[NTLUG:Discuss] It must be true that IT is back...

[Dennis Rice]

Steve Baker wrote
brian at pongonova.net wrote:
 > > I've noticed the same phenomenon in the teaching field, that there's
 > > this mysterious "shortage" of teachers.  Yet, schools in the Dallas
 > > area appear to be flush enough that they can specify X years of
 > > teaching experience.  Obviously, if they can set those types of
 > > constraints, the school districts aren't hurting that badly.

You just have cause and effect switched around!  Perhaps because
they are requiring those qualifications, the shortage of teachers
isn't mysterious at all!
---------------

Three issues, as least from my perspective, have developed here.
1. Shortage of teachers.
What should the public expect for the pay they provide?  Everyone 
wants the very best in an education, but they are not willing to pay 
for it, at least to the teachers.  The top brass get all of the 
royalties and pay, but carry no responsibility for the classroom 
delivery.  Teaching is a hard profession, and knowing how to deliver 
material in a classroom is a gift that many who think that just 
because they know the subject, must be easy.  Add to that the attitude 
of a large number of kids today that do not want to be in the 
classroom.  Having taught at the university level, many student are 
coming into the classroom with deficient qualifications for math and 
writing skills.  They lack the desire to do more than the very minimum 
to pass the course, and worse, feel that just because the paid the 
money they deserve the best grade rather than to demonstrate their 
full abilities.  So why does one want to teach - to give to those 10% 
that want to learn and get much more back that can never make up for 
the pay.  Please do not complain about there not being enough teachers 
until you are willing to give up your pay check and go into the 
classroom.

I would suggest that you become more involved with your local school 
board and monitor the quality of the teachers, especially in the high 
school level.  I have observed from my oldest son in the auto shop 
course that the teacher is more interested in going out to race cars, 
takes many Fridays off, and the shows movies, such as the "Fast and 
the Furious" or "American Pie" in class.  When working on the cars, 
most of the students where playing games on the computers rather than 
trying to learn how to maintain a car.

2. Quality of Education
This factor relates more to the university level, but is seen more in 
the lower grades - that of using the computer more for educational 
purposes.

There are many pros and cons to this topic.  In basic education, use 
of computer applications can be very good - if the application 
presents the information well and is designed to take in student 
response for feedback.  Many excellent programs exist for math, but I 
am not sure what programs exist for other topics.  I am not confident 
if topics such as writing skills, history, speech, or ethical values 
can be properly delivered in a computer program.

At the college level, many universities are going more and more to 
computer simulation.  Most students are going into class looking to do 
gaming rather than simulation, only to learn that simulation is a much 
more open field, but they must have high levels of MATH (a four letter 
word).  The computer is just a substitute for the pencil and paper in 
many tasks, it is not able to provide an evaluation.  On-line 
education is the in-thing to do today for education.  The computer 
"allows" faster delivery, but only if the student puts in the proper 
qualified time.

Technical simulations exist for a very small domain of education, but 
higher education, in its process of reducing the cost, is using more 
programs that do not provide the width of information that is required 
for a technical education.

3. Definition of IT
This is one of the cases that I do not fit into "your" mold.  I am in 
IT, but not programming.  Everything mentioned in the thread so far 
has been related to programming, but IT also includes the 
interconnection of the host systems.  I do not agree with this 
definition, but the general populace has decided to merge both 
together into one industry but they are two different operations.

I make an issue of the interconnection of the equipment, use of 
Ethernet and routers, including the WAN interconnection.  All of these 
devices and are in fact computers, but they are dominated by the 
programming field just because it takes a program to run them rather 
than being considered two different technologies.  As a programmer, 
how many of you know how or what it takes to interconnect computers 
and networks.  You hook up to the Internet and it works, but what is 
behind the curtains.  My fun cliche - Application Layer 7 doesn't work 
without Physical Layer 1, and if you do not believe me, I will use a 
pair of wire cutters.  (This statement assumes you fully understand 
the OSI 7 Layer model.)  Getting back to the education, there are 
several excellent simulation programs for Cisco routers, but there are 
none for network / WAN interconnection.


I apologize for this long winded and off topic extension to the 
discussion (sorry to the administration for putting up with this).  I 
feel the previous discussion was one sided and that education was 
being brought into the subject, more information should be observed. 
I can not be too much more off topic than the rest of the discussion.

Dennis