[Noisebridge-discuss] Your post, A complaint from Rwanda

[girlgeek]

Aaron,
Thank you so much for the reference.  I found and read it.

Speaking of 'rise and fall of things'

  I am also teaching a DB course.

The Rwandan education system is very big on standardized tests. This 
whole country has some very orderly qualities.  Imagine what would 
happen if  you put a cliche of orderly Germany down in the middle of 
your cliche of  Africa and you would have a good image of Rwanda.

Well for DB the standardized tests are much more interested to know if 
they can recite the names of DBMS systems than they are if the students 
can form a simple piece of SQL.  And tests are not kept up to date.  So 
yesterday I found myself teaching names of databases that I haven't 
heard mentioned in a decade while ignoring more modern ones.

The third course I am teaching is C++.  Sigh.  That language is 
specifically mentioned in the article as being in decline.  I am 
considered the heavy duty technical one, the experienced American 
trained professional.  And have been given the honor of teaching the 
'serious' courses.   Ah, adjustments.  I really am going to have to try 
to find a way to give these kids some sort of education as well as a way 
to get them through the exams.  Btw, one of my fellow Peace Corps 
volunteers who has a BA in Computer Science took a sample High School 
completion Computer Science exam.  She did not do well.  That is a 
comment on the exam, not her.

Thank you for the reference.  I need the encouragement.

Sincerely,
Claudia Zeiler

On 1/10/2013 5:42 AM, Aaronco Thirtysix wrote:
> Hello Claudia,
>
> You wrote:
> ---- Start quote ----
> From: girlgeek <girlgeek at wt.net>
> To: noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:30:33 +0200
> Subject: [Noisebridge-discuss] A complaint from Rwanda
> Hello All,
> Tomorrow I start teaching - wait for it - Visual Basic!!!!  Not .NET, VB.
> ...
> ...
> If anyone has any suggestions for me, I am happy to hear them.
> ...
> ---- End quote ----
>
> You might wish to also be aware of Andrew Binstock's article in
> Dr.Dobb's journal entitled 'The Rise and Fall of Languages in 2012'.
> URL is http://www.drdobbs.com/jvm/the-rise-and-fall-of-languages-in-2012/240145800
>
> Binstock's statistics and growth-projections (or decline-projections
> as it were) might be just as applicable for the Visual Basic you are
> teaching as they would be for one or more of the other languages
> mentioned in this article.
>
> Just mentioning this as an FYI.
> -A
>
>
> --
>
>
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