Sorry if I didn't specify that. The class is called beginning programming. The book I'm using teaches the concepts of OO, as well as basic concepts like variables, loops.
I've been fighting a similar batle with the business and art teachers who want to teach "WORD" and "PHOTOSHOP" rather than word processing and digital photo editing. I've tried to save our district thousands of dollars by using Open Office and the Gimp, but the district refuses ("We've already bought the textbooks"). The students in my classroom who have had the digital photos class love the fact that the Gimp is free, and very full featured. I also teach a web design class that focuses on HTML, where we use a plain text editior and an FTP client rather than Dreamweaver or Front Page.
I decided to go with java because I had about 4 semesters of programming classes in java in preperation for my masters degree, so I know it best, and its what's used on the AP exam which I hope to work towards. If nothing else, I hope to teach basic programming skills. The BASIC classes I took 20 years ago are still serving me well because the concepts are no different.
Being a math teacher with a very strong background in computers I know that math teachers are hard to find, and programming teachers are nearly impossible. I don't really like programming all that much, but our district needs it badly. I voulenteered to do Java, and advanced web design (with php and mysql) this next year. The last person who tried to teach programming was the physics teacher who taught logo about 20 years ago.
I'm a high school teacher, but there are plently of community colleges in the same fix (I do them part time on occasion as well). I know the community colleges around here allow their teachers to also work tech if they desire. This way, they can keep their skills sharp and up to date.
Commenting on a slanted editorial and incredibly inaccurate advertising isn't so much a troll. Calling someone an idiot and making disparaging remarks is a troll. Using words like "wadges" doesn't really help your case either.
Showing 5 or 6 commercials every hour, on every channel, is pushing advertising, and the sign of a desperate company. I don't buy from anyone who does this. Anyway, they're giving away enough Macs to anyone willing to write an article about how fantastic they are to make sure they're letting the world know about their products.
If it's setup and managed properly, you don't need to pay for any support from Microsoft. If you know how to work an operating system, you don't have to pay for support. If you purchase the pc from any reputable vendor, you have free hardware replacement IF there are any hardware problems. Apples still need to be updated. Apples still have the occasional hardware problems too, which, in my personal expirence, are way more expensive and time consuming to correct than a similar problem from Dell or Gateway. My best story is of a Dell and Mac that both had dead network cards. The Dell took a $30 card and 15 minutes to correct. The Apple was an $800 fix that "had" to take place at an authorized repair center (2 hours away), and took 6 hours on the bench.
Personally, I've found loading Linux, and then searching lists for fixes to problems is the cheapest way to go.
If Apple is so great, why are they having to push all this advertising? If Apple is so wonderful, why is their share of the computer market shrinking? Their commercials kill me. Macs crash. Macs have corrupted files. PC's work with USB devices too, unlike what their commercials suggest. Personally, I'd rather have my choice of hardware, processor, motherboard, case, hard drive, and I prefer the ability to swap them out if I desire. AND, last time I looked (less than a month ago), and put together a Dell and an Apple with identical specs (something that we can now do), the Dell was $300 cheaper. If I have to replace a computer lab of 20 machines, I'd rather use the spare $6000 on something else.
I think if apple was so great, their product would speak for itself, and apple wouldn't have to pay for all this coverage they're getting. I'm sorry to see Slashdot and Digg buying into the all the hype Apple-fanatics are pushing.
NOT everyone loves apples, as the comments reflect. Those who believe so need to get out more.
My reasons for not liking appleas are many. My best example being a lightning strike at a client's home. One iMac and one Dell. Both network cards were bad. Ten minutes and $45 later, the Dell was up and going. Eight days and $850, and the apple came back from an authorized repair center never to act quite the same (client's words, not mine).
They are not more stable. "Better" is relative. They are pretty shinny things. I prefer a platform I can upgrade, and find software and hardware for. If I don't like the OS, I like a wide variety of choices to replace it with. This just is not currently available for the mac. All this, and you have to pay more, as in "A fool and their money are soon parted."
This still doesn't excuse the fact that
several memory cards that are supposed to store voting results came from the factory nearly full (Diebold claims its 20+mb of fonts, on a card for voting tabulations?) I would rather have honest election results instead of a pretty voting screen any time.
