In Defense of Cheating - Lecture Notes - Overview of Collaboration | CSCI 4838, Study notes of Software Development

Download In Defense of Cheating - Lecture Notes - Overview of Collaboration | CSCI 4838 and more Study notes Software Development in PDF only on Docsity! 4830 - DLC Overview of Collaboration - 5/12/2020 hw2-DaveMusson.doc 1. Article: “In Defense of Cheating” by Don Norman As a general concept I agree with the author’s line of thought, the idea isn’t that far removed form the module system universities use. As developments in technology cause a change in universities approach to teaching, modular, cooperative, networked and collaborative study; it makes sense that as they change so should institutes that aim below this level, the module system could be pushed down the education system to college (UK) and high school (US). However I do have some reservations because I find Don Norman’s argument undifferentiated. There is no mention off interims or sandwich years in industry, which benefit the student immensely allowing them to see the professional work practice side of their discipline; it lets a student discover “the behavior we call cheating in schools is exactly the behavior we desire in the real world”. I can pick fault with his definition of cheating, which is a very wide one. He includes every student-interaction on the subject of their studies. Of course one can say, that every single student cheats, if cheating includes discussing notes and exchanging thoughts. A focus on a move toward “understanding, on knowing how to get an answer” is all well and good but to some extent that already happens between students. Granted this is probably due to the lack of organized support form education institutions but there isn’t a mention to it and I feel it’s an oversight because any adjustment to the educational schema could include students who are already active in locating information without support from teachers. Another thought with respect to “the long-established policy of grading“ would be to introduce a grading circles, where by students are involved with the marking of assignments. This has been adopted in CSCI 4838 – User Interface Design, a course I took last semester, I found it was a greet insight into the assignment that I marked. I learnt a lot more on that subject than I did in the other assignments. 2. My own educational and working experience Discounting football or rugby where collaborative teamwork is essential, collaboration was important when I was working because all my jobs have required teamwork. Most recently I had to work in a team of two to provide technical support to our users. It was important to keep up to date with each support case so that either of us could respond to the client if needed. We also found it useful to “buddy” up on cases that where complex. As a student other than the enforced group work collaboration only consisted of studying with friends until recently. Once again I refer to 4838 – UID. Here collaboration was part of the class focus, participation in class was important. There was grading circles for each assignment and each participant took part in at least one. A major part of the course was a group project working with a project sponsor. For the project we used Task-centered design and by its very nature this requires collaboration with ‘users’, sponsor and your team members. The project and nature of the class served to motivate me immensely, I wasn’t treated as an eighteen year old and the more effort from me resulted in me getting more form it. Also the insight I gained from grading circles was very useful. Additionally I’m now very interested in Human Computer Interaction and User Interfaces and it benefited my ‘professional attitude’ as I learnt some slight differences between the US and UK. 3. Computational Environments I’ve used a recent invention called the Internet but that’s about it. I must admit that with regards the internet I’m very much a ‘reader’ as opposed to a ‘provider’. I’ll use Google or Wikipedia but I haven’t added to them. Wikipedia is a great asset, I use it as my first point when I want to know something and I will then use Google after I understand the topic more. Page 1 of 1 Dave Musson