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Building a Better Tech School
An anonymous reader writes "In late 2011, Cornell University won a prize from NYC Mayor Bloomberg's contest to design a new science school. Google donated some space in Manhattan, and since January this year students have been enrolled in the school's 'beta class, a one-year master's program in computer science.' The beta curriculum is designed to equip the students with all the knowledge they need to jump right into a tech startup: there's a mandatory business class, the U.S. Commerce Department stationed a patent officer on-site, and mentors from the private sector are brought in to help with design. 'The curriculum will not be confined to standard disciplines, but will combine fields like electrical engineering, software development and social sciences, and professors will teach across those boundaries. In fact, no professor has an office, not even the dean, and Dr. Huttenlocher insists they will not when the campus moves to Roosevelt Island, either. Instead, each person has a desk with low dividers, and people can grab conference rooms as needed — much like the headquarters of a small tech company.' It's a long, interesting article about how they're trying to turn 'tech school' into something a lot more rigorous and innovative than something like ITT Tech."
I am a slow learner but I figured out the point to all this insanity. Make sure the work space is as unproductive as possible so people not only work "at work" but to have any noticeable production at all they need to work and be in contact with the workplace full time at home as well. All this in a world where human labour is becoming less and less important to production.
Brilliant,
Will every other school be getting perks like a government bureaucrat working for you full time, and free expensive office space from a company?
Why master's level? and not AA/AS and BA/BS level?
The devry and ITT Tech's are main at the AA/AS and BA/BS level.
At the AA/AS and BA/BS level is where need to rework and add in more of a apprenticeship like system and the older idea of it needing to be 2-4+ years also needs to be reworked as well.
at the NON devry and ITT schools it can very but some of them have to much theory and a lacking in real skills also they are some what loaded with fluff / filler classes as well lot's of required classes (some schools still have swim tests) Why should you be foreced to take PE at (college price levels).
Also about people who learn better hands on who may do very good at tech stuff but are not so good at other stuff at hurt the GPA / forced to retake classes in the forced art history classes and other NON core big lecture classes?
The devry and ITT have smaller classes as well more teachers who are in the field and not people who have been in the school system most of there life.
I've seen attempts at that. It quickly turns into whomever has the highest status permanently booking a conference room. In effect, turning it into their own office.
I'd recommend focusing on teaching science and skip the gimmicks.
Make it a apprenticeship system starter after HS and not after 4 years with loads of loans.
I've seen attempts at that. It quickly turns into whomever has the highest status permanently booking a conference room. In effect, turning it into their own office.
I'd recommend focusing on teaching science and skip the gimmicks.
This is how the Google workplace is arranged, and I have zero doubt that this was heavily influenced by that. The "Open Plan" at Google was in turn influenced by Intel's Andy Grove, a hero of the Google executives.
Having spent some time teaching, and having worked at Google, I'd say that this is, as another poster called it, a gimmick.
The conference rooms tend to be booked for project meetings, which they will likely not have there, and interviews, which they will also likely not have there, and tend to have a smaller number than you'd like because of tearing down space to make labs and/or more room for new hires due to space pressure, which they don't have there. The conference rooms are more likely to also be 2-4 people sized, where you can jam in 4-5 people if you have to, rather than class-sized things.
The Patent Officer is clearly their way of saying "we expect great things of you, don't disappoint us", but is unlikely to have much work, as things do not go to a patent officer unless the patent has been proposed, approved, filed, and then after that, it goes to them -- this is unlikely to happen unless the persons there get patentable ideas in the first six to nine months. Unless, it occurs to me, that the Patent Officer is there as a benefit to the faculty?
The cross-disciplinary work isn't going to pan out, either, unless they only hire faculty who are already cross-disciplinary, since teaching is easier and more effective when you teach what you know. It's unlikely they are going to be able to hire James Burke to work in a cubicle farm, for example.
That's all fine and dandy if your looking to increase the number of code monkeys - and there's plenty. Especially with all the H1-Bs.
What this looks like to do is to inspire new threads of technology, new levels of thinking (they're including the social sciences!), and who knows what ideas will come out of this. If I had the resources and the brains, I'd love to do something like this myself.
... can we cram onto a single campus?"
"I don't know, but let's find out!"
