[clue-tech] Are colleges dumbing down computer degrees?

[William]

Kevin Cullis wrote:
> Hey all,
> 
> I had dinner with a long time friend who works at a telecom here in  
> town stated that the college kids that he is working with, while  smart, 
> all not as prepared as previous years graduates. I.e. most  only know 
> Windows and know very little Mac/Linux from the UNIX  background to do 
> the "heavy" work that they need. Are the rest of you  finding the same 
> thing? Are colleges NOT preparing young computer  users to even think 
> about going down this route?

I'm in college right now.  Our Computer Science program teaches 
"alternative OSes" very heavily (literally including everything out 
there from SunOS to Unix to Mac to Windows; we even have a Linux lab, 
though access is limited), as well as teaching several programming 
languages in the mandatory curriculum.  Grouping "all college kids" into 
some arbitrary stereotype is a very bad idea.  Your friend either made, 
or led you into, a generalization that is clearly based on limited 
exposure to the "college kid" population.  Frankly, if any colleges are 
cutting back on their OS exposure initiatives, then those colleges are 
just appealing to the masses -- Windows is, after all, the dominant OS. 
  Regardless, my college isn't in that group.

On a final note on this subject:  There's no accounting for slackers. 
In other words, if someone graduates my college -- with all that 
exposure -- by barely paying attention and sliding by, that person might 
seem uneducated or inexperienced.  That's not the college's fault and is 
certainly not a good measure of the rest of his/her classmates.