From reading the article, it is within the contract (and I think the law of that county) that a third party may evaluate the integrity of the machine. Furthermore, everything that was done to the machine was documented with notes and video (I got this from blackboxvoting.org). Furthermore their initial quoted fee was $1200 per machine, and then it jumped to $40,000, I can think of no other reason for this other than intimidation (extortion) of other voting officials who DARE challenge their machines. The way I'm reading your statement, would you be happy with a used car salesman threating to charge you to ensure the "integrity" of your vehicle if you had a mechanic check it over? Allowing Diebold to certify themselves is like letting the theives watch the bank, "Sure, the money is still there. We haven't done anything. No, you can't check yourself, and if you do, we'll charge you a fee to ensure you weren't the one to take the money."
I work in a school district with over 1200 workstations (with about 200 being obsolete), and four full time people on the IT staff. One is a former librarian who is in charge of one specific program (which is down half the time), one is her secretary, the head honcho is a former english teacher who managed to network macs with apple talk 18 years ago (but hasn't upgraded her skills since), and her secretary. They occasionally hire consultants to fix broke stuff, or run more network cable, but they won't take advice to get rid of the 10-base hubs that are running our network (they had problems with a switche 10 years ago). I know there are knowledgeable and well functioning IT departments out there. I take their advice all the time on how to run the two small networks under my control. My solution has been to start an education campaign with the superintendant and school board members as I run into them, explaining how things are done in other distrcts, and what problems they don't have, and how the current IT department's excuses are not founded (without directly blaiming or attacking them).
I purchased my Alienware this last November, and I'm not sorry in the slightest. 3.8GHz P4-hyperthreaded/2GB RAM (room for 4gb)/240 GB HD/DVD+-RW/Combo Drive/5.1 Dolby/17"/internal 802.11abg/12-in-1 card reader/video in AND out/256 MB Video, it just cannot be beat. Before my purchase, I put together the best laptops I could find on all the major manufacturers websites. They all came in at just a few hundred less, with half the specs. Heat is the major issue. I have found that if I can place my laptop where the video card vent hangs off the side of a desk, it stays cool. Some might complain about the weight. I carried more weight when I was in the Army. It lugs just fine, and I count it as more exercise. If I could wish for anything more, it would be room for just one more miniPCI slot, so I could have internal Bluetooth. It's got two cards, but they're already taken.
A buddy got a subscription to a computer magazine that had code for different machines (Atari, Commodore, and TRS) for games. We would spend our weekends in junior high typing in games one line at a time. Of course, we would make a mistake and spend the next weekend debugging. We ended up with about 4 or 5 cassette tapes worth of programs (we hooked the tape recorder directly to the computer back then since we didn't yet have a floppy). These days, he runs a technology consuntancy and I do bit work for him and many others.
But for every story like yours, I can point at at least a dozen dropouts every year who do not have the ambition to do hardly anything. You lucked out stumbling into your situation.
Not that I think certifications are the answer to anything. My point is, anyone with your drive will succeed, certified or not.
BTW, our school district hired a guy with a story similar to yours. It took him a full eight hours to install Adobe Photoshop on five brand new computers alone in a classroom (I did the other five new computers in two hours WHILE teaching class). It takes him three hours to troubleshoot a bad patch cable. He got certified in novell some years ago. Maybe a cert will just slow you down.
Re:Education works great, if you're on the payroll
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This is a troll if I've ever read one. Ever see a teacher's paycheck? Ever see the unfunded requirements a teacher must meet every few years to maintain their license? Ever been required to teach 28 14-year-olds algebra, of which, 3 are on drugs, half are living below the poverty line, 2 require psychotrophic drugs (but their parents want cigarettes instead), 7 require much extra assistance, 8 won't work unless I remind them to open their books a dozen times in a RESPECTABLE manner, and 3 wish to learn and get out of their situation?
Not working!?!!? I bust my ass every year and still manage to get most of my kids to learn something. Less than 5% fail. It's attitudes like this that are failing the US educational system. It's attitudes like this that send poisened minds into my classroom and make my job harder, and my student's learning expirence that much less.
I couldn't agree with you more on both points. Education isn't enough of a priority to someone (government/corporations/whoever you want to blame) to dedicate the resources. And I'd rather not see people give up on their education, but some are so destined for infamy, or so hooked on getting high at all costs, that there's no stopping them.
Re:Experience from a Dad and Husband on Classical
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Improving Education?
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From my perspective, I see things a little differently. You were willing to spend the extra time with your child, most parents are not. You were willing to have your child work extra over the summer, most are not. Most parents have trouble getting their kids to school for 180 days per year (in my state). You have the expectation that your child will be respectful to teachers, whereas, I have some parents who use profanitiy freely, and have no problems with their children using freely as well, no matter to whom it may be directed.
I would love for the curriculum to be more rigorous, but you also have to understand that there are some kids who will NEVER be able to learn algebra, there are some kids who will never have more than a 1000 word vocabulary, much less learn a different language. Along with these, you'll have a large amount of lazy kids who claim they can't learn as well.
