THE DOTS SHALL CONNECT
When I joined campus for my Computer Science degree studies, I had many expectations.
One of those expectations was that we would primarily learn how to program a computer — we all thought so. However, as soon as I had joined, I realized that that was not the case.
Why are we learning Linear Algebra? Why are we doing Pascal? These are some of the questions that most of my classmates asked. No one answered these questions, some of the units were taught by lecturers who did not have a foundation in computing.
The situation was messy, I remember at some point I wanted to drop out and focus on being a self taught developer. I thought that I could as well learn how to program a computer by myself.
Being in my final year now, I can say that all the concepts that are taught in class are important. In one way or another, they build up to advanced concepts taught later.
The syllabus is well structured — not to learn how to program a computer but to understand how a computer works. These foundational concepts are very important for you.
The main challenge that we have is in the presentation of these concepts. As I mentioned earlier, some of these concepts were taught by people who did not have a foundation in computing. The challenge with this is that you don’t get to contextualize the concepts. They are taught in a very general manner.
I also feel that there is need to at least teach these concepts with the most current applications. The whole point of teaching Pascal for example is so that we get to understand what a procedural language looks like. So why teach Pascal when we have a more recent version of a procedural language that can be used in it’s place?
Technology keeps on changing. You can’t be static. Instead of asking students to submit code in compact disks, they should be asked to use version control systems — just for the exposure.
I think that the curriculum is well structured. If things do not make sense to you right now, do not worry they shall make sense at some point. It took me time to find this out also — thanks to Natujenge Program by Meliora Technologies.
If you wish to join the Natujenge Program, you can use this link. It will help you understand many concepts that are very important for you to understand. Knowing how a computer works makes you to even want to know more — I can confirm this.
