Teaching for (Virtual) Work
Jaak Henno, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
Hannu Jaakkola, Tampere University of Technology, Pori
Jukka Mäkelä, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland
Humans need/have to to know, systemize, order/organize, flatten
- to reduce entropy - to collect information
Curiosity is the most important, basic feature of all living creatures
I never am really satisfied that I understand anything; because, understand it well as I may, my comprehension can only be an infinitesimal fraction of all I want to understand about the many connections and relations which occur to me, how the matter in question was first thought of or arrived at, etc
In almost every computation a great variety of arrangements for the succession of the processes is possible, and various considerations must influence the selections amongst them for the purposes of a calculating engine. One essential object is to choose that arrangement which shall tend to reduce to a minimum the time necessary for completing the calculation.
Lady Ada Lovelace
the First Programmer
Humans have a built-in need to explore, learn, use
and communicate our findings with others -
this has rised the human race over all life on Earth
Information is carried/created from generations to generations
Information is stored in our science and technology
We do not any more depend our physical capabilities
We depend our scientific/technological capabilities
Capitalism
an economic system where private entities own the factors of production:
natural resources
capital goods
labor
Private companies control country’s trade, industry, and profits
The individual owns only his or her labor
Accumulation of knowledge reduces value of labor
Distribution of new values between labour (wages) and capital proffits
"Our children will have better life"
does not hold any more
Percentage of population with flat or falling incomes in 25 advanced countries, 2005− 2014
New knowledge/information in ICT
ICT is totally human-invented practice-oriented technology
New knowledge in ICT is not produced in Universities (last was Unix)
it is produced in enterprises, who practice ICT
Patent applicants are not made from universities
Top Universities are all in China
Books are not important any more...
Producers of new knowledge/information own this knowledge
Apple has > 75,000 patents, Samsung - > 1.2 million papents
Patents cover everything, e.g. the 7-year long dispute between Apple and Samsung started from Apple claim, that Samsung has copied their phones look-and-feel:
"a rectangular product shape with all four corners uniformly rounded”
patents are valued as a currency that can be sold or traded
ICT Products are for Use - not for Learning Their Functioning
You can use Apple computer/phone/OS - you do not have right to study them
You can use Microsoft Windows OS, but "you may not...reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the software, or attempt to do so"
You can own a car - but You do not own the car's software
Updates contain often features, which are not announced/explained - e.g. the Boeing 737 update - pilots were not told about the new safety system
How can we teach UNKNOWN ?
Most of new software systems contain features which are nowhere explained and/or are different in products of different producers (Apple OS vs Android vs Microsoft Windows)
We do not know, what happens inside our phones (e.g. the Android OS is understandable only for Google) - but we should teach programming for mobile?
Even browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera etc) are rather different (when and in what order are applied CSS3 transformations?)
- but we should teach network applications
We (teachers) are always behind...
Teachers are (often) trying to propagate what they have been thought
But students know that they do not need 'old wisdom'
Thus (growingly) many teachers are behind of expectations of their students
Important task:
motivate teachers to reach the same level of interest/curiosity shown by their students
Different Hype Cycle Viewpoints for an E-Learning System
Logica Banica1
Faculty of Economics, University of Pitesti, Romania
Do we need Universities any more ?
education is grossly overratedto curb this wasteful rat race
government should cut education funding
wasting public funds on education
should be stopped
author - professor of economics at George Mason University
(ranked as one of the highest research institutions in USA,
the faculty have twice won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics)
Confidence in Education is low (USA)
> Confidence in Education is among richer americals nearly the same as in Organized religion - 15%
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research
University Education costs are growing
College Education costs (USA)
The trend is similar in most countries
Learning for work
In all specialities changes are quick (and accelerating)
- 35% of currently demanded skills will change in 2-3 years
Many of them will be obsolete in 5 years
The average time in a single job is 4.2 years
After that anyone should be ready for changes and re-learning
In ICT specialities > 80% of students work
Knowledge/beliefs obtained from work are much stronger than (half)information heared from University lecture
Working student seeks constantly for information from Internet
Google has become the most important TEACHER
The School 42:
No Tuition
No Teachers
No Classes
ONLY CODING
Nothing But Coding
Facebook created web-based platform and curriculum Summit <7p>
students work on their laptops with online lesson plans and quizzes, which they complete at their own pace
“We’re allowing the computers to teach and the kids all looked like zombies”
' '
ICT Education by Google
Google Educator platform:
Level 1 - use of Google tools:
Search, Drive, Hangouts, Groups,
Sites, Calendar, Gmail, Chrome, YouTube
Level 2:
Blogger, Google Maps, Google Earth
Certification exam:
Level 1: $10, Level 2: $25
Learning by Googling
The quality of Internet resources is very heterogeneous
There are many old tutorials, which do not work any more
Knowledge/beliefs obtained from Internet create often 'fake news'
Instead of lecturing we have to disassemble studen's beliefs
How to teach a software science speciality student, who
for every task (e.g. a browser game) starts a project in GIT
starts a node.js project and installs various packages, which are not needed
And then starts writing nonsense:
TOP: Symbol('top')
searchByRange( x, x, ...
collides(us, them) { }
this.tasks.forEach(task => task());
this.tasks.length = 0;
...
ICT Education by us
No lecturing!
All classes in Computer class, hands-on
Nowadays students do not listen
But they are very good at reading code
Thus: lot of ready made tutorials with code samples
Explain reasons behind the code!
No exams
Assessment is based on individual projects
And try to convince them to send their diploma papers also to their supervisor... maybe supervisor also understands something...