You teach Comp Sci 101. I AM THE HELPDESK.

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

It's too bad that I am a student in your class and know more about how to operate that computer than you do.

1) When you give instructions for how to install the JDK, it helps if you include correct instructions for how to add the bin to your PATH. People are going to come bitching to you later when their compiler doesn't work with the instructions you gave them because you used paths from a version at least two semesters ago.
2) Yes, you can resize the font in a command window. You being pissed because it's coming from me only embarrasses you further.
3) Students are getting frustrated at your lack of knowledge of how to use the operating system. Being Java, I can make this work on Windows, Mac, or the Linux flavor of your choice. If you can't... I'm not the reason they're dropping. Some of it has to do with the fact they can't type off a sheet of paper and open a command prompt themselves.
4) Cutting me off half the time I try to get a word in edgewise because you're concerned I can't hack it in this class because I didn't take pre-Calculus at this school... WRONG. MOOOOVE. The department chair seems to think I'll do just fine and knows I have no place in a class that's going to teach me how to use DOS and Windows unless it's to teach it.

Maybe the real issue is that you're pissed that I want out of IT and you're stuck teaching morons who have about as much computer knowledge as our typical lusers. Yeah. They're that bad and they're thinking of going into this field. I'm not a coder. Never will be. I'm interested in learning some Java. But I will not gladly suffer fools - not even you.

Comments

[anivair.livejournal.com]

you sure you're not in the same java class I am?

[tecie.livejournal.com]

Been there -- was a senior level CS class and I was a business major who had industry background (I was taking the class for fun.) The elitism quickly set in between the professor and about half the class against the two of us non-CS majors. It came to really grading, assignment changes to things I wouldn't possibly know (as it had NO application in the real world), and my yelling at the professor in his office, in front of the class, and him doing the same thing. I still passed, although I doubt he was happy about that fact. The problem came about midsemester when he caught some of his highly regarded CS students all cheating off of one another on the programming assignments. The department head got involved in the class and suddenly the professor had to mind his manners.
Lesson learned: Just do your best and things will pan out, most of the time.

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

Unless you've moved to Rochester, NY for this semester, it's not very likely.

[(Anonymous)]

*cringe*

Man, this doesn't make me look forward to going back to school as I am already yelling at admissions for loosing a transcript with my information clearly written on the cover of the envelope.

[grayhawkfh.livejournal.com]

Oh Lord, I have so been in your situation.

My senior year in high school (1987-88) I took the only computer course offered at the time - a class in programming in BASIC. I took it as my "breeze" class, after all, I had been programming AD&D Character generators in BASIC for years at that point. (HA! An old-skool geek is me!)

Well, halfway through the year, the instructor (who knew how much I knew and was aware that this was my one easy class, and for whom I was essentially a TA) took a much better offer from IBM and left. They replaced him with someone who knew less than I did about computers and programming. She resented the fact that students came to me for help, as well as the fact that I knew more. Things came to a head when she forced me to prove her wrong in front of the whole class or fail an assignment. I offered to stay after school to avoid proving her wrong in front of the class. Her ego got in the way of her good judgement, I guess, and well, my grade was more important to me than her ego.

She never did live that one down.

[gerry-london.livejournal.com]

I have been in that situation; I think it was made worse because I was working for the faculty boss at the time, who managed the teacher I had a problem with (and told me she was always having to be on his case). I think he saw that me and her got on really well, and was jealous.

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

I'm an accounting major and the the only person in this class not in CS, CE, or a related major. Most people in my position take an easier intro to computers class and some barely make it through. The smarter people in this class though are learning quickly I'm a good person to make friends with if they want to survive this class. I'm very concerned though that this professor is going to have an unfair bias, but I'm a bit of a department pet and I'm sure they'd love nothing more than to smack around the overinflated egos of some CS profs that think it's funny to lay the beat down on perfectly good students that aren't enthralled with the magic of some other course of study.

Us business majors make for very efficient asskickers :).

[ohhjuliet.livejournal.com]

I had to steal your icon. I couldn't help it. I say asshat all the time...

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

It's not mine to begin with. Check my LJ for proper credit.

[(Anonymous)]

I feel your pain. I'm taking an "Information Systems" class and my teacher is the worst. I bite my tongue through the whole class because I don't want to be the guy who's constantly correcting the teacher, but I could easily be. She really sucks, plus she wears a Blackberry headset during class and takes calls in the middle of her lecture. I'm just gonna' coast through it and get my A so I can put the whole thing in my past.

[tecie.livejournal.com]

Indeed -- One thing that always struck me when I was a CS major was how much utterly useless crap they try to throw at the students in the name of academic improvement.
I can see the heavy load of math -- up to Calc 2 to teach the students to think like the computer.
But it didn't end there... there were dozens of courses that had absolutely nothing that would help 95% of their graduates. Luckily a lot of colleges are starting to require people to at least go to the ceritification courses now, and they're usually outsourced to local businesses who are targetting teaching those already in the workforce. So I suppose there is some hope for some for the CS students who genuinely want to learn something useful.

[dog-star-man.livejournal.com]

That was from me, by the way.

[sketchydave.livejournal.com]

Its hard to find that middle-ground. You either get someone who knows how to teach but isn't an expert on the subject or an expert on the subject who doesn't know how to teach. Ahh, academia.

[major-error.livejournal.com]

heh...I'm going back too, for what amounts to an MIS degree.

The advisor I spoke to said I could easily test-out of the 'intro' class, especially when he found out what I'm doing for a living ;)
Last thing I want to do is learn how to use Office and such!

As for Admissions, I applied for Summer, so they've got a few months to get everything in order before I apply the screws...

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

So far I'm having a better time learning the language from the tutorials on Sun's website and the textbook. When you've been kicking luser ass for long enough it's easy enough to pick up a new weapons form :). It sure beats having to relearn the parts of a computer and how to convert binary to decimal, a skill that I'm SURE is going to be used every day in coding.