Senior Professors Teaching Intro CS

Senior Professors Teaching Intro CS

[Mike O'Malley]

I can't stand "me too" posts, or bandwagons in general, but I feel
somewhat obligated to jump into this thread...
   I had the good fortune to take several introductory courses taught by
Prof. Feldman at GW (1991-1992).  During the course (if you'll pardon
the pun) of these classes, I decided to change my major from business
administration to computer science.  This decision was largely motivated
by the fact that I was exposed to a senior professor in these intro
courses- a recurring question during my freshman year was "Can I do this
for a living?".  A TA would have been unable to answer that question,
not having been "out in the real world" himself.  A senior professor, on
the other hand, has enough experience to provide examples of what life
in computer science is like.  
   Putting a TA on the front lines- a person who doesn't necessarily
want to be there, or who lacks experience in teaching- will only repel
people who are borderline on taking further courses.  I'm not saying
that professors are necessarily more agreeable-far from it- but they
possess the teaching experience to entice the fencesitters into further
coursework, or to perhaps save them a lot of time and money on future
courses that they wouldn't enjoy/utilize.

   No, Professor Feldman didn't coach me on Usenet posting, as I'm sure
you've noticed. :)
   

	Mike O'Malley
	Special Programs
	Raytheon E-Systems, Inc.
	

  P.S.  I gave up using upper-case reserved words after my first two
courses at GW- it's kind of hard on the eyes.

Re: Senior Professors Teaching Intro CS

[Michael Feldman]

In article <32A488F2.27FC@fallschurch.esys.com>,
Mike O'Malley  <momalley@fallschurch.esys.com> wrote:
>I can't stand "me too" posts, or bandwagons in general, but I feel
>somewhat obligated to jump into this thread...

Nice to hear from you, Mike!

>   I had the good fortune to take several introductory courses taught by
>Prof. Feldman at GW (1991-1992).  During the course (if you'll pardon
>the pun) of these classes, I decided to change my major from business
>administration to computer science.  

Hey - I didn;t know that! You do seem to be making a success of CS!

[snip]

>   No, Professor Feldman didn't coach me on Usenet posting, as I'm sure
>you've noticed. :)

Right, folks, I swear I didn;t put Mike up to this...:-)

>	Mike O'Malley
>	Special Programs
>	Raytheon E-Systems, Inc.

>  P.S.  I gave up using upper-case reserved words after my first two
>courses at GW- it's kind of hard on the eyes.

In my opinion, you did just the right thing. Yet another example of
a student who could think for himself, and <gasp> change lexical
styles without driving himself crazy.

Keep up the good work, Mike!

Mike Feldman

Re: Senior Professors Teaching Intro CS

[Ted Dennison]

Mike O'Malley wrote:
> 
> Prof. Feldman at GW (1991-1992).  During the course (if you'll pardon
> the pun) of these classes, I decided to change my major from business
> administration to computer science.  This decision was largely motivated
> by the fact that I was exposed to a senior professor in these intro
> courses- a recurring question during my freshman year was "Can I do this
> for a living?".  A TA would have been unable to answer that question,
> not having been "out in the real world" himself.  A senior professor, on
> the other hand, has enough experience to provide examples of what life
> in computer science is like.

I had a very similar experience my freshman year at Tulane (although,
I was an EE, not a business major at the time). My "CS1" teacher was 
only a PhD candidate, but he was the best teacher in the department and
had a lot of real-world experience (and war-stories).

My wife was a business major, and took an intro CS course from another
graduate student who had NO real world experience and wasn't half the
teacher (I took a course from him later, so I know). She had a miserable
experience. Needless to say she stayed in the business school. The sad
part is that she is actually pretty good with computers.

-- 
T.E.D.          
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ps. When he got his PhD, the fools let him leave to teach elsewhere.