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Sep. 26th, 1996 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
garoteGarrett Birkel
English 2, essay 2 v1.0
Internships and Lectures
comparisons and suggestions
Zach Archer, a music major at UC Davis, has the following to say about his class schedule: "The music classes I'm taking are, for the most part, relevant and comprehensive. The scope of material is fairly broad, ... However, ... there are some topics that are totally omitted from discussion in these classes, and I must research these on my own time. This would be fine, except: I have no [expletive!] time, and there is no written list of possible research topics lying around anywhere."
This is one of the shortcomings of lecture-oriented teaching. The class covers what the lecturer can teach; anything beyond that is the responsibility of the student. Many students, saddled with high tuition fees, have to work employment around their class schedules. Some find that internships at companies associated with their majors actually teach more than their classes do -- and pay the bills to boot.
Mark Hedges, a UC San Diego student, has found his class schedule as a Computer Science major unable to address his needs: "...it was hardly at all relevant to the still possible career of network administrator/user support director, it was more programming oriented." Though network administration falls under the category of Computer Science, Mark discovered that "The major is very industry-oriented for programmers." He was able to get an internship at a computer lab, however, through which he is leaning the skills that his classes do not cover.
Brad Hill, a student at Michigan State University, encountered the same thing: "I'm learning a lot more about my job working in the lab at my internship than in my classes.... There's only so much you can learn from static sources, including a Prof. talking at you in a lecture."
With internships getting such rave reviews, one would think that they are the answer to the shortcomings of colleges and majors everywhere. Why not expand the internship practice? Why not simply drop a student into a job, to learn skills "on the fly," bypassing lecture classes altogether? ... Well, I'll tell you why not.
If internships were inducted into the college curriculum, they would relieve some of the conflicts between class loads and work time. To be truly integrated, they would have to be worth college credit. However, there is no real way to rate the success of a given student employee. Having employers submit periodical evaluations of their students is a risky proposition at best: Some tasks may be harder than others, thereby making a comparison between students unfair; some evaluators may be critical of things that others aren't. If there is no proper way to judge, then any credit awarded cannot figure into a GPA and is thereby useless in evaluating students.
In addition, consider the inherent annoyance of being constantly evaluated and watched by "big brother", in the classroom and at work. This constant, rigid evaluation is something that pervades High School teaching practices, and is something that most college students would be averse to. However, as many a UC Santa Cruz student could tell you, it also provides a measure of security. UCSC students are given written evaluations at the end of a semester, which can then be only tentatively converted to grades if a student wants to transfer elsewhere. This dilemma is the proverbial two-horned bull. In the end, it can only be said that some form of fair evaluation is necessary, and that it is something that cannot be gleaned from an internship.
Some fields cannot conceivably train internees in real-world jobs because it would be unlawful, dangerous, or improper. For example in areas such as physical therapy, architecture, or psychology. To avoid lawsuits and accidents, interns in these fields would be reduced to gofers and observers, which would invalidate the purpose of the internship. (To provide real work experience.)
Clearly, internships are not for everyone, and are not suited for every field. One of the questions on the survey I gave my interviewees was "Would an internship program, where you are hired by a company at a reduced wage to "learn on the job", be useful to you?" Zach, the music major, replied: "In my case, I don't think so. The only equivalent internship that I would accept would be something like, "Write a soundtrack for this new film". And that would require a LOT of hours, and I would want some sort of Zen Master watching over my shoulder to make sure I actually knew what I was doing, and to offer advice along the way, etc."
In the computer-oriented field, internships have more potential to help simply because of the nature of the skills required. Mark said this of his employment at the on-site college computer lab: "My job is ... incredibly more useful toward a sysadmin/user support career than any schoolwork." Of the college curriculum, Mark says: "There's one class on advanced unix administration here. I'd have to take so many classes as prerequisites I'd never get there. As far as the commercialized government career option goes, ... an internship is probably a 95% necessity to get experience to start in the field,"
However, Mark also goes on to say that: "a good solid academic background is 100% necessary."
