I have, on more than one occassion over recent weeks, heard blogging and bloggers referred to in less than positive terms. It is as if the standard required of those who write blogs is being set much higher then that applied to book writers or journalists. When last I looked there were endless numbers of books, pamplets and magazines that were uninteresting, boring and easily classified as propaganda of one sort or another. Yet it seems that because their authors went through a process of editing and publishing the contents are somehow worthy of respect. A casual glance at any of the daily taboilds must surly challenge that assumption. The famous "Gotcha" headline associated with the sinking of the Belgrano must surly come under the mantle of tirade.
My own opinion is that the criticism levelled at bloggers which is not based on content but on the form itself, stems from the reluctance of many to truely embrace the idea of freedom of speech and freedom of ideas. Too often those in positions of power and influence have sought to limit the spread of ideas which threathen that very power. It is no accident that Ireland charges what it does for FOI documents. It is intended to prevent discovery. It is also no accident that so many millions choose to express themselves in this way. Those with a vested interest in limiting access to ideas count among their number the religions of the world and the those who govern rather than serve their societies.
How many times have we heard criticism of programmes on TV from those who seek to hide from the light being shone upon them. Where would this country be without Gay Byrne and the team that produced The Late Late show. Thankfully Frontline appears to have taken up the mantle. The world is awash with information, not all of it either accurate or true. It was always so as Galaleo found to his cost. The tragedy in Ireland is that we are busy educating young people in a way that has become redundant, for a society that no longer has a future. What you know is no longer an advantage. It's your ability to apply what others have already learned that will make the difference.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Another week nearly over
I don't mean the title to sound as if this is a drag. I am very much here of my own free will so no excuses here. But it is exhausting at at times. My biggest problem is dealing with the speed at which things happen outside of classes and the lack of space to sit down and take a break from it all. Having spent seven years developing that other side of my brain that does not need to lable things or get right answers, it is quite difficult to not get run over in rush and bustle and hassel of living in a world focused on the young.
My solution will be to find space in the cracks. To find a way of being at the centre of the storm yet unaffected by the storm. Now that I think of it it's a bit like being at home all with my family during summer except I have a few thousand kids of a certain age. That age where being where you are is only a prelude to going somewhere else and then the day is gone.
I must try and find some classrooms that remain open between lectures so that some space is possible. If the weather keeps up maybe I'll just go for walks. And thanks to who ever left the Maple lab open.
My solution will be to find space in the cracks. To find a way of being at the centre of the storm yet unaffected by the storm. Now that I think of it it's a bit like being at home all with my family during summer except I have a few thousand kids of a certain age. That age where being where you are is only a prelude to going somewhere else and then the day is gone.
I must try and find some classrooms that remain open between lectures so that some space is possible. If the weather keeps up maybe I'll just go for walks. And thanks to who ever left the Maple lab open.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Job 9 Advert Analysis
I have identified ten elements in this advert: 7 of which are technical, 3 are soft skills but learnable none the less.
Technical Elements
A quick search on "Java programming" threw up some 29,500,00 hits in all of 0.22 seconds. These covered everything from introductions to Java to tutorials on Java to examples of code. Sun Developer Network even has an article entitled "Java Technology: The Early Years". It was launched on May 23rd 1995 when Sun Microsystems and Netscape announced it was to be used in Netscape Navigator, the then leader of the pack in browsers. Mind you we all know what happened to that. It appears from the article that when Java was first developed it had no obvious commercial market. the killer application turned out to be the internet and hence the colaboration with Netscape. Java is said to be "device independent" and that means it can run on existing techologies like your home PC or laptop, on mobile phones and on the newer techologies like Kindle. Java Swing is described on Wikipedia as "the project code name for the lightweight GUI components in JFC". There are two modules which would be of interest to those interested in learning Java: SOFT6008 - Interactive Web Development and SOFT9016 - Web Technologies
NetBeans did less well in the browser stakes providing only 5,250,000 hits but in a stunning 0.09 seconds. A more limited search for the "history of Netbeans" much reduced this total to a more modest 550,000 but leads one directly to Netbeans.org. Netbeans was a student project designed to provide an Integrated Developement Environment or IDE. It was developed in the Czech Republic in 1996 and by 1999, Sun Microsystems, the developer of Java was on board and eventually they took Netbeans down the open source route. For the prospective student requiring Netbeans, the module SOFT6008 - Interactive Web Development would appear to satisfy this requirement.
There do not appear to be any modules directly providing Apache but the general area of automated software build processes seems to be satisified by most software courses. ANT is another tool released in 2000 by Sun into the open source world. According to Wikipedia it uses the "Java language, requires a Java platform and is best suited to building Java projects."
