Dr. Wallace,
Imagine the construction of a learning tool consisting out of a real-time system devoted to organizing and associating data from n-inputs (use the imagination here) into an internal, learned representation. This would (hopefully) in turn allow us to construct tools to "debug", or "unwire" the internal representation (that would be evolved in real-time) of the associations, or beliefs, though I tend to shy away from such conceptualizing -- in effect a creating a looking glass into an alien world to us that is the system's data store itself. Is it in your opinion a system of such broad focus (which seems to be adverse to many applications of "AI" today) and unpredictable internal representation be useful for us to learn about ourselves and our own environment? There is a parallel I am drawing here that has foundations in the philosophy of our own lives, and our ability to perceive that which we may be otherwise blind to. Thank you. John melf@decoupled.net
I agree with you completely. It's probably in the best interest of the average student to "deal" with the situation, whatever it may be. They may even glean some new understanding from it. However, there could be a different way of doing things in CS departments, at least in a some areas, that could be beneficial.
What about setting up one or more "business environments" where students can interact with other students in a production-style programming environment. Set up some kind of source control, have work directories, etc. Have the instructor take a few weeks during the summer and set up a shell of a production-style program (especially for "internet programming" classes). Something web-based and fairly simple to work with. Assign each student a few enhancements to the product for each assignment, with larger ones for the midterm and final. This could teach many skills, including dealing with other peoples coding styles, working together, and the production cycle, among many others. If the prof played it right s/he may even be able to work a semi-usable application out of the set of classes for the year and keep on using the product until it is usable.
Overall, what I'm saying is, I agree with the posts here more often than not-- Don't try to push back, you could learn something. The purpose of you taking theses Csci classes is to some day get a job doing it, and no matter how slick you are with linux, or windows, or operating system X and compiler Y, or IDE Z, inevitably your employer may use version A B C of all of these and you're up the crick. Variety is the spice of life. Deal with it:)
Slashdot Mirror
Dr. Wallace,
Imagine the construction of a learning tool consisting out of a real-time system devoted to organizing and associating data from n-inputs (use the imagination here) into an internal, learned representation. This would (hopefully) in turn allow us to construct tools to "debug", or "unwire" the internal representation (that would be evolved in real-time) of the associations, or beliefs, though I tend to shy away from such conceptualizing -- in effect a creating a looking glass into an alien world to us that is the system's data store itself. Is it in your opinion a system of such broad focus (which seems to be adverse to many applications of "AI" today) and unpredictable internal representation be useful for us to learn about ourselves and our own environment? There is a parallel I am drawing here that has foundations in the philosophy of our own lives, and our ability to perceive that which we may be otherwise blind to. Thank you.
John
melf@decoupled.net
I agree with you completely. It's probably in the best interest of the average student to "deal" with the situation, whatever it may be. They may even glean some new understanding from it. However, there could be a different way of doing things in CS departments, at least in a some areas, that could be beneficial.
What about setting up one or more "business environments" where students can interact with other students in a production-style programming environment. Set up some kind of source control, have work directories, etc. Have the instructor take a few weeks during the summer and set up a shell of a production-style program (especially for "internet programming" classes). Something web-based and fairly simple to work with. Assign each student a few enhancements to the product for each assignment, with larger ones for the midterm and final. This could teach many skills, including dealing with other peoples coding styles, working together, and the production cycle, among many others. If the prof played it right s/he may even be able to work a semi-usable application out of the set of classes for the year and keep on using the product until it is usable.
Overall, what I'm saying is, I agree with the posts here more often than not-- Don't try to push back, you could learn something. The purpose of you taking theses Csci classes is to some day get a job doing it, and no matter how slick you are with linux, or windows, or operating system X and compiler Y, or IDE Z, inevitably your employer may use version A B C of all of these and you're up the crick. Variety is the spice of life. Deal with it:)