as a vehicle to explore them. I am comfortable using inductive, deductive, or constructive approaches as required by the content and students. I believe this approach best satisfies the pedagogical, academic, and professional needs of the student.
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 While abstract theory lies at the core of the academic experience, it is important to recognize that computing is also a professional discipline and that a degree of professional competence will be expected from and/or desired by graduates. To many practitioners, this means functional competence in specific technologies (along with other requirements). The use of technology to motivate, explore, and/or reinforce theoretical issues gives the student functional experience with specific technologies upon which greater specific competences can be built as required or from which confidence to learn new technologies can be drawn.((I have developed an IDE of sorts for use in my introductory programming courses that supports the perspective outlined above. You can read more about it and its motivation at [[http://jidee.tuxfamily.org|the project's homepage]].))
-Having said this, I feel it's equally important to state that the above perspective has been shaped by about a decade of teaching in a particular context and almost exclusively in one program. I am respectful of other perspectives and am comfortable modifying my proclivities as required to accomplish the larger aims of any program that I feel to have merit.
+Having said this, I feel it's equally important to state that the above perspective has been shaped by about a decade of teaching in a particular context and almost exclusively in one program. I am respectful of other perspectives and am comfortable modifying my proclivities as required to accomplish the larger aims of any program of merit.