Since real employment for class credit can never be fairly evaluated, and the professor/lecture structure is inadequate on its own, I propose we work to merge the two on campus. The Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills makes a similar recommendation in it's 1991 report on educational goals for "America 2000". One of the main ideas it endorses is that "Learning should be reoriented away from mere mastery of information and toward encouraging students to recognize and solve problems." (19) and furthermore that "Students do not need to learn basic skills before they learn problem-solving skills. The two go together. They are not sequential but mutually enforcing." (19)
From my standpoint as a computer science/programming major, I feel capable of recommending some changes that would improve general learning conditions and narrow the gap between work and school for my fellow computer science majors:
First, make lab time a requirement for programming classes, and make it a set time. This is crucial for bringing all the students in together, where they can conduct their team exercises and get to know their fellow programmers/coordinators/artists, et cetera. As the SCANS government report says, knowledge of team dynamics and social skills are a must for the employees of today and tomorrow. Definite lab time, with instructors to oversee (the "Zen Masters" Zach spoke of) and computers near, would provide the foundation for these skills to grow. It cannot be emphasized enough how vital lab time is to a computer-oriented career.
In fact, I couldn't say it any better than IBM employee Jim Dezell, who manages the development of advanced education systems for grades K through 12. In the book "Educating America" by Jack E. Bowsher, Jim says that "a technology-based learning environment is better than traditional instruction because it is risk-free from the student's perspective even though frequent measurements are built into programs in the form of exercises on the computer. There are no failures and no red-pencil marks. There is no labeling of students - no slow group or fast group. The new systems foster learning through discovery, which is the best of all teaching methods for motivating students to learn. Each child becomes responsible for his or her own learning, which is the empowering element that improves self-esteem." (emphasis added) (172) Learning through discovery is what lab time is all about.
A less radical suggestion I have is to allow programmers to fix the bugs the correctors find in their programs, and turn them back in for a bit more credit. This would be an accurate reflection of the kind of follow-up work required of programmers these days. In fact, programming assignments could be much more flexible than the ones Brent and I have encountered. (Brent is a UCSC student I know, who is taking their programming courses.) Much more often programmers are called upon to add a feature to an existing program, instead of beginning one from scratch. Teams could trade programs and then add features, to lean how to read other peoples' programming styles...
The final recommendation I wish to make is for the integration of team building exercises into the curriculum, just like any team-oriented occupation. The many reports I have studied all share a common claim: Teamwork and social interaction are absolutely essential to productivity and success these days. When I was asked to work with partners on my programming projects for the classes at this college, it was assumed that I knew the people around me and had a feel for their individual strengths and weaknesses. I am hardly a social butterfly. There was no time set aside for our class to get to know itself. I also recall, with a measure of regret, that the assignments given were below my knowledge level and I had no trouble completing them even without a team. In the end, there was no need to form one, and a potential lesson was lost on me.
The era of the solitary, Albert-Einstein-like genius is coming to a close, as sheer quantities of information overwhelm the time constraints of the individual, and standards are developed that must be maintained. Our progress in these coming years is dependent upon accurate collaboration and thorough communication. These skills must be taught before students begin real work, not haphazardly during it. I am confident that the few changes I recommend in this document will encourage these vital skills.
Babbliography:
Archer, Zach. (UC Davis student) Personal Interview. 8 July 1995.
Bowsher, Jack E. Educating America: Lessons Learned in the Nation's Corporations. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1989
Hedges, Mark. (UC San Diego student) Personal Interview. 6 July 1995.
Hill, Brad. (MSU student) Email Interview, Wed Jul 5 21:36:38 1995
Thorington, Brent. (UC Santa Cruz student) Phone Interview. 6 July 1995
Unites States. Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, under the Department of Labor. A SCANS Report for America 2000. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, June 1991.
