learning curve

So I am learning another language. No it cannot be spoken. And it deals with computers.Thank you for the boos.


Moving forward. I was wondering whether the fact that our teacher is a total geek has anything to do with my increased levels of interest. Or how he tells stories about the evolution of the language and constant anecdotes about why some things are done better or worse. He promotes doing things on the fly. And nor does he start the session with boring stuff like data structures, data types, classes or objects. 


Flashback to undergrad days, when those very terms were hammered down my throat making it mandatory to learn them (mug them if not understand) to pass exams. I hated computers and anything which taught me how to automate things with their help. 


Coming back to present day, anyone in the technology field will tell you that how even a little knowledge of computer programming languages has been a boon to their existence in this field. And again going back to teaching techniques used to teach these make me gape. In horror. After 4-5 years of collective experience using various languages, this session was the *only* one which really took care of my needs as a learner. And I know a huge credit goes to the trainer, who was more interested in getting us ‘grown ups’ interested. Rather than forcing us to blindly accept stuff.


Interesting thing he mentioned, ‘only our computing platforms have improved, the tools we use remain the same. Which is quite a shame. Even Dennis Ritchie would agree.’ Does same apply to teaching ? Why have not our techniques improved ? or have they ?


~nightflier


P.S. may be that’s the reason some of my brightest computer engineer friends cringe at the thought of coding. Their teachers did something terribly wrong 😀


3 responses to “learning curve”

  1. nightflier Avatar

    Upasna: exactly my point. but will only incentives drive the change ? in other countries academia is looked upon as a niche/highly respected/valued field. In our only a select few get the privilege. May be we need attitude transformation.

    Calvin: 😛 anything which enables you to express creatively/otherwise can fall into the art/language category 😉
    the post has nothing to do with the language past the first line 😀

  2. Calvin Avatar

    Computer languages shouldn't be called languages…and I stopped reading after that first line 😛

  3. Upasna Avatar

    I think this could be one reason why I moved out of coding too. Had a chat with ma the other day, she said "these people are good teachers but they're not good people"…also somehow I feel teaching as a job in India is not taken up by enthusiasm by the smartest/ best lot..while that's exactly what it shud be…they need to incentivise the sector and make teachers have more diverse experiences/ exposures to really talk of change…the best teachers I've had for instance are also mostly the best travelled…

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