I was always at the top of the percentile in grades and on tests. I used to think everyone ought to be able to do what I do if they tried. Having a special ed teacher for a wife has shown me differently.
I do like your concept of spreading out the same material over more years has made it less rigorous.
I'm glad your family has made your son's education its focus. If most families did that, public education would be much more like you think it should.
I see a lot of finger pointing here. I know many parents who, from their perspective of one or two children, like to point at a few things their child's teacher or district does. I personally believe that there is NO WAY that one school could possibly teach every single child that comes it to the same level.
When I worked in a factory, parts came in that were made to a fairly precise standard, then the exact same process was applied to every single part, and in the end, all the final products were supposed to work within specified limits. Most people expect schools to work the exact same way. The problem is, no two human beings are exactly the same, and most are widely different.
I'm supposed to teach kids who don't want to be there, some who are worried about their parents going to jail, some worried about where their next meal will come from, some who just want to go out and smoke or get laid, and just a few who are actually willing to listen and learn.
The arguement against this is usually, "Well if you were a good enough teacher, you'd reach those kids.". I can reach most of my students on most days. But I've never heard of a method that makes it possible to be rigorous, teach all that needs to be taught, and put on the most wonderful dog and pony show to get the pot heads to stay awake.
There is also the element of personal choice, and natural selection. Some kids will have to expirence failure from their choice not to work before they decide that education is worth their while. I see so many who wish they had paid attention in school when they were young and had no responsibilities. Instead, they have to work on their degrees or even GED while working, tending to children, paying bills, etc.
My answer has two approaches. Make smaller class sizes where a teacher's style and speed are matched up with the students learning ability. This could include providing a proctor for those who can learn better on their own. And secondly, stop trying to force those who think they know better, and let them go. If they have any sense at all, they'll be back, otherwise, this country is always in need of cheap, uneducated labor.
So does this mean I can't enter bogus information to access a site or download so I can avoid spam? If I don't own the site's servers, and I enter a bogus e-mail just to download a whitepaper, then that would be deceptive. I feel like such a criminal. I wish these people would get their tech gurus to help them write this stuff.
If they can't build an operating system that can't crash, how in the hell do they think they can build a car that won't crash?
What do you mean invalid page fault in the gas tank, what the....BOOM.....
Social contract??? What about their responsibility not to put a bunch of crap in my face that I didn't ask for.
What about not sucking up my bandwidth with their fancy ads without my permission?
What about asking me if I want my CPU cycles to be taken up with their worthless drivel?
What next, billboard operators suing me for not staring at the sides of the highway when I drive, or radio stations slapping me because I'm not giving undivided attention during commercials? Bulk mailers getting upset becuase their ads go directly in my recycle box? Spammers demanding I give more mailbox space to their garbage?
This is like a rapist demanding to be thanked for a good time.
While I cannot quote line and statue number, technology literacy is part of Mr. Bush's No Child left Untested, oops, I mean behind.I teach technology classes at a high school in the US. Many middle schools are starting to sweat because of the requirements in this area. The main problem comes from kids from homes where they do not yet have a computer, and those kids who only know how to download music and chat. While the standards for this test aren't horrible, there are too many technolologically ignorant teachers still out there.
Seriously... have you even used a Mac in this century
Use a mac. Work on macs. Understand macs (even more since osx). OSX at least makes them tolerable in my opinion. Why'd it take them 10 tries to get an OS that would work with anything else? Why'd it take them so long to add such a basic network function like ping or ftp?
Stating that Apple refused to adopt backward compatibility is ignoring the fact that you can still run ancient software in Classic layer and will be able to for some time You'd have to admit the classic support is akward. I personally never thought about this lack of backwards compatability until I read This article There's an odd anti-ms/pro-mac slant to this, but it's informative.
It's my personal opinion that computers ought to do more than look pretty sitting there.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been fighting a similar batle with the business and art teachers who want to teach "WORD" and "PHOTOSHOP" rather than word processing and digital photo editing. I've tried to save our district thousands of dollars by using Open Office and the Gimp, but the district refuses ("We've already bought the textbooks"). The students in my classroom who have had the digital photos class love the fact that the Gimp is free, and very full featured. I also teach a web design class that focuses on HTML, where we use a plain text editior and an FTP client rather than Dreamweaver or Front Page.
I decided to go with java because I had about 4 semesters of programming classes in java in preperation for my masters degree, so I know it best, and its what's used on the AP exam which I hope to work towards. If nothing else, I hope to teach basic programming skills. The BASIC classes I took 20 years ago are still serving me well because the concepts are no different.
