Monday, November 07, 2005
Are University Professors Big Fat Idiots...
In a previous blog entry I explored the question, Should Universities teach Enterprise Architecture. On Tuesday, I will have the opportunity to talk with inquisitive minds as I will be a guest lecturer at Rensselaer and figured that I should address this particular question in living color...
Universities are still stuck in the era of dinosaurs when it comes to information technology. They are still teaching concepts that over time have been disproven and have degenerated into worst practices. Other practices haven't kept up with advancements made in our profession. Essentially, they are not teaching computer science but really teaching history in disguise.
For example, they still teach traditional SDLC but haven't updated it to include agile methods for software development. Likewise, they still teach Object-Oriented Programming but don't teach Service Oriented Architectures. They teach formal methods of information gathering but don't teach modern practices of understanding the human aspects of technology realized by Blogs or other forms of being connected to a community.
I hope to be able to present a different perspective to the folks who have spent valuable time and money in order to attend and hope that they will derive value out of my presentation. The interesting thing I hope to discover is to figure out what kind of value I will derive out of presenting in an academic setting.
Awhile back, I had the opportunity to be guest lecturer for the UConn MBA class where I talked about the open source movement from a corporate perspective. During this presentation I found that I probably learned more about others than I had expected. I also realized that I wasn't the traditional lecturer in that I didn't stand in front of the class pontificating for hours about my own glory but instead engaged in a dialog, pretty much in the same manner I attempt to do in this blog.
In the future, I hope to be afforded the same opportunity to share alternative perspectives at other major universities. Hopefully I will be able to present at Trinity College on a similar topic where fifteen years ago, I had the opportunity as a schoolboy to be on their radio station where I was a DJ of a infamous radio show known as the Hip Hop Nation.
I have a similar background to radio talkshow host Colin McEnroe. Maybe he would be game for me to speak to his class in the future?
| | View blog reactionsUniversities are still stuck in the era of dinosaurs when it comes to information technology. They are still teaching concepts that over time have been disproven and have degenerated into worst practices. Other practices haven't kept up with advancements made in our profession. Essentially, they are not teaching computer science but really teaching history in disguise.
For example, they still teach traditional SDLC but haven't updated it to include agile methods for software development. Likewise, they still teach Object-Oriented Programming but don't teach Service Oriented Architectures. They teach formal methods of information gathering but don't teach modern practices of understanding the human aspects of technology realized by Blogs or other forms of being connected to a community.
I hope to be able to present a different perspective to the folks who have spent valuable time and money in order to attend and hope that they will derive value out of my presentation. The interesting thing I hope to discover is to figure out what kind of value I will derive out of presenting in an academic setting.
Awhile back, I had the opportunity to be guest lecturer for the UConn MBA class where I talked about the open source movement from a corporate perspective. During this presentation I found that I probably learned more about others than I had expected. I also realized that I wasn't the traditional lecturer in that I didn't stand in front of the class pontificating for hours about my own glory but instead engaged in a dialog, pretty much in the same manner I attempt to do in this blog.
In the future, I hope to be afforded the same opportunity to share alternative perspectives at other major universities. Hopefully I will be able to present at Trinity College on a similar topic where fifteen years ago, I had the opportunity as a schoolboy to be on their radio station where I was a DJ of a infamous radio show known as the Hip Hop Nation.
I have a similar background to radio talkshow host Colin McEnroe. Maybe he would be game for me to speak to his class in the future?