English 2, essay 2 v1.0
Internships and Lectures
comparisons and suggestions
Zach Archer, a music major at UC Davis, has the following to say about his class schedule: "The music classes I'm taking are, for the most part, relevant and comprehensive. The scope of material is fairly broad, ... However, ... there are some topics that are totally omitted from discussion in these classes, and I must research these on my own time. This would be fine, except: I have no [expletive!] time, and there is no written list of possible research topics lying around anywhere."
This is one of the shortcomings of lecture-oriented teaching. The class covers what the lecturer can teach; anything beyond that is the responsibility of the student. Many students, saddled with high tuition fees, have to work employment around their class schedules. Some find that internships at companies associated with their majors actually teach more than their classes do -- and pay the bills to boot.
Mark Hedges, a UC San Diego student, has found his class schedule as a Computer Science major unable to address his needs: "...it was hardly at all relevant to the still possible career of network administrator/user support director, it was more programming oriented." Though network administration falls under the category of Computer Science, Mark discovered that "The major is very industry-oriented for programmers." He was able to get an internship at a computer lab, however, through which he is leaning the skills that his classes do not cover.
Brad Hill, a student at Michigan State University, encountered the same thing: "I'm learning a lot more about my job working in the lab at my internship than in my classes.... There's only so much you can learn from static sources, including a Prof. talking at you in a lecture."
With internships getting such rave reviews, one would think that they are the answer to the shortcomings of colleges and majors everywhere. Why not expand the internship practice? Why not simply drop a student into a job, to learn skills "on the fly," bypassing lecture classes altogether? ... Well, I'll tell you why not.
If internships were inducted into the college curriculum, they would relieve some of the conflicts between class loads and work time. To be truly integrated, they would have to be worth college credit. However, there is no real way to rate the success of a given student employee. Having employers submit periodical evaluations of their students is a risky proposition at best: Some tasks may be harder than others, thereby making a comparison between students unfair; some evaluators may be critical of things that others aren't. If there is no proper way to judge, then any credit awarded cannot figure into a GPA and is thereby useless in evaluating students.
In addition, consider the inherent annoyance of being constantly evaluated and watched by "big brother", in the classroom and at work. This constant, rigid evaluation is something that pervades High School teaching practices, and is something that most college students would be averse to. However, as many a UC Santa Cruz student could tell you, it also provides a measure of security. UCSC students are given written evaluations at the end of a semester, which can then be only tentatively converted to grades if a student wants to transfer elsewhere. This dilemma is the proverbial two-horned bull. In the end, it can only be said that some form of fair evaluation is necessary, and that it is something that cannot be gleaned from an internship.
Some fields cannot conceivably train internees in real-world jobs because it would be unlawful, dangerous, or improper. For example in areas such as physical therapy, architecture, or psychology. To avoid lawsuits and accidents, interns in these fields would be reduced to gofers and observers, which would invalidate the purpose of the internship. (To provide real work experience.)
Clearly, internships are not for everyone, and are not suited for every field. One of the questions on the survey I gave my interviewees was "Would an internship program, where you are hired by a company at a reduced wage to "learn on the job", be useful to you?" Zach, the music major, replied: "In my case, I don't think so. The only equivalent internship that I would accept would be something like, "Write a soundtrack for this new film". And that would require a LOT of hours, and I would want some sort of Zen Master watching over my shoulder to make sure I actually knew what I was doing, and to offer advice along the way, etc."
In the computer-oriented field, internships have more potential to help simply because of the nature of the skills required. Mark said this of his employment at the on-site college computer lab: "My job is ... incredibly more useful toward a sysadmin/user support career than any schoolwork." Of the college curriculum, Mark says: "There's one class on advanced unix administration here. I'd have to take so many classes as prerequisites I'd never get there. As far as the commercialized government career option goes, ... an internship is probably a 95% necessity to get experience to start in the field,"
However, Mark also goes on to say that: "a good solid academic background is 100% necessary."
