[AndyH1963]

There appear to be alot of "students" that post questions on how to solve their assignments. Most of them don't appear to have even bothered to attempt to learn the programming language they are supposed to be learning. They just appear to be interested in reaching the answer to hand in to their tutor and gain top marks for work that they clearly do not understand.

[JackOfAllTrades]

Absolutely. The trick is to quickly figure out which of these posters fall into this category and to abandon ship at that point, because you're really just enabling them. And trust me...you don't want to be seated next to one of them in the office, which is where they may end up if they don't fail out soon.

[Ostralis]

That is a very true statement Jack, I definitely would not want to be working in the office with a student of this type that cannot solve a simple math problem.

[peachie]

What if someone has the desire to learn programming but doesn't know how to program because their teacher never provides any support? How can someone learn to be good at programming by teaching themselves?

Roux, on 14 Dec, 2008 - 08:38 AM, said:

That is a very true statement Jack, I definitely would not want to be working in the office with a student of this type that cannot solve a simple math problem.

[KYA]

I've taken a break helping because I've went into the details with these people, helped them solve their problems, and they typed a thank you post, but didn't bother to click the button, disappointing

How in the world am I ever going to catch up with pal and martyr that way?

Quote

What if someone has the desire to learn programming but doesn't know how to program because their teacher never provides any support? How can someone learn to be good at programming by teaching themselves?

Read a fucking book. That's how I learned. College is just a formality. People who blame teachers for their failures will just continue to fail all though life.

This post has been edited by KYA: 14 December 2008 - 11:42 AM

[Amadeus]

Even if the teacher does nor provide support, it could be assumed that there is a textbook for the class, or at least en example provided during the course...certainly it is not unreasonable for the site to expect that at least an effort be made by the original poster.

The site is here to help teach, not simply to provide homework solutions.

[Martyr2]

I know a lot of people here are brutal to the idea of a teacher doesn't help that you can go to a book etc. And sadly it is becoming more and more true. The people we help here that don't do their work are sometimes the teachers teaching the next generation.

And there are times where you do have a teacher like that which doesn't help and even the book they chose was really lame. It happens. Which it is why it is more important to find out what is expected on a question and on a test. Ask questions until the cows come home. Even if they don't answer them, everyone in the class asking questions will cause problems and the principle will see that.

Also if you are in university or college somewhere and you feel that you are not getting your moneys worth (and you have a LOT of the students in your class feeling the same way) go to the dean of their faculty and complain in mass. I have had to do this twice in my life and things changed drastically. When they realize their job is on the line they will change their ways by dumbing down the assignments a little or doing more research into their assignments so that they have better answers.

Teachers across the board are like this. Its just that in computer related fields where technology is moving very fast it is a lot more noticeable. IT is very much a put up or shut up field where those who try to BS their way through are often pointed out very quickly.

Do your best to learn on your own, use your text, if nothing else budges and you are still having trouble getting answers to questions about assignments then don't be afraid to take it to the next person up the chain of command.

Especially if you are paying for it. At that level colleges are working for you. This doesn't mean attack them but work with anyone you can to get the clarification problem solved. You have a right to learn something and have it explained to you.

[Louisda16th]

Yup. We've got all bad teachers in our department. Sadly all the smart people don't want to teach so we get people who don't know anything. We had four good teachers however. Three of them left this year and the other one passed away . So basically we're stuck. What our class came up with is to tell our teachers to stopp taking classes and we did the teaching ourselves... Seminars. That turned out to be way better than having a usual class.

EDIT: I don't mean to say that that everyone who's a teacher isn't smart .

This post has been edited by Louisda16th: 14 December 2008 - 11:58 AM

[JackOfAllTrades]

peachie, on 14 Dec, 2008 - 01:17 PM, said:

What if someone has the desire to learn programming but doesn't know how to program because their teacher never provides any support? How can someone learn to be good at programming by teaching themselves

Like KYA said, read a book. Or for Og's sake search the internet. I wish the internet were as as well-populated when I was learning...you have no idea how much money I've spent on books.

You're not going to have a teacher there sitting with you by your desk when you get out into the real world. You're not going to take your little bit of programming knowledge you garnered from school, get a job, and sit in a comfort zone where the only things you'll ever have to do are things you covered in class. The software field changes constantly, and if you're unwilling and/or unable to keep up your end of the bargain by maintaining your skills through active education -- on your own -- then you should seek another field because chances are you're not going to make it.

KYA, on 14 Dec, 2008 - 01:36 PM, said:

I've taken a break helping because I've went into the details with these people, helped them solve their problems, and they typed a thank you post, but didn't bother to click the button, disappointing

Dude, at the rate you were going, you were bound to burn out!

How do you know that people were typing a thank you post, and then not submitting? Or are you being facetious?

[Amadeus]

i believe he meant that they did not click the 'Was this post helpful' link, used to measure a person's worth.

[BigAnt]

Quote

What if someone has the desire to learn programming but doesn't know how to program because their teacher never provides any support? How can someone learn to be good at programming by teaching themselves?

This is where the internet is a useful thing.

There are plenty of tutorials available somewhere you just have to know where to look.

Quote

Most of them don't appear to have even bothered to attempt to learn the programming language they are supposed to be learning

Yes, they ask for code, then someone posts the site policy, they post random code and say something like "How to make a game work over the networks" when the code they provided is hello world.

[KYA]

Amadeus, on 14 Dec, 2008 - 01:21 PM, said:

i believe he meant that they did not click the 'Was this post helpful' link, used to measure a person's worth.

LOL. Yeah that's what I meant.

Example post:

Thank you. You were so helpful!.

No button press

[AndyH1963]

I agree with you all. I have spent so many years both before and following graduating in computer science buying and reading books on C++, ATL, COM, VB, C#, Assembler etc... I really enjoy programming. I am a programmer by proffesion, I like helping people out but agree that I need to think twice before helping, as there are alot on here that just don't want to help themselves.

There was one person on here in the C++ section this weekend that was so desperate for help, I started to help out. Turns out that they are learning by having to use a PC in an Internet Cafe, mustn't own there own PC. They had been given Turbo C++ v1.1 to us for the course! No wonder they find it hard to learn considering what they have to learn with. However, I recall back in the 80's using Turbo C++.

[ericr2427]

Yes, reading books and surfing web tutorials can get you pretty far...I got all of my PHP/HTML knowledge from there because my school doesn't offer programming at this level.

[danzar]

I personally think books can take you a long ways, but not all the way. there is nothing that can better teach you then a working example that is fully worked though to the end. This type of things are usually only in a class or work area.

People usually get stuck on the simple things more so than the harder logic. This is where asking question in forums and such are very important. I personally read almost every post on the language(C#) i am trying to learn because there might be something i learn from that post and that's why i am here.

My reason for posting is this, I know there are allot students(We are all students, no one knows it all) that post wanting the complete code without trying at it. I can see why allot of more advanced codes get mad at these type of people. Just reminder there are allot that are trying hard to learn that just need simple help to get over a hump.



FYI: I am not a student in any college just someone that loves to code and likes to learn new things.