Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly
-
As an IT educator, I'm constantly aware of how I have to be "up" on/in my field while giving my profession the respect it is due. This means not simply taking the latest trend as a need to disrupt the consistency of the academic process, while making certain we are not becoming outdated by the overall progress in the field.
Some examples:
I chair a program known as Server Administration (SVAD) that primarily teaches Microsoft to the MCSA level and Linux to the LPIC2 level. Some issues I've had to work with my curriculum committee on are; whether or not to allow synchronous online classes (face-to-face only right now), whether or not to change the name of the program to Systems Administration (not too many "Server Admin" positions listed), how to incorporate Azure, AWS, or even Docker into the program.
At some point I'm being disruptive to the status quo, which adds to my peers' workload and diminishes the necessary academic consistency. On the other hand there are technologies like Lambda and Docker that will significantly change my program, I think. We have to stay relevant.
So, with that background, how do all of you feel about the "state of IT education" and what can be done, if anything, to make it better? -
Interesting - Creating courseware would be the most difficult thing I could imagine. Constantly changing, being updated, etc.
I look at the Windows 10 Field Guide on Leanpub as an example. This digital book is updated every few weeks. The author is (amazingly) updating the book in near real time with MS releasing updates/changes to Windows 10.Short of things like this, it's hard for education institutions to stay relevant. Of course there are some basics that don't really change much, but I'm guessing those things can be taught/mastered in under 1 year of study.
How long is your program?
-
IT education has to be dated, by some amount. If education was bleeding edge, the person teaching the course would be learning the material with the class.
The point of taking the class is to learn from an expert on the subject matter, not to learn with the subject leader.
Now with that said, removing the "history" of a lot of courses, and simply getting the meat of the class would likely help the class to progress more quickly, and learn relevant material sooner.
-
Teaching research is probably one of the most important skills for IT. Learning how to dig through logs, how to find solutions to your problems, not just ask sales people what to buy.
This is the biggest thing I've learned from being part of SW and ML.
-
This is always a fun topic around here. There are a few previous discussions you can take a look at under the IT Education tag that might be worth your time to review.
-
Also, mods add tags.
-
@dashrender :
We're a 2 year school, with an emphasis on getting students done in 4 semesters. Having said that we're working on getting things to be more flexible. We have an "ASAP" program that takes students from high school to a 2 year degree in 11 months, but right now that only has an informatics component from our School involved.
I like your point on taking the class from a subject matter expert and not a subject leader, but I would hope that if someone has been teaching a while that you can have some continuity. For instance, in one area I went from teaching "Data Communication" to "Intro. to Networking (Network+)" to "Cisco I (CCENT part 1)". Those classes are not the same, but they're not dissimilar either! You can see from that how "the meat of the class" is there.
I also like to use the talking point with software development that if you're a programmer a new language can be easier to learn than for someone just starting out that needs to understand the logical underpinnings of coding in general. -
@dashrender said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
Teaching research is probably one of the most important skills for IT. Learning how to dig through logs, how to find solutions to your problems, not just ask sales people what to buy.
This is the biggest thing I've learned from being part of SW and ML.
This is a HUGE issue, and you've hit on something one of my students said to me, almost verbatim. I also try to let my students know, "at some point I'm just trying to make sure you're an educated consumer"
Forgive my ignorance on SW and ML, and you elaborate? -
@jaredbusch said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
Also, mods add tags.
Sorry about that.
-
@ndc said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
This is always a fun topic around here. There are a few previous discussions you can take a look at under the IT Education tag that might be worth your time to review.
I will, and I should've done my research before posting (duh). Thank you.
-
@worden2 said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
@jaredbusch said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
Also, mods add tags.
Sorry about that.
Meh, it is not the most obvious thing in the world.
You can add tags by editing your initial post if you want, or a mod will get to it.
-
@worden2 said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
Forgive my ignorance on SW and ML, and you elaborate?
