GeekSpeak Cheat Sheet

[Judy Perry]

On Mon, 25 Oct 2004, Troy Rollins wrote:

> As usual, I take on the role of devil's advocate.
>
> This thread makes me wonder what the goal is. It would seem to me that
> the CS students have every right to "roll their eyes."

<snip>

--Fair enough, but, actually, no they do not have this right inasmuch as
this course is not required; they took it by choice and it was explained
to them Day 1 what they would be using and why.  The reason why they're
rolling their eyes is that they take the class with the idea that they'll
get an automatic "A" without learning or doing anything.

<snip>
>
> I'm not debating the power that Rev can have... heck, I use it. BUT, it
> isn't going to help me land a job at a corporation's IT department.
> Unless this course is something like "Alternative programming
> techniques 101" and an elective, similar to "music appreciation", I'd
> seriously have to wonder who it was aimed to benefit.

--It is indeed such a course.  It was written for students in the
applications sequence of the minor in CS.  But because they weren't
watching what they were doing, it ended up being included as a possibility
for one of the two courses of 6 units the CS majors can take as 'technical
electives' (the equally non-geeky humanities-like course 'The Computer
Impact' also until recently counted as a technical elective) and CS majors
started taking it in droves because they thought they wouldn't have to
learn anything new and get A's.

The course has since been revamped to provide lecture material relating to
HCI, user interface and interactive system design instruction, thus
making it the only course in the curriculum providing instruction in
these areas.

Judy