Join devRant
Do all the things like
++ or -- rants, post your own rants, comment on others' rants and build your customized dev avatar
Sign Up
Pipeless API
From the creators of devRant, Pipeless lets you power real-time personalized recommendations and activity feeds using a simple API
Learn More
Search - "outdated-teaching"
-
As I already said on devrant, I'm a freelance web developer and I also often sell my services for teaching, loving that. Currently I'm teaching PHP with 30 students and it's going very well.
But yesterday, I received an offer for giving another course next month, this time on HTML and CSS, for a company I don't know yet. Almost every line of this email is wrong, outdated by 20 years, or just basically meaningless...
So I thought I could do my best to translate this as close as possible to the original, preserving the wrong formulations too, just for you devranters fellas.
"Hello,
I have an offer for a 2 days course for 5 people (level 1+ and/or 2), on HTML5 and CSS3. Below, the program :
1. XHTML AND CSS2 INTRODUCTION
Advantages and benefits of change
Understanding compatibility for different versions of browsers
HTML, XHTML, CSS edition tools : presentation of the different tools
The CSS language : different types of selectors : class of selector, identifier of selector, contextual selectors, grouped selectors
Blocks of text, boxes of text
The CSS1, CSSP, CSS2 properties
Relative and absolute measures units
2. LAYOUT TECHNIQUES
Full CSS, XHTML websites demo
Positioning with the position property, positioning with the float property
Columns creation
Layout for forms
Layout for data tables
Layout for menus
3. INTRODUCTION TO SVG (SCALABLE VECTOR GRAPHICS)
Role and importance of SVG
Using SVG on client side : basic shapes
SVG structure of document, tags examples
Using CSS styles with SVG
Different integration methods for SVG in a XHTML document
4. OPTIMISATION OF JAVASCRIPT CODE
Introduction to DOM and Javascript
Access to document objects : different access techniques, using this keyword, create elements dynamically
Positioning elements with the help of Javascript : positionning elements relatively to the mouse, move elements
Show/hide elements for creating hierarchical menus
Code optimisation techniques : using objects, objects litterals, loops optimisation
Can you please give me your availability ?"
Seriously...
CSS-fucking-1 ! Is it a course for dinosaurs ?
...And if only my rant was just about the program...
It's totally impossible to cover all these subjects in only 2 days with people of different levels and experience.
The guy exactly said to me : "don't worry about the program, it's an old text but they agreed to it anyway. They just want to learn HTML and CSS, some of them already know it but want to learn more, and the others are total beginers.".
And here is the meaning for the "(level 1+ and/or 2)" part in the email.
So... Surprizingly, I accepted the offer, but asked for at least a 3rd day. I'm waiting for their answer, but I'll do it anyway, adapting the course content to the actual students knowledge. I need the money, after all.
Wish me luck...
It's just sad that these formation companies are selling bullshit to clients that just want to learn something useful. It's too often like that, they sell shitty/useless programs and we have to catch up in real time with students that don't understand why they don't learn what was told to them.3 -
Update syllabus with latest technologies instead of teaching some outdated language which has no practical use in the market.
-
Wow, I thought Australia's subjects were up-to date with modern technology, but as my year 11 IPT course has proven... No.
Genuine Questions from it:
• Where are Web pages stored?
Most web pages are dynamically generated, so... RAM?
•Locate one webpage that uses ASP. Save a copy of this webpage (file name must = asp.mht)
Chrome Doesn't Even Support that as a save able file format any more!!!!
•Visit the webpage [error 404 anyway why write it]
Wow I can click hyperlinks I thought it was just a fancy color added to the text :|
•Add this webpage to your favorites. Supply one (1) screenshot showing this webpage as one of your favorites.
I ask; Who hasn't bookmarked a webpage in their life at the age of 17, and who actually calls them favorites.
•Press the "Back" Button to view the page you were previously on, take a screen shot to prove you doing so.
I am a rebel, I used my magic fingers to press the button without a mouse (keyboard shortcut)
•Press the "Forward" Button to view the page you were on before you went backwards, take a screen shot to prove you doing so.
I never would of guessed :|
•Take a screen shot after opening multiple tabs in Internet Explorer
...
•View the HTML source of the webpage www.google.com, and save a screen shot
Why not the actual file, really? bloat much?
•Take one screen shot of your Internet Explorer Search History
Stalky much?
•What is a Web browser and what tasks does it perform?
Well.... Do you have a page for indepth analyse? Or do you literally what me to say "It let's you load stuff from dat interwebz, via requesting content from a server"
•Define what JavaScript is in relation to web pages
Are we talking server side? or client?
•Define what CSS is in relation to web pages
Do I even need to say fellow ranters ;) -
Most of us have scary stories about professors that think that they know about what they are talking about when it comes to teaching comp sci subjects. Shit is so backwards in most parts of the world with teachers showing outdated or completely pointless tech.
A friend called me the other day asking for classic ASP help because it was being used in his web class. Another was asking me about flipping c cgi web scripting. Wtf are schools teaching? Having the drive to LEARN actuall useful topics that are relevant on the market is hard enough as it is...shouldn't schools help at least a little bit? I was lucky, we were thaught Java, Python, cpp, js, sql, html5, css3, php, ruby and we had classes for node (for those interested) and asp.net mvc. Those were RELEVANT and good classes and while some outdated tech was good the rest is just bullshit. Specially since most teachers have 0 market value as develpers...but hey!! Wtf do I know! Of course my word is shit against all them doctorate and master degrees.
