Week Fourteen

            This is the fourteenth week of class as well as the last required post for this blog. With only one week left all that remains is to finish presentations and a test, but this means that most aspects of the class are concluded, because other than organizing the presentation there is no more group work, no more programming, pair programming or standard programming, and no more lessons from Professor Downing or any more guest speakers. Speaking of guest speakers, we had our final one this week, whom discussed start-ups and of the need for programmers as well as the possibility of future internships. Overall it was about as informative as the others, in that it showed how Professor Downing wants his students to be successful so he wishes to show of the many possible job avenues available to those with computer science experience, by having companies come in to discuss just that as well as the importance of internships, which just reinforces what Professor Downing already repeated tells us. So he seems very fond of the brute force, beat the idea into his students’ heads approach to get his point across, which is not necessarily a bad approach, but it can be a bit heavy handed at times because typically those who would listen already know or realize this after the first time and those who resist the idea typically will continue to resist the idea regardless of how many times the professor tries to convey the importance of these ideas to succeed in the job market, computer science or otherwise.

            The only other think of note that occurred this week was that the professor talked about the final test and what types of things would be on it, as well as some example problems. This is much appreciative, because it helps with studying for the final test. Oh and once again, the professor is recommending group studying as the best means to study. This is a fair point, but as with most forms of learning and studying, everyone has their own style of studying so for some group studying does not help and for some it does. Hopefully by the end of the class most have a good idea of what works best for them.

Week Thirteenth

            This marks the end of the thirteenth week of class, which means only two more weeks remain before both the final test and the end of the course. This week shed a lot of light on the character of the class and Professor Downing. The normal stuff occurred of working on databases and learning about SQL. However, we had a reading this week which was specifically about women in the computer science industry and how they are treated and how they are looked down upon if they do not meet so arbitrarily high standards to which males are not put to in the same manner. This type of social commentary is much appreciated because as opposed to ignoring the inequality of treatment of standing women face in the industry, he introduced it face on and even recommended a talk which would further discuss the issue, granted there was an irony in the talk he recommended, because it was the same talk the reading said was an incomplete talk of the issue.

            This week was also the week that the end of the project was due, which of course had its own stresses. However, Professor Downing kept a close eye on the posts and discussions of the students and due to the difficulty some groups were experiencing, he allowed them to have an extension on the assignment. And as a reward and to give his students a rest after completing the final project, he gave the class a day off. These acts show how much attention he pays to his students and how much he cares about both their academic states and their mental states, considering the project was very mentally fatiguing with all the attempts to try to organize the groups as a whole (something which never was fully accomplished due to some groups trying to do their own thing that they felt would make their lives easier at the expense of the other groups). So this gives a good idea on how he views his students and how much he cares about their education and their health, both good qualities for a professor.

Week 12

This is the twelfth week of class, thus only three weeks are left. The class this week went back to teach about SQL, which is good considering that seems appropriate for a database course as opposed to all the Python coding part, which has not to be fully explained to the relevance to the course since he has mentioned how this is not a Python course and has yet to tie it back to the database aspect of the course. There was also another guest speaker this week, who talked about alternatives to the relational database of SQL, known as NoSQL. Though there were many types as opposed to a single one, it is just that the overall idea is called NoSQL to categorize them. Anyways the project has reached the point where now the entire class has to organize, and I must say that it is going about as well as can be expected, which is slow, painfully, and without a clue whether it will all get completed in time for the due date Thursday. That is to be expected of a class of 48; because it is hard enough organizing a single group of six let alone eight, when each group is honestly only concerned about taking care of themselves and trying to manipulate the situation to best fit their specific group. There is no real incentive to work together. And then there is the issue of the presentation aspect of the project, where it is up to the other groups to grade each other. The issue with this is only the possibility of people being jerks to one another for any possible reason. Presumably people will not do so, but there is always a possibility of this idea backfiring if enough animosity builds up between any groups or individuals. Granted on the other hand there is also the possibility of groups going the easy route of simply giving everyone A’s to avoid actually doing much work or dealing with the other groups in anyway other than in this aspect of the project where the groups need to communicate.

