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Subject : Re: LUG: Schedule for the coming semester - ideas

From : Daniel Marcus <danielm.nc@gmail.[redacted]>

Date : Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:58:52 -0500

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Personally, I am all for us working on a presentation involving rethinking e115. That said, I think if we really wanted to re-think e115, we would need to go back and discuss what the purpose of the class is.

The point is to introduce fundamental concepts. The Excel section's purpose is to introduce if-then statements!

So, I think we might to better to (for example) lead e115 as an exploratory lab of Python or Ruby programming, including basic file operations, permissions, and control structures. A program to list a file-tree would certainly cover the requirement of file systems!

Really, NCSU needs to re-think the way that our departments structure their learning to make it more informative and interactive. We should be result-based, not necessarily process based. I would love to see classes with challenges where the person with the most efficient algorithm gets extra credit, and points are docked for poor coding style, not because you called a function that kills cells "die()" instead of "performOneIterationOfGameOfLife()". Not to mention, those poor people that have to waste their time with Fortran. (gag.)

Positively,
Daniel S. Marcus
Omni Impact Small Business Services
Phone: (XXX) 926 9624
Business: daniel@omniimpact.[redacted]
Personal: daniel@d-site.[redacted]
Website: http://omniimpact.com


On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 11:39 AM, Jack Neely < jjneely@ncsu.[redacted] > wrote:
Jay,

Does E115 ever cover OSX?  My two cents would be to cover all of the
basic, common computing platforms supported on campus.

Jack

On Sat, Jan 09, 2010 at 11:35:58AM -0500, jpgoel@ncsu.[redacted] wrote:
> Thing is, I think we tend to think of E115 as "intro to linux". But from
> what I hear, it also aims to serve as a "intro to managing your own
> computer." This explains why more E115 sections are laptop-based, and I
> think its also a good goal.
>
> I've worked with CSC116 students who didn't take E115 or place out (they
> were still in first year college or something, and thus were not required
> to take it.)
>
> They were extremely bright, but had no concept of what a "directory" was
> or the difference between Windows' "shell" vs "gui". So I agree that E115
> can't just be about "linux", because the course is preparing people for
> hardcore computing classes. So it also needs to cover the bread and butter
> of filesystems and other underpinnings - on both Windows and Linux. It
> does us no good to have people who are experts in linux commandline but
> can't see the Windows analogies, they are both important technologies.
>
> As of late, the E115 folks seem to have shifted to more of a
> Windows-centric approach to teaching the material. This is fine - students
> will learn whatever linux they need as they take more courses. But I'm in
> favor of bumping up the linux-ness not so it doesn't seem arcane, but
> because it will boost students' grades when they enter CSC 116.
>
> Jay
>
> On Sat, January 9, 2010 11:06 am, iyare omoruyi wrote:
> > I placed out of E115 back in the summer of '96.  It was a summer session
> > before being formally accepted as a freshman in the college of
> > engineering.
> > We were provided an instructor who gave us classes for like 2 weeks
> > instruction or so in order to have enough information and place out.
> > E115,
> > for me, was just to get over the initial shock of linux.  That is it.  I
> > was
> > able to navigate to files, create directories...the basic stuff.  What was
> > lacking was the reason why it should have been taken further;The benefits
> > it
> > would provide later in life.  I think if the college of engineering where
> > serious, they would provide something beyond E115.  But then again, I
> > guess
> > they figure "You know where the library is."
> >
> > Iyare
> >
> > 10 years of newbiness
> >
> > On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 9:09 AM, Daniel Underwood
> > < daniel.underwood@ncsu.[redacted] >wrote:
> >
> >> I don't get it. What's wrong with the current material?  I kinda like
> >> it. Granted, it's simple, and granted, it doesn't represent the state of
> >> Linux art.  Is the dissatisfaction just due to the fact that the course
> >> does a poor job of "selling" Linux?
> >> --
> >> Daniel Underwood
> >> North Carolina State University
> >> Graduate Student - Operations Research
> >> email: daniel.underwood@ncsu.[redacted]
> >> phone: XXX.302.3291
--
Jack Neely < jjneely@ncsu.[redacted] >
Linux Czar, OIT Campus Linux Services
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
GPG Fingerprint: 1917 5AC1 E828 9337 7AA4  EA6B 213B 765F 3B6A 5B89


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