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
3 things I almost never see mentioned in "let's make schools better!" articles:
Making school fun, or like a game, or like a startup, or like an ice-cream parlour, or whatever, will help some people, but it's not a magic fix that will suddenly make everyone a successful learner.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
The beta curriculum is designed to equip the students with all the knowledge they need to jump right into a tech startup: there's a mandatory business class,
As long as it's understanding of the idea that not everyone is suited for a startup - and teaches the business course appropriately - then it's more than adequate for the job. Regular work with an established company is not out of date and pays the bills more reliably - unlike the startup.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
The H1-B's existence is the problem. They remove the necessary entry paths that citizens use to get in an industry.
BA/BS and AA/AS still deserving of the same treatment.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Or just make it an extension of the K-12 system in terms of funding - except that you now have a choice of where to go - with no slot restrictions or payment requirements for US citizens. Then milk internationals for all they've got and then some, and put them below citizens on priority.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
The apprenticeship system never made it to the modern office environment because of insurance and bean counters. There's a lot of variability in apprenticeships, and it can't always be distilled down to paper and paper trails. In the end we've been taught in modern society that people that take apprenticeships are old fashioned and probably just not that smart, because they would have gone to college if they were smart...duh everyone goes to college because more money right?? This idea is fucking stupid, but prevalent. Universities and colleges have been marketing this schtick for decades now to great effect.
You know, there's a lot of room for theory and class room work, but not everything should take four fucking years of classroom work before you even begin to get work experience. Two years is MORE THAN enough for most things, and one year would be fine if you spent the next year apprenticing...then you'd go to the job and be somewhat competent in the field rather than just know the basics and theory.
I just watched a guy I know go through lineman's school and pass with flying colors. He's a smart kid, smart enough to get into colleges, but decided not to. Know where he's at now? Everyone wants to hire him because they've heard about him already. When he graduated he had people trying to hire him from every surrounding county, and now makes like $40k right out the door, with quarterly raises. That's better than most people in the US can say about their jobs...
I do give them props for at least trying something differently. However, when there is govt. money tied to it, it is going to be changing real quick. And more than likely not for the better. With that govt. money comes a lot of govt. oversight. I don't believe the politicians and various other dumb-asses in our govt. can keep their hands/noses out of it and morphing it into just another mill. It is was all privately funded by corps, I think the odds would be a little more favorable, but not much. It's too bad we as a society always associate wealth as a sign of intelligence and wisdom.
I would suggest tech schools should follow the Co-op model pioneered by the University of Cincinnati (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_education). It provides students experience in their fields of study, as well as extra funds.
IT is not all office environment and parts of it are more trades like.
STEM is a waste of time because foreign talent is of a much higher caliber, far cheaper, and the fact that a H-1B's existence in this country is tied to how they perform, there are no morale or union issues. The stuff from tech skills are like meat packing or textiles, professions that at best pay minimum wage, but usually only go to those whom have no documentation.
Instead, we should train kids professions where they would be able to make a living at -- start teach them how to deal with legal issues, notable court cases, how the laws, civil, criminal, and other regulations apply to them, so when it is time for them to pass the bar exam and actually be productive citizens, it is a trivial thing.
Sorry to pop bubbles, but lets be realistic. The only college major that one can end up with a profession and not a job as a barista as the pinnacle of one's life is going to be either accounting or law. Pass that bar exam, and unless someone does something stupid enough to get disbarred or winds up with a felony, they can feed themselves for the rest of their life.
Lets not waste time with this stuff, because it just means more 20-somethings crying to the press that they can't pay back student loans, as the H-1Bs work far cheaper than they ever could, and the outsourced talent is far of a superior caliber.
Some of the basics of school / college are dated and some people learn better hands on.
If you're interested in a subject you should be able to take classes and get a cert / badge / ect that means something and not be tied down to getting a 2 year AA/AS 4 year BA/BS or even higher up. Not all stuff needs to take 2-4+ years and some things are on going learning / need learn more hands on. The college system / timetables are not really cut out for stuff like that. (The devry and ITT's do offer better time tables) and should also offer some kind of (certs / badges only plan as well) that lets you take classes on your time / only what you want with being tied down to the old college system.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/nyregion/justice-denied-bronx-court-system-mired-in-delays.html?hp&_r=0
Truly unbelievable story about the total collapse of city gov't for the poor.