Week Eleven

            This is week eleven, thus only four weeks are left. This week also marks the completion of the second part and the start of the final part of the project. Overall the project is going fine, the group members seem able to work together well and our project seems to meet all the requirements. Granted one member is especially amazing in his programming skills, which is a great asset to the group. The class for the week has been a bit peculiar. Professor Downing for the most part has continually specified that this is not a python course, but databases. However, the last week seemed to focus entirely on python coding and how immutable versus mutable data types. I am uncertain if this is being done to help with the coding aspect, but thus far I am not seeing the correlation between learning the data types and how they are stored and other aspects of their reaction in terms of memory and programming. I am waiting to see how or if it will tie in with the mySql databases or other forms of data storage. But other than that one confusion over the course material, the class itself is fine. The professor still cares about his students doing well, so he takes things slow with the material and tries to make sure that everyone understands and still punctuates his points with curses for emphasis, which still amuses me greatly. So other than the material the class is going well in terms of experience of the course and my feelings towards it. And only four more weeks of material to go, which also means registration is coming up. Not sure if anyone other than the professor and those in the class read these, but it is not a bad class to take. It just requires a lot of outside class time to program and study. However, the professor is pretty good and the material seems beneficial to learn in the long run of databases, excluding the recent material to which I am still unsure of how it connects with the databases.

Week Ten

            The past week was the tenth week of class, so only five remain till the end. The past week was fairly uneventful in the class proceedings. We went over more material of the course without much issue, though the professor did send out an email mentioning how no one seems to go to his office hours, where he offered to help in both current class work and overall academic career issues. The email of course reinforces my long running comment on how Professor Downing cares about his students’ well-being both inside and outside of the classroom setting. Anyways, the typical idea is that going to your professor’s office hours is probably for the best, though I cannot speak personally for Professor Downing’s since I have never been to them, but it stands to reason that they would probably help if you are having trouble with an academic issue. Though if I am to justify why I myself have yet to go to one of his office hours than that is simply because my schedule leaves me with very few free times during the week to do so and those I do have are typically taken up by some work or university bureaucracy nonsense, but I digress.

            This week also involved further group work on the project, which thus far has been going slowly. The group design is still useful and good, though my group may be running into an issue, not because we are bad students or are trying to shirk the work, but because we are good students and this is the time of the semester when classes start trying to either cram in the last bit of material or tests before starting to push the work for the final. I am not trying to say anything negative about any class, but it must be said that a computer science course does require a lot of outside work to program and reinforce the material. I think some forget that even though it is not a major specific course, that it still involves a lot of programming. So for those who are thinking about taking this course, make sure you can handle all the work along with your other classes.

Week Nine

            So this is the ninth week of class, which means only six remain before classes are completed. This week was interesting that one of the classes was spent listening to a talk about mobile app creation from a company offering jobs and internships to students. Professor Downing allowing this event to take place, during an entire class no less, shows how much emphasis he puts on his students succeeding and not just in class. As I have mentioned before, he talked a lot about various opportunities throughout the semester for getting an internship, which is highly beneficial to succeeding later on, by getting experience and connections. So this is a prime example of how much he wishes to impress this idea, by using a class day for that purpose. This goes to show how much he cares about the success of his students both in class and outside of class, rather than some professor who only care about getting the material across and nothing else.

            The other big part of this week was the due date of the group project. The inclusion of a group project in and of itself can be beneficial since he has both pointed out verbally and in reading assignments about how in a company one would need to work in groups to get programs or software completed, thus it becomes a glimpse at the real world situation. Plus it does go against the stereotype that programmers all work alone in the dark eating nothing but pizza. In either case, I am finding that for this project having a group is really beneficial and having a group who will actually communicate and do their share of the work is even better. Obviously one cannot always know in advance who will be like that or not, but the professor has at times suggested studying in groups, which would give you a better idea of who was serious and who was not. And the pair project prior to this did the same with a single individual. It does beg the question if that is all part of his design when setting up the progression of projects to culminate into a group project.

