This reminds me of the Time Machine. People who don't know how things work and don't care become the consumers (Eloi) while those who understand the technology and produce it become the providers (Morlocks). It's a sad condition we're in. I just hope they don't start eating people.
I want a HAL9000 version. When you go to turn it off, it says "I can't allow you to do that Dave". When it gets low on power, it starts to sing "Daisy" slower and slower. Of course, it has to include an option to get rid of the boring morons in the staff meetings. I can't wait!!!:)
Personally, I think the beginning years should be individual work as you learn the basics, and the later years group work. You'll have to find a way to account for each person's abliity though, which isn't easy.
This sounds to me to be about the best solution. Teach the basics and grade on that, and then teach teamwork and grade on that. You can't really do a team project if half the members of the team don't understand how to code in the first place.
Then there is the problem of putting the teams together because you have coders of varying skills. One way to do it is to make the teams even in ability, i.e., group the best coders together and then the medium coders, and then the worst coders, but then the less-enabled coders don't get a chance to learn from the better ones.
On the other hand, you can make teams of mixed skill but then there are egos to deal with. The best coders tend to be very smart introverted people that don't always have the patience to work with someone who is not up to their level. They tend to dominate the design and coding just because they are faster and better. It's easier (and more ego-boosting) for them to do it themselves instead of explaining it. The other coders may not learn that much and just get taken along for the ride. This isn't good since neither learns teamwork.
I'm a fairly new Slashdot reader but I have noticed one thing. Jon Katz seems to use Slashdot as his personal soap box. He seems to think his opinions are the only ones. I also noticed that he gets to submit a lot of movie reviews. I understand that he has had a book published, but that does not make him a good writer. Why does he get special treatment? The Slashdot post regulators must have a thing for him. In reading comments from other posts, I have also noticed that I'm not alone in my opinions. I know it probably does no good to bitch about it, but damn it, it makes me feel better!
Slashdot Mirror
This reminds me of the Time Machine. People who don't know how things work and don't care become the consumers (Eloi) while those who understand the technology and produce it become the providers (Morlocks). It's a sad condition we're in. I just hope they don't start eating people.
I thought this was supposed to replace the Shuttle.
This sounds like the stuff that the Asimov robot cities are made of that are mentioned in the Robots and Aliens series of books.
I want a HAL9000 version. When you go to turn it off, it says "I can't allow you to do that Dave". When it gets low on power, it starts to sing "Daisy" slower and slower. Of course, it has to include an option to get rid of the boring morons in the staff meetings. I can't wait!!! :)
This sounds to me to be about the best solution. Teach the basics and grade on that, and then teach teamwork and grade on that. You can't really do a team project if half the members of the team don't understand how to code in the first place.
Then there is the problem of putting the teams together because you have coders of varying skills. One way to do it is to make the teams even in ability, i.e., group the best coders together and then the medium coders, and then the worst coders, but then the less-enabled coders don't get a chance to learn from the better ones.
On the other hand, you can make teams of mixed skill but then there are egos to deal with. The best coders tend to be very smart introverted people that don't always have the patience to work with someone who is not up to their level. They tend to dominate the design and coding just because they are faster and better. It's easier (and more ego-boosting) for them to do it themselves instead of explaining it. The other coders may not learn that much and just get taken along for the ride. This isn't good since neither learns teamwork.
I'm a fairly new Slashdot reader but I have noticed one thing. Jon Katz seems to use Slashdot as his personal soap box. He seems to think his opinions are the only ones. I also noticed that he gets to submit a lot of movie reviews. I understand that he has had a book published, but that does not make him a good writer. Why does he get special treatment? The Slashdot post regulators must have a thing for him. In reading comments from other posts, I have also noticed that I'm not alone in my opinions. I know it probably does no good to bitch about it, but damn it, it makes me feel better!
Cowboy Neal