I'm a high school teacher, but there are plently of community colleges in the same fix (I do them part time on occasion as well). I know the community colleges around here allow their teachers to also work tech if they desire. This way, they can keep their skills sharp and up to date.
Maybe those complaining should use a different search engine, like that of Fox News. Or is this too liberal for these groups?
Showing 5 or 6 commercials every hour, on every channel, is pushing advertising, and the sign of a desperate company. I don't buy from anyone who does this. Anyway, they're giving away enough Macs to anyone willing to write an article about how fantastic they are to make sure they're letting the world know about their products.
Personally, I've found loading Linux, and then searching lists for fixes to problems is the cheapest way to go.
I think if apple was so great, their product would speak for itself, and apple wouldn't have to pay for all this coverage they're getting. I'm sorry to see Slashdot and Digg buying into the all the hype Apple-fanatics are pushing.
My reasons for not liking appleas are many. My best example being a lightning strike at a client's home. One iMac and one Dell. Both network cards were bad. Ten minutes and $45 later, the Dell was up and going. Eight days and $850, and the apple came back from an authorized repair center never to act quite the same (client's words, not mine).
They are not more stable. "Better" is relative. They are pretty shinny things. I prefer a platform I can upgrade, and find software and hardware for. If I don't like the OS, I like a wide variety of choices to replace it with. This just is not currently available for the mac. All this, and you have to pay more, as in "A fool and their money are soon parted."
This still doesn't excuse the fact that several memory cards that are supposed to store voting results came from the factory nearly full (Diebold claims its 20+mb of fonts, on a card for voting tabulations?) I would rather have honest election results instead of a pretty voting screen any time.
From reading the article, it is within the contract (and I think the law of that county) that a third party may evaluate the integrity of the machine. Furthermore, everything that was done to the machine was documented with notes and video (I got this from blackboxvoting.org). Furthermore their initial quoted fee was $1200 per machine, and then it jumped to $40,000, I can think of no other reason for this other than intimidation (extortion) of other voting officials who DARE challenge their machines. The way I'm reading your statement, would you be happy with a used car salesman threating to charge you to ensure the "integrity" of your vehicle if you had a mechanic check it over? Allowing Diebold to certify themselves is like letting the theives watch the bank, "Sure, the money is still there. We haven't done anything. No, you can't check yourself, and if you do, we'll charge you a fee to ensure you weren't the one to take the money."
I work in a school district with over 1200 workstations (with about 200 being obsolete), and four full time people on the IT staff. One is a former librarian who is in charge of one specific program (which is down half the time), one is her secretary, the head honcho is a former english teacher who managed to network macs with apple talk 18 years ago (but hasn't upgraded her skills since), and her secretary. They occasionally hire consultants to fix broke stuff, or run more network cable, but they won't take advice to get rid of the 10-base hubs that are running our network (they had problems with a switche 10 years ago). I know there are knowledgeable and well functioning IT departments out there. I take their advice all the time on how to run the two small networks under my control. My solution has been to start an education campaign with the superintendant and school board members as I run into them, explaining how things are done in other distrcts, and what problems they don't have, and how the current IT department's excuses are not founded (without directly blaiming or attacking them).
I purchased my Alienware this last November, and I'm not sorry in the slightest. 3.8GHz P4-hyperthreaded/2GB RAM (room for 4gb)/240 GB HD/DVD+-RW/Combo Drive/5.1 Dolby/17"/internal 802.11abg/12-in-1 card reader/video in AND out/256 MB Video, it just cannot be beat. Before my purchase, I put together the best laptops I could find on all the major manufacturers websites. They all came in at just a few hundred less, with half the specs. Heat is the major issue. I have found that if I can place my laptop where the video card vent hangs off the side of a desk, it stays cool. Some might complain about the weight. I carried more weight when I was in the Army. It lugs just fine, and I count it as more exercise. If I could wish for anything more, it would be room for just one more miniPCI slot, so I could have internal Bluetooth. It's got two cards, but they're already taken.
A buddy got a subscription to a computer magazine that had code for different machines (Atari, Commodore, and TRS) for games. We would spend our weekends in junior high typing in games one line at a time. Of course, we would make a mistake and spend the next weekend debugging. We ended up with about 4 or 5 cassette tapes worth of programs (we hooked the tape recorder directly to the computer back then since we didn't yet have a floppy). These days, he runs a technology consuntancy and I do bit work for him and many others.
Natural Selection. Those that fail to learn, adapt, overcome will not survive.