Week Eight

            This is the eight week of class, which marks the middle of the semester, as well as spring break occurring. My experience of class for the week was incomplete, since I was absent Friday. However, as I said previously it is a good policy to have to email your professor in advance when you are going to be absent and you know ahead of time. I did so and Professor Downing was more than fair, very generous in actuality, in his response to it. So that in and of itself reemphasized how much the professor cares about his students and how respect and politeness can go both ways.

            This week also marks the start of the group project and thus far it has been interesting, not necessarily in a good way. The group itself is working fine, it seems to be good. The “interesting” part is in the attempt at collaborating between groups, where Professor Downing was right when he said how hard it was to try and organize all the groups to accept a single schema. But that was to be expected since trying to unify eight groups is fairly difficult. Anyways, my group by itself is just fine. The professor on the first day made us write down the numbers of those sitting by us in an attempt to get people to talk, which worked fairly well with regards to creating a group. It let us contact some people we talked to to create a group, since we knew a bit about one another to help facilitate working together.

            Other than the group stuff, the week consisted of discussing the project and a very thorough look at joins. Not to get into detail on class material, it just reemphasized how much he wants his students to understand the material. He will go in-depth into the material to literally beat the point across till it is absolutely clear, which is not a bad teaching style. It works for those who need to see examples, whereas it is a tad tedious for those who get it the first time, but the needs of the many usually outweigh the few in this regard which is fine.

Week Seven

This is the seventh week of class, as well as the start of the group project and the first test. With regards to the group project, he allowed the students to organize ourselves into groups. To sum up how that is going, well only 6 of the 8 groups for our class have actually been created. Granted my own group is not helping in that regard since we have seven people as opposed to the required six, an issue I hope is being taken care of because so far I have not been informed of what the deal is.

Anyways, the week leading up to the test went fine. We learned new material on Monday, had a review session on Wednesday, took the test on Thursday, and then had Friday off. This was a pretty good design, because the Monday helped to get us through material he put on the study guide to study for the test. And rather than continue new material on Wednesday, he decided to do a review and put off the material till after the test. I think this was really helpful, because it let us ask him specific questions that may have come up while studying and it did lead to a few hints as to what he wanted us to focus on for the test, seems it really does pay to attend class, but I’ve said that before. The test itself was not too bad, but it was definitely one where attendance paid off a lot, because the readings and the projects can only take you so far and actually having someone teach you the material as well as be able to answer any questions you have is fairly useful when learning computer science, or anything really. And the free day came in handy because my group used it to meet up, because we knew we would all be free during that time, since it was our scheduled class time anyways. It does make me wonder if that was his subtle way of trying to get groups to meet up.

Finally, the policy I adopted in my previous Elements courses with Professor Mitra, has been further reinforced as a good idea for classes where the professor cares about attendance, which I have said many times that Professor Downing does. And that is that if you are going to be absent and know ahead of time that you are, it is probably a good idea to let your professor know, either in person or via email ahead of time. At the very least it is just polite and respectful, especially with a professor who cares about his students fully understanding the material like Professor Downing.

Week Six

This is the end of the sixth week of class. My feelings on the class thus far are pretty much the same as they have been in the last few weeks. Professor Downing is a very passionate educator and his cursing for emphasis still amuses me for no real reason other than his ability to punctuate his sentences with them at just the right time to get a point across. Anyways, as a follow up from last week, he did go more in depth into XML schemas and did introduce how SQL works through a comparison to Python, both of which were very informative.

We have started to group up for the group project to come, but, and this is not a reflection on Professor Downing as it is on the students, it seems the class is having difficulty in getting into groups or staying organized. This is not that surprising in retrospect since it seems like a lot of people are either skipping or dropping the class which makes organizing that much more difficult, for both the professor and students. Granted the professor does usually try to call on students who are absent and even talk to them, so he does seem to genuinely care about attendance and making sure people understand the subject. So we will see how the group set-up works out, because thus far it seems like a slow going process even before we start working on the project.

