[Ilugc] RE: Another storm
- From: ksriram@xxxxxxx (Sriram Krishnan)
- Date: Thu Nov 25 23:43:53 2004
It really doesn't matter who does it, whether
Apple/Microsoft/Oracle/Sun.
Ah..cool. I thought this was another 'M$ conspiracy' thing :-)
blinding humble students
from understanding their own freedom of choice when it comes
to deciding their software career.
I'm not sure I agree. I have a lot of friends who have been working in the
big Indian IT companies(they've just joined). A lot of them struggle badly
mainly due to the fact that they don't have any exposure to real world
programming. Knowing bubble-sort does not make you a programmer. Having
stuff like Java or .NET or Unix or whatever in the syllabus helps a lot.If
you talk to the student community, by and large,you would see that people
want something like this. Unfortunately, people don't want to read Don Knuth
books..they want to read 'Learn C# in 21 days'.
I'm not sure how you say they lock in people. They only promote their own
products - doesn't mean I can't think for my own self.For example, I've
spent over 3 sems with Java and I still hate it (which is a personal opinion
- so don't flame me). On the other hand, I don't have Python in my syllabus
yet I love it. Teaching a student some technology doesn't mean you lock him
in- you're showing him all the options and letting him think for himself.
When you were given freedom of choice in the earlier aspects,
I believe the same holds true when it comes to the current
generation students in choosing the tools and software of
their choice to get their job done
Though this sounds good in principle, this is non-existent in today's
academic world. Why should I do compiler lab in C? Why not in Python? Why
should I do distributed computing using Java RMI? Why cant I use .NET? When
I study operating systems by Tannenbaum, I get questions like 'Why are
microkernels better than monolithic kernels?'. I would love to write how
today's operating systems are not micro-kernel based..and the reasons for
them not being micro-kernel based. Am I allowed to write that? No.
Let me ask you something - why do you think of this only when Microsoft is
involved? Let's say Redhat had entered into an agreement with the IITs to
make them teach only 'free' software. Would you have protested then that the
choice for students is now reduced (as you're eliminating all proprietary
software)? Choice is good.Helping the students make an informed choice is
another matter altogether.
The Project Shiksha program you mentioned doesn't mean that Microsoft will
have *exclusive* control over the syllabi -they only contribute to it in
various forms of resources. You'll learn about .NET as much you'll read
about Java or something else. If you want another example of Microsoft
involvement in education, check out Anna Univ. Microsoft has huge tie-ups
with them (they even have a lab all to themselves at the Guindy campus as
Sridhar would probably know). .NET is probably going to enter the syllabus.
VB and VC++ are already there. But does this mean that Anna Univ has stopped
Unix labs or Java papers? Absolutely not. Students have the same choice they
had before - only this time, they get a better look at the other options out
there.
What's wrong with showing the students what the industry is using? And what
if the students want it themselves?
Sriram
P.S
nor were you forced to use
"Bombay Dying" as your fabric,
Off-topic..I started laughing when I read this. My school used to put me
through a lot of pain and forced us to collect our uniforms from only one
shop. I totally hated it.
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