Around these parts they mean:
SW = Spiceworks (community.spiceworks.com)
ML = MangoLassi (mangolassi.it) -
@jaredbusch said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
@worden2 said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
@jaredbusch said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
Also, mods add tags.
Sorry about that.
Meh, it is not the most obvious thing in the world.
You can add tags by editing your initial post if you want, or a mod will get to it.
LOL - while not IT related - the use of tags in general seems to be a pretty new thing. I know they have been around just about forever, but their actual use is pretty light. A good thing to toss into an intro class somewhere.
-
@worden2 said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
@ndc said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
This is always a fun topic around here. There are a few previous discussions you can take a look at under the IT Education tag that might be worth your time to review.
I will, and I should've done my research before posting (duh). Thank you.
No worries, I was just pointing out a resource you may not have realized existed since you're new. Creating another discussion on the topic is certainly not a problem. It's sort of a moving target so can bear continued discussion. Also since you are coming from a different point of view on the topic from the majority of contributors here we may get some new conclusions going.
-
@worden2 said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
..., whether or not to change the name of the program to Systems Administration (not too many "Server Admin" positions listed),
Not to get stuck in the weeds. But Server Admin is a title for the bench field, not for IT. A server admin is the title for someone that manages the physical hardware of servers (plugging in drives, racking and stacking, plugging in cables) and system admin is the name for the role that manages the operating system. So system admin is the top tier IT job roles, easily commanding $200K+. Whereas server admin is the top tier bench role, commanding low $100K in large datacenters with high security at the very top of the field.
The CompTIA Server+ is the cert for Server Admin.
-
@dustinb3403 said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
IT education has to be dated, by some amount. If education was bleeding edge, the person teaching the course would be learning the material with the class.
You have to do that to be an IT pro. If the professor isn't learning with the class, you've got a big problem.
-
@scottalanmiller said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
@dustinb3403 said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
IT education has to be dated, by some amount. If education was bleeding edge, the person teaching the course would be learning the material with the class.
You have to do that to be an IT pro. If the professor isn't learning with the class, you've got a big problem.
Um.. . . read that again. The profession at least needs to know what is going on. Learning is good, but they should be learning the material before the rest of the class.
It's why they are the professor.
-
@dashrender said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
@jaredbusch said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
@worden2 said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
@jaredbusch said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
Also, mods add tags.
Sorry about that.
Meh, it is not the most obvious thing in the world.
You can add tags by editing your initial post if you want, or a mod will get to it.
LOL - while not IT related - the use of tags in general seems to be a pretty new thing. I know they have been around just about forever, but their actual use is pretty light. A good thing to toss into an intro class somewhere.
I was studying taxonomic classification in 2003, it was a major topic at the time because folksonomy of the web was really the hot thing of the era and that's where a lot of research and thought in IT was going. Long before these kinds of communities were arising. Taxonomy and folksonomy would be good topics for an IT curriculum.
-
@dustinb3403 said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
@scottalanmiller said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
@dustinb3403 said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
IT education has to be dated, by some amount. If education was bleeding edge, the person teaching the course would be learning the material with the class.
You have to do that to be an IT pro. If the professor isn't learning with the class, you've got a big problem.
Um.. . . read that again. The profession at least needs to know what is going on. Learning is good, but they should be learning the material before the rest of the class.
It's why they are the professor.
Not really, if you need the class to hold back for you to catch up, you are the opposite of a professor.
-
@scottalanmiller said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
@dustinb3403 said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
@scottalanmiller said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
@dustinb3403 said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:
IT education has to be dated, by some amount. If education was bleeding edge, the person teaching the course would be learning the material with the class.
You have to do that to be an IT pro. If the professor isn't learning with the class, you've got a big problem.
Um.. . . read that again. The profession at least needs to know what is going on. Learning is good, but they should be learning the material before the rest of the class.
It's why they are the professor.
Not really, if you need the class to hold back for you to catch up, you are the opposite of a professor.
This is a scott-ism. The point of being in the class is because you want to learn from an expert on the course material. Not because you want to learn with the professor.
