[dundee] NoHelpDesk

[Jason Cormie]

Mark Hill wrote:
> You seem to be implying that all Higher Computing students would know a 
> fair bit about programming concepts, networking, and a bunch of other 
> things.
> I've got to say that's just wrong. My Higher Computing class focussed on 
> COMAL, the networking was entirely conceptual (no interaction with 
> actual networks) and everything was running on systems about 10 years 
> out of date.
> Not all schools have access to the resources to teach Computing courses 
> worth a damn, and assuming certain things of them would raise the bar 
> above a bunch of people, who - despite best efforts to the contrary - 
> can find that the schooling system is incapable of teaching what's 
> relevant.
> As for 'Anyone with a mild interest in networking' knowing about Perl, 
> AD, and Linux ... that's just silly.
> I'm not one to defend Abertay, well ever, but I don't know that nudging 
> the bar up to the extent where it's fair game only for hobby programmers 
> with all-round knowledge and a wealth of previous experimentation is 
> really where I'd want it to go.

I think your quite right to say that we the Uni cant second guess what IT 
experience students have before turning up at the door.

Abertay used to run compulsory IT101 courses, but scrapped them under the 
assumption that new students were coming in already IT literate.  Since then 
it has become quite evident that this is not the case and their is still a 
high demand for basic IT skills.

--
Jason Cormie