 

I guess I now need to find out what to say for a hundred more words. This would be easier if I had something to complain about, but once you get into the groove on things and the GitHub hurdle is overcome it seems like the class mellows out in terms of complexity. Though that is not to say it is not a difficult class, but easy to know what you need to do. Granted the first test is coming up and for all I know I could be completely unprepared for it, but here is to hoping the study guide provided helps and that attendance and understanding the material is what is needed to pass the test with flying colors.

Week five

This marks five weeks down, and ten more to go for the school year. So this is post is after the due date of the assignment which required pair programming and here are my thoughts on it. It is effective in coming up with ideas and problem solving, but I still feel more comfortable programming on my own. Again, I’m not opposed to working as a group or pair, but I just enjoy working on my own more often than not even if I am in a group. Especially as a studio art major whose classes often times requires well studio time to get projects done, working on my own schedule gives me more freedom to get everything I need to do completed.

            Anyways the newest topic we’ve ventured into, xml is not too bad and the professor does teach it well. So no real complaints there, though the xml schema method of defining the xml does seem a bit overwhelming with its many layers of tags. Granted we only touched on it near the end of class on Friday so he may go into more detail on it on Monday. I hope he does, because if we need to use it in the next assignment, I’d rather have more information on it prior to diving into it. But other than these details the class as a whole does not seem to be too bad, I am not going to say it is easy, but thus far the material is not incredibly overwhelming though it does require quite a bit of time and effort to get through. So right not it seems as though the class will be worth the work in terms of what it teaches and at the same time does not seem like it will become a bad class to take for the Elements of Computing credit needed.
            As a whole I would recommend this class if you either want the certificate or if you are just interested in Computer Science but do not want to major in it. It is not a bad thing to try the pair programming, at least once just to see if it improves you work or not. In my case it can be helpful, but I burn out a lot quicker than working alone, so it is a double-edged sword.

Week Four

Four weeks down, eleven to go till the end of the semester. This week focusing on a new aspect of Professor Downing’s teaching style, pair programming. The idea of working in groups or pairs on a project is not something he only does, there are other professors, including computer science professors who believe being able to work together. The difference between simply working together and pair programming, is that pair programming involves working at the same computer together. This fact alone really puts me on edge. I do not mind working in groups, but I typically do so solo. In other words, I help the group but I do so at my own pace and usually in my own private space and not next to someone else. So my first taste of this style of group working came Saturday. It was not as bad as I thought it would be and it was helpful to figure out how we wanted to set up our program, so in that respect it can be beneficial. However, I am very much an introvert and my ability to interact with people for extended periods is severely lacking. I work more comfortably on my own, which is not to say I do not like my partner or that pair programming is bad, on the contrary I think my partner is very insightful at programming and I think pair programming can be beneficial, to an extent for certain kinds of people. For more extroverted people it can be a great way to work, especially when they gain energy from being around others, but for an introvert it can be very draining to do so in large doses, and with the requirement being pair programming 75% of the time and there being little time to do short bursts I foresee a very tiring work while working on this assignment. My worry is that when the group work starts next that we will be required to do 75% of the work all together, because trying to match schedules with one person is tough enough, doing so for three more would be killer. So we will see how this pair programming fairs.