Not that I think certifications are the answer to anything. My point is, anyone with your drive will succeed, certified or not.
BTW, our school district hired a guy with a story similar to yours. It took him a full eight hours to install Adobe Photoshop on five brand new computers alone in a classroom (I did the other five new computers in two hours WHILE teaching class). It takes him three hours to troubleshoot a bad patch cable. He got certified in novell some years ago. Maybe a cert will just slow you down.
Not working!?!!? I bust my ass every year and still manage to get most of my kids to learn something. Less than 5% fail. It's attitudes like this that are failing the US educational system. It's attitudes like this that send poisened minds into my classroom and make my job harder, and my student's learning expirence that much less.
I couldn't agree with you more on both points. Education isn't enough of a priority to someone (government/corporations/whoever you want to blame) to dedicate the resources. And I'd rather not see people give up on their education, but some are so destined for infamy, or so hooked on getting high at all costs, that there's no stopping them.
I would love for the curriculum to be more rigorous, but you also have to understand that there are some kids who will NEVER be able to learn algebra, there are some kids who will never have more than a 1000 word vocabulary, much less learn a different language. Along with these, you'll have a large amount of lazy kids who claim they can't learn as well.
I was always at the top of the percentile in grades and on tests. I used to think everyone ought to be able to do what I do if they tried. Having a special ed teacher for a wife has shown me differently.
I do like your concept of spreading out the same material over more years has made it less rigorous.
I'm glad your family has made your son's education its focus. If most families did that, public education would be much more like you think it should.
When I worked in a factory, parts came in that were made to a fairly precise standard, then the exact same process was applied to every single part, and in the end, all the final products were supposed to work within specified limits. Most people expect schools to work the exact same way. The problem is, no two human beings are exactly the same, and most are widely different.
I'm supposed to teach kids who don't want to be there, some who are worried about their parents going to jail, some worried about where their next meal will come from, some who just want to go out and smoke or get laid, and just a few who are actually willing to listen and learn.
The arguement against this is usually, "Well if you were a good enough teacher, you'd reach those kids.". I can reach most of my students on most days. But I've never heard of a method that makes it possible to be rigorous, teach all that needs to be taught, and put on the most wonderful dog and pony show to get the pot heads to stay awake.
There is also the element of personal choice, and natural selection. Some kids will have to expirence failure from their choice not to work before they decide that education is worth their while. I see so many who wish they had paid attention in school when they were young and had no responsibilities. Instead, they have to work on their degrees or even GED while working, tending to children, paying bills, etc.
My answer has two approaches. Make smaller class sizes where a teacher's style and speed are matched up with the students learning ability. This could include providing a proctor for those who can learn better on their own. And secondly, stop trying to force those who think they know better, and let them go. If they have any sense at all, they'll be back, otherwise, this country is always in need of cheap, uneducated labor.
OO on anything but Mac
So does this mean I can't enter bogus information to access a site or download so I can avoid spam? If I don't own the site's servers, and I enter a bogus e-mail just to download a whitepaper, then that would be deceptive. I feel like such a criminal. I wish these people would get their tech gurus to help them write this stuff.
If they can't build an operating system that can't crash, how in the hell do they think they can build a car that won't crash? What do you mean invalid page fault in the gas tank, what the....BOOM.....
This is not to be intreperted as M$ is number one. I question any article that's all flowers and hugs.
What about not sucking up my bandwidth with their fancy ads without my permission?
What about asking me if I want my CPU cycles to be taken up with their worthless drivel?
What next, billboard operators suing me for not staring at the sides of the highway when I drive, or radio stations slapping me because I'm not giving undivided attention during commercials? Bulk mailers getting upset becuase their ads go directly in my recycle box? Spammers demanding I give more mailbox space to their garbage?
This is like a rapist demanding to be thanked for a good time.
Social contract my ass.
While I cannot quote line and statue number, technology literacy is part of Mr. Bush's No Child left Untested, oops, I mean behind.I teach technology classes at a high school in the US. Many middle schools are starting to sweat because of the requirements in this area. The main problem comes from kids from homes where they do not yet have a computer, and those kids who only know how to download music and chat. While the standards for this test aren't horrible, there are too many technolologically ignorant teachers still out there.
Stating that Apple refused to adopt backward compatibility is ignoring the fact that you can still run ancient software in Classic layer and will be able to for some time
You'd have to admit the classic support is akward. I personally never thought about this lack of backwards compatability until I read This article There's an odd anti-ms/pro-mac slant to this, but it's informative.
It's my personal opinion that computers ought to do more than look pretty sitting there.