Gimme a break. School can be great. But a lot of the leadership there is toxic af for our industry. And while I appreciate the effort in me being thaught modern languages (and thaught is a hard word since I already knew how to program way before going to school) i still remember a teacher taking points away from an assignment for not using switch statements in Python...despite my explaining that there was no such thing (you can go around it by using a lil technique using functions, its pretty cool..pero no mames)
Or what about the time I mentioned to a fellow student how he could use markup for having more control with his windows forms while the very same teacher contradicted me saying that shit was not possible. Or the guy at the school in which I work teaching intro to programming using fucking vba...fk man if you are going the BASIC route at least teach them b4j or something fuuuuck.
I had good teachers, but they were always cast asside by dptmnt heads as if they knew better. I just hate pendejo teachers I really do.
Chinguen a su madre, bola de babosos.rant remembering uni yes asshole gnu linux is a viable alternative i still love coding fuck bad teachers fk the system11 -
Soooo I am an apprentice who just started his third year. Everybody in my team (3 ppl) left for better jobs.
I am now basically front and backend lead, teaching four new employees our restapi, web and javafx frontend.
At the same time I fix errors happening in production and develop new features.
I guess there are many great rants to come, so stay tuned :D
Going to write about things like tests that got disabled months ago after migrating to gradle, no documentation, finding out how to set up new development workstations with an outdated script missing important steps, management, print debugging in production and much more :)
Oh and it is not that bad, I learned more in the last month than in the two years before. (not saying my team was bad)1 -
I think it would be nice to see less contracts with those companies which only have in mind barebones training and profit. That kind of relationship between institutions drops the standards and it's expensive af. Those who sells cheap computers and bad software and charges more than ten time their value, those with enough power and influence to bend every single rule...
That kind of companies shapes the industry according to their needs, and will never give a shit about anything but the next semester. They teach you to be just a bit more than a user, they charge you like if they were really teaching science.
You end up full of debt, self taught on the technologies that matters, and accepting jobs on projects as outdated and mediocre as the "educational plans" you paid thousands for. And all that just to get a piece of paper signed by a stranger who doesn't care about you, and enjoyed by a corporation which wouldn't even consider to hire you because they know what they sold to the education department.
Fuck this, today I hate it all. -
I have no specific story to tell (for now. Will post ke if i remember one) but i have had tons of CS teachers that are shit. From ones who don't know shit to ones who are so bad as a human being i am sure thrte are hundreds of people out there to kill them. I have had multiple teachers where all they did was read out a book and we'd have o site everything they read. Whole fucking semester. And not just one person or once. M-U-L-T-I-P-L-E TIMES AND TEACHERS. then I ve had ones who would rejection my code even if it's better, is right, can andle more edge cases, most likely magnitfrs of times faster and isn an eye sore with just effig if-else on op of if-else nested within if-else with many for loops. Then there are those who want you to do just what they want and expect you to not have a life of your own. Those who blatantly abuse their powers. Those who couldn't care less. Those who are not that bad a teacher but their attitude and style just makes you want to leave. There's one currently who wants a group of 4 people in second year to develop a full blown industry level application in mere 3 weeks. AND WE ARE HAVING OUR THEORY PAPRRS INBETWEEN FOR 2 EFFING WEEKS. So that's just like a month. Fortunately I have a group that's good enough that I can have them do the testing and filling up the documentation (did I mention that he needs full documentatiin for software plus a report on how our development process) and have them work on presentation (yup. We need to present this thing) all for just 50 marks. 1 uni credit. Our system still gives 80% weightage to pure theory. Plus the practical part is somewhat theory too.
Our HOD wants us *insists*forces** to stay back at college and work on projects (which is nice but what he ments is use the shitty outdated books from early 2000s to study something). Now I'd be happy to stay back if college provided decent internet (I am not asking for gigabit speeds. Even 1-2Mbps would work) and place to sit. But nope, our college non-teaching staff is eager to send us out of their department and by extention college building. There is literally nowhere you can sit. Plus yup, there is no internet and nowhere for you to plug your laptop in. That's a moot point anyway because they don't want you to use your laptop in college library or anywhere anyways. Plus you don't get much of mobile data too because of the building design. Those work only near windows. Why would I be at college if I can get a 50+Mbps down, area to sit, snacks, port to charge all at home. And you'd say we should talk with him about this – well it's not his issue is all he has to say.
Well, such is life in Indian colleges. And my college/uni is one of the better ones.1 -
!rant
I sometimes thank the education system for teaching me really outdated stuff. Here's why...
With new programing languages with all the jazz and cool tricks, it's not impossible to develop concepts and get in the flow of visualizing problem solution. Like for eg, plython3 had inbuilt method to swap variables but I know how to swap variables without a third variable because I had to do it without python. Now that I have the ability to build algorithms, I can leverage functionalities provided by languages in better way.4 -
As this weeks rant is about how to improve CS education I want to share one new university in Berlin called CODE that does many things quite differently:
From the beginning students are working together in small interdisciplinary teams on projects. Meaning software developers, interaction designers and product managers are all already working together. The projects are developed in collaboration with companies and usually last a couple of weeks to multiple months. The students are supposed to learn more if they are faced with an actually problem instead of learning with frontal teaching (“Frontalunterricht”) in a lecture hall.
The founder himself started programming in his teens but studied business administration because he found that the CS courses had an outdated didactic.
PS: And if you are in Germany and between 15 and 21 years old have a look at the “Code+Design Camps”. They are basically longer Hackathons (4 days) with professional mentoring from programmers, designers, … from the industry. I attended four in total (all over Germany) and they were a lot of fun!!!
What do you all think about this?
Website: https://code.berlin/en/
English Article: https://global.handelsblatt.com/com...
Some Articles in German:
http://faz.net/aktuell/finanzen/...
http://sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/...2 -
I hate when studying computer engineering but university want us to learn non technical subjects or outdated topics such as applet in java, who the fuck is using applets now days,
Or no single word about react, flutter,or recent framework and teaching php and JSP,and vb.net11