Since real employment for class credit can never be fairly evaluated, and the professor/lecture structure is inadequate on its own, I propose we work to merge the two on campus. The Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills makes a similar recommendation in it's 1991 report on educational goals for "America 2000". One of the main ideas it endorses is that "Learning should be reoriented away from mere mastery of information and toward encouraging students to recognize and solve problems." (19) and furthermore that "Students do not need to learn basic skills before they learn problem-solving skills. The two go together. They are not sequential but mutually enforcing." (19)
From my standpoint as a computer science/programming major, I feel capable of recommending some changes that would improve general learning conditions and narrow the gap between work and school for my fellow computer science majors:
First, make lab time a requirement for programming classes, and make it a set time. This is crucial for bringing all the students in together, where they can conduct their team exercises and get to know their fellow programmers/coordinators/artists, et cetera. As the SCANS government report says, knowledge of team dynamics and social skills are a must for the employees of today and tomorrow. Definite lab time, with instructors to oversee (the "Zen Masters" Zach spoke of) and computers near, would provide the foundation for these skills to grow. It cannot be emphasized enough how vital lab time is to a computer-oriented career.
In fact, I couldn't say it any better than IBM employee Jim Dezell, who manages the development of advanced education systems for grades K through 12. In the book "Educating America" by Jack E. Bowsher, Jim says that "a technology-based learning environment is better than traditional instruction because it is risk-free from the student's perspective even though frequent measurements are built into programs in the form of exercises on the computer. There are no failures and no red-pencil marks. There is no labeling of students - no slow group or fast group. The new systems foster learning through discovery, which is the best of all teaching methods for motivating students to learn. Each child becomes responsible for his or her own learning, which is the empowering element that improves self-esteem." (emphasis added) (172) Learning through discovery is what lab time is all about.
A less radical suggestion I have is to allow programmers to fix the bugs the correctors find in their programs, and turn them back in for a bit more credit. This would be an accurate reflection of the kind of follow-up work required of programmers these days. In fact, programming assignments could be much more flexible than the ones Brent and I have encountered. (Brent is a UCSC student I know, who is taking their programming courses.) Much more often programmers are called upon to add a feature to an existing program, instead of beginning one from scratch. Teams could trade programs and then add features, to lean how to read other peoples' programming styles...
The final recommendation I wish to make is for the integration of team building exercises into the curriculum, just like any team-oriented occupation. The many reports I have studied all share a common claim: Teamwork and social interaction are absolutely essential to productivity and success these days. When I was asked to work with partners on my programming projects for the classes at this college, it was assumed that I knew the people around me and had a feel for their individual strengths and weaknesses. I am hardly a social butterfly. There was no time set aside for our class to get to know itself. I also recall, with a measure of regret, that the assignments given were below my knowledge level and I had no trouble completing them even without a team. In the end, there was no need to form one, and a potential lesson was lost on me.
The era of the solitary, Albert-Einstein-like genius is coming to a close, as sheer quantities of information overwhelm the time constraints of the individual, and standards are developed that must be maintained. Our progress in these coming years is dependent upon accurate collaboration and thorough communication. These skills must be taught before students begin real work, not haphazardly during it. I am confident that the few changes I recommend in this document will encourage these vital skills.
Babbliography:
Archer, Zach. (UC Davis student) Personal Interview. 8 July 1995.
Bowsher, Jack E. Educating America: Lessons Learned in the Nation's Corporations. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1989
Hedges, Mark. (UC San Diego student) Personal Interview. 6 July 1995.
Hill, Brad. (MSU student) Email Interview, Wed Jul 5 21:36:38 1995
Thorington, Brent. (UC Santa Cruz student) Phone Interview. 6 July 1995
Unites States. Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, under the Department of Labor. A SCANS Report for America 2000. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, June 1991.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-28 12:51 am (UTC)The other thing is that teachers in colleges are mostly clueless anyway. They have a syllabus and SLOs, but they don't know how things are being done today, and even less how things will be done tomorrow.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-29 12:01 am (UTC)