[Tutor] python

[dn]

On 15/06/20 11:29 AM, Alan Gauld via Tutor wrote:
> On 14/06/2020 21:49, DL Neil via Tutor wrote:
>> there are also 'services', often known as "paper mills" or "term paper
>> writing services", which offer to complete academic works - in exchange
>> for money.
> 
> I can't pretend to begin to understand the rationale for
> using such a service.
> 
> Does such a student expect to get a job after qualifying? If they
> can't even do the near trivial assignments given out in
> school/college how do they expect to do a job in the real
> world with real problems?
> 
> Such a service would never have succeeded in my time at school,
> students were in perpetual penury and could never afford to
> employ such a thing! Of course that was before "student loans"
> became a thing... :-/


The rationale is actually quite evident: when one arrives at university 
(or...), it doesn't take long to discover that there are some (other) 
extremely intelligent folk who might well be 'better' than you are. 
Plus, there are the usual 'pressures' of "time" and total-disasters when 
it comes to the skill of making the best use of one's time.

Another is 'competition' and the pressures of "continuous assessment" 
(numbers of tests/contributors to the final grade throughout the course) 
cf the once-uniform 'it all comes down to the final-exam' 
course-approach. Accordingly, one can't have 'an off-day' because every 
piece of work 'counts'. (sort of like paid-employment then!)

Accordingly, the temptation of finding any 'short-cut'.


You have touched-upon one of the reasons why I prefer the (old) 
technical institute/polytechnic/community college approach to *training* 
as opposed to the university approach to *education*. (if you don't 
understand the significance or subtlety of this comment, prepend "sex" 
to those two words and consider if they are 'the same'!) Unlike 
yourself, I do not teach/train Python, but do other languages and 
tech-skills. We both want to see employable 'graduates', either as 
trainer or as employer.

What we are seeking is "Mastery". Can the person (now) *do* the 
job/task/write the program(me)? Do, or die!

Does a student, faced with a likely 'fail' think about his/her future 
employment - or is (s)he all-consumed by securing a (good) pass for the 
current assignment?


Don't get me started on the economic fallacies of 'student loans'!

You must have been 'a good, little, boy'. Such services were very much 
available (in a different form) when we were at-school (walking miles 
each-way, no shoes, knee-high snow, fearful of attacks by dinosaurs...). 
There were always seniors/post-grads, etc, who were keen to 'make a 
quid/buck'. However, their lives were very much more risky because the 
institution could easily detect what was a-foot AND could reach-out and 
grab the miscreants for suitable punishment. These days, the student and 
'ghost-writer' could be continents apart - and far from the reach of 
'justice'!

My first job at the university was as a marker (grader, these days 
perhaps "teaching assistant"). After a date-due, I would receive 
hundreds of multi-page printouts of COBOL or FORTRAN, and results. 
(could fill a small suit-case!) A few days later, I would return to the 
lecturer and drop multiple distinct piles on his desk. The 'good pile' 
was the distinct and passing efforts. The 'bad pile' was distinct but 
failing results. The other piles were all 'copies' - each member of the 
pile (and there were often dozens) were essentially identical - but the 
different piles of 'copies' were differently characteristic.

I was always grateful that I didn't have to (a) identify who was the 
original author whose work passed/failed, or (b) decide how to mark 
(grade) or punish such. He repeatedly gave me 'glowing recommendations' 
because of the revelation of my ability to 'see' such patterns (which 
habit one would expect from systems analysts and designers, so shouldn't 
be 'that' special!).

So, "nothing new under the sun" then!
-- 
Regards =dn