Yes, in the golden island of Manhattan, where the wealthy roam, Mayor Bloomberg has brought a sanitized, bowdlerized version of NYC that people seem to like.
(I mean anyone in NYC who would eat at chain resturant like macdonalds is scum)
The price , tho, has been high
I've seen attempts at that. It quickly turns into whomever has the highest status permanently booking a conference room.
Which is why you don't book a room, you use it AS NEEDED.
I have seen more than attempts at this, I have seen "this" as in a conference room or area that you do not book. You just use it. If someone else is using it already when you need it, you use the next one. It's not hard and it works just fine.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
desperately want to prove that formal education is worthless.
Libertarians rely on time to prove their points, which works invariably since we understand how people actually function. It may not help win arguments in the moment but what it does do is give us lots of times later where we we get to point you how stupid you were.
If you want proof that TRADITIONAL (note that this new instance is quite formal) education is failing, you have only to look at average costs to students and employment results for graduates to find the unvarnished truth.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
one questions whether they teach the students that they will probably be ripped off working at a startup
This school is not about teaching people to work AT a startup, it's there to teach them how to START the startup.
In other words, they train to be rippers, not rippees.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
All the lawyers I've seen seem overworked and charge $200+ an hour.
They don't get that much though, the firm gets a huge cut.
And they are overworked because the nature of law is that sometimes you have no work, sometimes you have a ton. So the law firm cannot hire too many people.
In fact most lawyers are very much middle class, they are not making nearly as much as you think from that $200/hour figure.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You cannot even teach a classical master of any worth in a year. Now they want to do something like this in a year? This will be completely worthless, as it will have absolutely no depth. And the "no office" BS is going to make it worse. Thinking of any quality requires quiet and solitude and real communication between people much the same. Forcing everybody in a noisy, focus-preventing environment when doing knowledge work is just the height of stupidity.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I wonder if the kids there will even know about Dijkstra's algorithm by the time they get their master's degree.
Something tells me they'll all be making worthless social media apps using PhoneGap.
From what I have seen with elite schools, they have bright graduate, but this is because they hired bright students. That suggests elite schools are just a waste of resources for education. They are just there so that employers can hire the bright persons by just looking at what school they have graduated.
To me it seems like the intent of this school (especially with the business classes and in-school patent office!) is to create a new class of startup owners, not just technical workers.
Also all of the lower level stuff can be pretty well learned online or at a lot of schools, this school can operate at a higher level by presuming a strong technical background in all candidates.
I've never thought about going back to school after graduating but this school is tempting.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I spent some time in an Italian university once. A lot of profs there don't have offices either, or at best have to share with several other profs. It's really nice, because it makes them want to not hang around much beyond the minimum class times. Also, profs tend to have home offices with all their books and stuff, because there's no room at the university, and it's not like those shared offices are very safe for keeping valuables.
Overall, if you're a prof, it's really pretty good for preventing kids from disturbing you, if they have to drive across town just to knock on your door. And you can do the laundry while grading papers.
Recommended.
The purpose of a broad spectrum of classes as a part of college degree is to help give you a broad spectrum view of human knowledge. So it's not surprising that the ITT's of the world are going for the jugular in this overaccelerated, addicted, addled, narrow-minded, gimme-the-shortcut-to-everything world we're creating. Trouble is, we're living on the diminishing returns of investments laid generations ago cultivating a basic sense of ethics, broad curiosity, and cooperation in this culture. Those values are per-requisites to a functioning society. As they are whittled away in favor of short-cuts, and very little effort is made to maintain those investments, we're cannibalizing each other as we race to dystopia.
So yeah, those classes do have a purpose- not to say that they're always taught well or made into something more than a series of tests to be passed. That requires a cultivated professor.. as those are in shorter and shorter supply the process is accelerating.
I refute the argument above by directing attention at the expression of the argument above.
but in the past we did not push college for all and that college for all push as dumb it down a bit as well pushing stuff that does not need to be in a 4+ year school in to college that is not really setup for while at the same makeing tech / trades schools look bad / roping them in to the college system.
Do any of these places offer remedial English?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."