In circumstances where many different people can be working on different modules of the same software product at the same time, it is essential to keep track of which modifications have been made to which modules and by whom. Subversion, which is also mentioned in this advert is a version control system which serves this purpose. SOFT8014 Software Project Management probably addresses this element.
A wide range of modules offered by the Computing Dept at fundamental, intermediate, advanced and expert levels seem to address aspects of Design Patterns. This is a concept borrowed from architecture and is based on the idea that there is no sense in reinventing the wheel every time you need one. The Design Pattern outlines the problem or requirement being addressed and why the proposed solution works. Every time the same or a similar problem occures, the design pattern can be used. Creating these patterns is whet this is all about.
Model–View–Controller (MVC) is again a concept borrowed from architecture. The idea being to seperate out the different elements of a software project into its functional parts. The handling of inputs to the project, the project itself and the eventual outputs are treated independantly. This enables each element to be developed and tested independently. For example, commercial requirements may require output presentation to change over time while leaving the inner workings of the software unchanged. There are two modules providing for this requirement. SOFT7002 is an intermediate level module on database design and programming while Soft9003 is at an expert level dealing with databases in education.
The soft skills identified seem to less well catered for in CIT and I suspect students recently emerging for Ireland's inadequat second level learn by rote system may be less inclined to particpate in modules designed to teach communications skills. The module Contextual Studies DESI6001 may be of interest here. Any Toastmasters club would be a useful way to prectise public speaking skills. Participation in any club or society whose remit extends beyond getting drunk would of course be of value here.
Any of the programming modules will provide a basis for problem solving skills in techinal situations but the individuals ability to solve problems of different types may also be linked to their personality preference and world view. If one only knowns hammers then there arises a tendancy to use hammers all the time. There are counselling modules available but these may have restricted acces.
Technical Elements
A quick search on "Java programming" threw up some 29,500,00 hits in all of 0.22 seconds. These covered everything from introductions to Java to tutorials on Java to examples of code. Sun Developer Network even has an article entitled "Java Technology: The Early Years". It was launched on May 23rd 1995 when Sun Microsystems and Netscape announced it was to be used in Netscape Navigator, the then leader of the pack in browsers. Mind you we all know what happened to that. It appears from the article that when Java was first developed it had no obvious commercial market. the killer application turned out to be the internet and hence the colaboration with Netscape. Java is said to be "device independent" and that means it can run on existing techologies like your home PC or laptop, on mobile phones and on the newer techologies like Kindle. Java Swing is described on Wikipedia as "the project code name for the lightweight GUI components in JFC". There are two modules which would be of interest to those interested in learning Java: SOFT6008 - Interactive Web Development and SOFT9016 - Web Technologies
NetBeans did less well in the browser stakes providing only 5,250,000 hits but in a stunning 0.09 seconds. A more limited search for the "history of Netbeans" much reduced this total to a more modest 550,000 but leads one directly to Netbeans.org. Netbeans was a student project designed to provide an Integrated Developement Environment or IDE. It was developed in the Czech Republic in 1996 and by 1999, Sun Microsystems, the developer of Java was on board and eventually they took Netbeans down the open source route. For the prospective student requiring Netbeans, the module SOFT6008 - Interactive Web Development would appear to satisfy this requirement.
There do not appear to be any modules directly providing Apache but the general area of automated software build processes seems to be satisified by most software courses. ANT is another tool released in 2000 by Sun into the open source world. According to Wikipedia it uses the "Java language, requires a Java platform and is best suited to building Java projects."
In circumstances where many different people can be working on different modules of the same software product at the same time, it is essential to keep track of which modifications have been made to which modules and by whom. Subversion, which is also mentioned in this advert is a version control system which serves this purpose. SOFT8014 Software Project Management probably addresses this element.
A wide range of modules offered by the Computing Dept at fundamental, intermediate, advanced and expert levels seem to address aspects of Design Patterns. This is a concept borrowed from architecture and is based on the idea that there is no sense in reinventing the wheel every time you need one. The Design Pattern outlines the problem or requirement being addressed and why the proposed solution works. Every time the same or a similar problem occures, the design pattern can be used. Creating these patterns is whet this is all about.
Model–View–Controller (MVC) is again a concept borrowed from architecture. The idea being to seperate out the different elements of a software project into its functional parts. The handling of inputs to the project, the project itself and the eventual outputs are treated independantly. This enables each element to be developed and tested independently. For example, commercial requirements may require output presentation to change over time while leaving the inner workings of the software unchanged. There are two modules providing for this requirement. SOFT7002 is an intermediate level module on database design and programming while Soft9003 is at an expert level dealing with databases in education.
