Lec 20 | MIT 6.00 Introduction to Computer Science and Programming, Fall 2008

[Cschive]

umm, say, I'm watching this course for the first time, and it's fairly easy to understand...Does it get more technical than this? Would you pay 10 grand for this course?

[agapitoflores001]

I wanna observe in an MIT class. I am amazed by the lectures.

[FFMSmit]

@Entertainmentwf you get it !

The purpose of university lectures is to give a general outline of the material, so students have something to grab onto while they explore and thoroughly understand the material for themselves.

That means making your own summary and models so you can easily understand it, instead of using others. That means laughing at the difficulty of exam questions, because you have mastered the material. It's not hard to achieve this, just think out of the box. Study 4 real.

[jehugaleahsa]

@cynthiacloskey

As someone who tries to hire programmers, I know that schools aren't teaching what students need to become productive in a real development shop. I assume MIT courses are more intense at higher levels. However, Programming 1 is really the foundation to thinking in terms of computing. For non-IT majors, those lessons are equally valuable. I'd hate to go into Programming 2 or data structrures with only theses classes taken.

[mrcuteblackie]

@jehugaleahsa But the university teaches the basics

[jehugaleahsa]

@mrcuteblackie - Universities charge way too much ($10,000 USD a semester) to scrape by with the basics. What the computing industry needs are people who understand theory and know how to apply it. Computer Science is a lot like physics in that it involves a lot of mathematics but it lies in reality. Schools are making computer science too easy so they can push out more graduates and up their ratings. A student should expect to know how to think in terms of a program before they graduate CS 101.

[mrcuteblackie]

@jehugaleahsa Yeah, unfortunately the corporate world is not that straight forward and it is not fair. Another thing is interviews. So at the end of the day the interviewer has to "like" you to employ you. Another thing recommendation letters especially for people changing jobs. Why should they take your previous employer's word for it. The list goes on and on, and the world becomes dumber

[jehugaleahsa]

@mrcuteblackie A lot of large companies won't even hire you if you aren't coming from a big-name school with a high GPA. I've worked along side developers from these types of school -- they aren't blowing me away by any means. I am only as far as I am today because I got a really good education, then I went on to read hundreds of books. I've concentrated on things like design patterns, architectural patterns, coding style and SDLC processes. It has made all the difference.

[jehugaleahsa]

Personally, I believe learning how to estimate things like PI is important. As the professor stated, people have been struggling to determine what PI is for millennia. Early on in these lectures, Grimson showed how to calculate square roots. Since then I have been researching methods of calculating trigonometric functions, though estimation. These are topics not being taught in schools and hard to find in books. Again, is intro the right place for this?

[jehugaleahsa]

I have to admit that compared to the courses I took at a lowly state school, these lectures have been less than useful. I've been watching hoping that a big-name school like MIT could manage to teach me something new. I think I would have been completely lost if this were my first programming course. So little time is spent teaching programming. Much more is about the types of programs computers are good at solving. Is intro the right place to discuss these things?

[cynthiacloskey]

@jehugaleahsa The lectures aren't the whole course -- there are also the problem sets, the course text, and the supplemental sessions that the course TAs offer. And, particularly in intro level courses, there are a lot of other students taking the course with whom you can work to make sure you understand. Also, MIT focuses on teaching not just a single subject but how to learn. (Disclaimer: I was a course 6 major at MIT in the late 1980s.)

[teledynepost]

One thing I think is going on: during this semester the stock market basically was in the process of crashing. A lot of money was lost in the whole stochastic analysis hedge fund biz so this was a big topic. Maybe he wanted to spend more time to make it clearer

[truesoldier27]

really? this was a true waste of 48 minutes. i learned NOTHING. Hopefully more videos display or hands on examples rather than theory and definitions that i can learn from a textbook or wikipedia

[Entertainmentwf]

@truesoldier27 This is a computer science lecture. Science is about theory and definitions in formal sciences. Throwing information out there is the key in a lecture, it's the job of the student to take these concepts and interpret which parts and important to take from the course :).