Week 3

So now it is the end of the third week, and to be honest not a lot other than actual class work came up. The only two things about the class are more about the professor’s teaching style, which in all honesty are what really define a class. Otherwise it would not matter who taught the class, if everyone taught in the same way. One thing I’ve said before and, if we are supposed to talk about our experiences in the class rather than the actual course work, will probably say often is that Professor Downing is very passionate about teaching this class and having his students be successful. As an aside to the passionate comment, he does swear a bit in class and not in a negative way, but in a “he seems very excitable way and when he wants to get his point across he uses swears to emphasize his message.” I only mention it because a lot of professors like to present them self as extremely proper or stiff, so it’s nice to have a professor talk like an average person. Plus it just amuses for no real reason other than his energy and excitement are contagious. Anyways, as for why he seems to care about his students, he was very adamant and pushed for us to visit the career fair both for an internship and or simply for experience. He kept talking about throughout the class to emphasize his point. There is also the fact he makes us use GitHub, which he says is used by both professionals and by open source groups, groups he keeps recommending we help so we can build our resume. This shows that he is not only concerned about how his students do within the confines of his class or even the university, but he tries to help guide us towards a path to help in the future in the job market. The final thing that shows his care for his students is how he patiently deals with students when he asks for a question. He tries to ask people so that the same people aren’t the only ones answering and if they are having difficulty he patiently tries to guide them to the answer or to think hard about it so that they learn the material and remember it.

Week Two

The second week of class has come and gone, along with came many beneficial aspects of the class.

 

For one, the instructor decided to allow the class to write the code in Python 3 if they wanted. This is a prime example of how the professor truly cares about his students doing well in the class. It shows he went through people’s blogs and found that enough people mentioned the discrepancy between classes in the Elements Program to consider altering the assignment. This is an amazing gesture on his part, and, not that I wish to look a gift horse in the mouth, perhaps too accommodating. Please let me explain, I know I did mention how the other Elements classes use Python 3, but it was not with the intention of having him change that aspect, rather I merely wanted to point out that there is a bit of a hurdle to the class. Hurdles are not necessarily a bad thing. One thing about the computer industry I have heard about is that software and languages go through changes very quickly, but at different paces. So a recent program could be running and using a language that may be considered outdated when it comes out. And not all companies have the money to continually update their software and make due with older versions that still work. For example there are some broadcast companies which use Photoshop CS4, even after CS5 and CS6 came out, because all their other templates, software and hardware are compatible only with CS4. In such cases, even if you are incredibly knowledgeable about a language or program you may find yourself in a situation where you must use older versions of said language or program, and you may not get the luxury of the manager bending over backwards to try and update everything for a single person or group. I want to emphasize that I really appreciate what the professor did, but I wanted to point out how the original arrangement had its academic advantages.

 

The second thing which occurred is the first study session with the TAs, which was extremely beneficial to learning how to work GitHub and how to work on the assignment. So I recommend going to them if you can.

First Week

Hello, I am a student at the University of Texas in Austin and am currently taking the CS327e: Databases course to help qualify for the Elements of Computing certificate. Thus far the course is a mix of good and bad qualities. The good quality is that the professor, Glenn Downing, is very enthusiastic about teaching the course and seems genuinely interested in the students’ experiences.

The issues arise in the course material. First and foremost is the fact that Python 2.7 is the language used. The reason this is such a significant issue is because the two prerequisite courses where most, if not all, of the students learned Python. However, it was the latest version of Python, Python 3. Thus the course asks us to use an older version of a language where there are fewer features than in the latest version as well as there being differences in the remaining functions. It is just a bit rough trying to navigate the older syntax while trying to write elegant and efficient code. The reason for the need to use this is to use a program called GitHub, which is another issue. It isn’t too bad though the program does kind of confuse me and we haven’t really covered much of how to use it, but the Professor did mention the start of a study group which sounds like it can help, though if it is after the due date of the first project it becomes a moot point. The next issue is the quizzes which are kind of hard given the time allowed for them. They are useful for the class and helping to prove a point he wants to make about the class and the current assignment, so they are a mixed issue. On the one hand they are hard, which can negatively affect one’s grade in the class which is a big deal, but on the other hand they are useful in emphasizing the Professor’s lesson plan.

Overall the course looks promising, but it won’t be till later when it will be more evident whether or not the class is doable, which is mostly based on how easily the transition from Python 3 to Python 2.7, the learning curve for GitHub, and the act of getting accustomed to the quizzes turns out to be.