The soft skills identified seem to less well catered for in CIT and I suspect students recently emerging for Ireland's inadequat second level learn by rote system may be less inclined to particpate in modules designed to teach communications skills. The module Contextual Studies DESI6001 may be of interest here. Any Toastmasters club would be a useful way to prectise public speaking skills. Participation in any club or society whose remit extends beyond getting drunk would of course be of value here.
Any of the programming modules will provide a basis for problem solving skills in techinal situations but the individuals ability to solve problems of different types may also be linked to their personality preference and world view. If one only knowns hammers then there arises a tendancy to use hammers all the time. There are counselling modules available but these may have restricted acces.
Friday, September 25, 2009
The week that was
I am almost at the end of the week with just one maths class to go on a Friday afternoon. So what was good and what was bad?
Well the good stuff is the learning and to a certain extent the remembering of stuff long since forgotten. The bad stuff is all the rushing about. I could really do with a twenty minute break after each class to gather my thoughts, organise the information and add to my TODO list. After seven years of having that time I now know it to have been a luxury which I miss. Maybe it's what they call STUDY or REVISION.
I am also forming the opinion that CIT is in a state of transition that probably reflects the wider change going on in society. Take for example the problem of accessing labs and rooms. It seems that is prohibited due to the amount of stuff stolen last year. The solution (as implemented in UCC) is to provide CCTV in all corridors and rooms. One lecturer expressed support for the solution and believed it would make for a safer environment all round. Another asserted that "the TUI would never allow it".
Initial impression must be that for CIT to claim University status is to be joking. The transition from Tech to IT is not yet complete, never mind any idea of transition to university. I am convinced that the ethos within an organisation is determined by that of its management team. Status for status sake is the hallmark of the bureaucrat, the civil servant and the insular. For so long as this is the status quo, CIT will remain cit.
And please note that oft repeated cliché "The customer is always right". Be I considered student or customer, I am the public this institution exists to serve. Let service be your guiding light or all exists in darkness.
Well the good stuff is the learning and to a certain extent the remembering of stuff long since forgotten. The bad stuff is all the rushing about. I could really do with a twenty minute break after each class to gather my thoughts, organise the information and add to my TODO list. After seven years of having that time I now know it to have been a luxury which I miss. Maybe it's what they call STUDY or REVISION.
I am also forming the opinion that CIT is in a state of transition that probably reflects the wider change going on in society. Take for example the problem of accessing labs and rooms. It seems that is prohibited due to the amount of stuff stolen last year. The solution (as implemented in UCC) is to provide CCTV in all corridors and rooms. One lecturer expressed support for the solution and believed it would make for a safer environment all round. Another asserted that "the TUI would never allow it".
Initial impression must be that for CIT to claim University status is to be joking. The transition from Tech to IT is not yet complete, never mind any idea of transition to university. I am convinced that the ethos within an organisation is determined by that of its management team. Status for status sake is the hallmark of the bureaucrat, the civil servant and the insular. For so long as this is the status quo, CIT will remain cit.
And please note that oft repeated cliché "The customer is always right". Be I considered student or customer, I am the public this institution exists to serve. Let service be your guiding light or all exists in darkness.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Putting the Mature into Student
Well, here we go blogging. My personal preference is Wordpress but as I am not the one who decides such things....blogger it is. Why a preference? No reason except familiarity with wordpress having used it for nearly two years now. New beginnings require change and adaptation so the addition of a new blog to my life is part and parcel of that change.
The bigger issue with me is the use of Bebo rather than Facebook. Having once created a bebo page with the soul purpose of keeping an eye on my kids cyber lives, I stopped it when I began to attract the attention of many and varied females who were sure they wanted to be my friends. Certain that I was undeserving of such attention and conscious of the virtual nature of these potential "friends" I attempted to put a stop to such unsolicited invitations. I, or more accurately Bebo failed and so I deleted my account. In any case it has recently been reported that a third of Facebooks accounts are aged 35+ and as I find myself within that illustrious third, my preference is for Facebook.
The bigger issue with me is the use of Bebo rather than Facebook. Having once created a bebo page with the soul purpose of keeping an eye on my kids cyber lives, I stopped it when I began to attract the attention of many and varied females who were sure they wanted to be my friends. Certain that I was undeserving of such attention and conscious of the virtual nature of these potential "friends" I attempted to put a stop to such unsolicited invitations. I, or more accurately Bebo failed and so I deleted my account. In any case it has recently been reported that a third of Facebooks accounts are aged 35+ and as I find myself within that illustrious third, my preference is for Facebook.
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