The Future of Education

Philip Greenspun talks about Improving Undergraduate Computer Science Education:

• Lecturing has been found to be extremely ineffective by all researchers. The FAA limits lectures to 20 minutes or so in U.S. flight schools.


• Lab and project work are where students learn the most.


• Engineers learn by doing progressively larger projects, not by doing what they’re told in one-week homework assignments or doing small pieces of a big project.

And the kickers:

• Everything that is part of a bachelor’s in CS can be taught as part of a project that has all phases of the engineering cycle.


• It makes a lot of sense to separate teaching/coaching from grading and, in the Internet age, it is trivial to do so.  Define the standard, but let others decide whether or not your students have met the standard.


• A student who graduates with a portfolio of 10 systems, each of which he or she understands completely and can show off the documentation as well as the function (on the Web or on the student’s laptop), is a student who will get a software development job.

I'll summarize in my own words:

• Lecture is a synonym for nap time


• Folks learn by doing


• Folks can learn everything in a degree program by doing real work in an environment that values learning


• Grades do not matter


• Employers love experience more than education

Using the "letters on the piece of paper model" to weed out applicants isn't helping employers find qualified candidates; it is helping them make applicant pools smaller. I've have never ran across a hiring manager that would pick a resume with lots of letters over a personal referral.

I believe apprenticeships will be the educational tool of the, ahem, future. That is to say, true apprenticeships. I certainly don't believe OJT is a model that will work for everyone (especially the throw them to the wolves model). People are different. (related)

I, too, am sure that the modern university system isn't going away (especially the tax-payer funded ones). I do believe that unless more change happens (eg. the MIT CS program), the institutionally educated graduates will have a harder and harder time finding a job.

If my kids were graduating high school today, i'd strongly encourage them to pursue an apprenticeship in lieu of a piece of paper.

Hopefully the college grads, when interviewed, can impress my kids. ;-)