NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/comp/edu/1654

Internet Message Format | 1992-09-14 | 1.8 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!olivea!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!umeecs!quip.eecs.umich.edu!schuette
From: [e-mail] (R. Wade Schuette)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Teamwork vs Theory and Skills
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 14 Sep 92 18:15:31 GMT
Sender: [e-mail] (Mr. News)
Organization: University of Michigan EECS Dept., Ann Arbor, MI
Lines: 33

Seems like the debate over what to include in a CS curriculum
reflects the transition from a time when one could "know everything"
to a time when there is so much to know , as in medicine, that one
has to specialize.

Let me propose the idea that, instead of picking as the next item
to master something like FORTRAN or theory or algorithms, we should
encourage people to learn how to work as teams and to know how and
when to recognize the limits of their knowledge and when to seek
assistance from a specialist.  And how to seek that assistance.

A physicist is only going to spend so long mastering Computer Science
and vice versa.  I suspect there are some very useful people who may
not know NP-complete from the Pistons, but who do know how to work the
corporate system and get decent systems in place, even with blemishes.

As Henry Ford once said, more or less -- Why on earth do I need to
know that?  I just press that button and an expert in the area comes
and helps me with it.

I'm just putting forward the idea that everyone can't know everything,
and before stuffing more technical details into one's brain, maybe, for
some people, the next thing they really need to learn is how to
collaborate and how to draw on the skills that others spent so long to
acquire.

Wade

--
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R. Wade Schuette        |
[phone]       |   "This sentence no verb."
[e-mail] |