[Edu-sig] transforming CS at Harvey Mudd

[kirby urner]

On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 10:28 PM, Mark Engelberg
<mark.engelberg at gmail.com> wrote:

< ... >

> I think it's pretty easy to interpret this article as saying that the women
> couldn't hack it until it was replaced with something light and fluffy with
> fewer sharp edges.  Nowhere does it indicate that students are learning just
> as much, or that this change in approach benefits all students, not just the
> women.  Are we elevating the quality of our computer science graduates, or
> just lowering the definition of what that means?  Without addressing these
> questions, I fear this article does more harm than good.
>

Yes, that's exactly the context in which the article was being cited
in the thread I got it from:  more evidence of dumbing down.

The implicit assumption is then that Python is watered down pabulum
while Java is for real non-quiche eating men or something.

I got into sparring with the guy pushing that interpretation.

http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=7760263

(there's a tree view of our discussion commenting on the article -- ongoing)

Kirby