just wondering

Sitting in the XQuery class today, I was pondering the nature of representation methods and the symbol :: construct paradigm.  Symbols are abstractions.  We create symbols in order to re-present things.  That got me thinking:

What purpose do synonyms, and consequently, multi-symbol representations of atomic units / concepts serve?

I maintain that this is one of convenience (and to a degree, specificity, but that is a different subject).  It is convenient to have words / symbols which are familiar to one’s current paradigm.

For example:  In Western music, we have a system of 21 symbols and 12 tones. Why such overlap? Convenience of key systems in musical notation. In mathematics, we have conic sections. We have formulas for measuring parabolas, ellipses, and circles. But all of the various representations lie. The abstraction breaks down. The convenience that we have gained from describing our cone from one perspective has resulted in a loss of information about the cone…

I then realized, my entire problem with the “Laptops Up” policy results from a lack of perspective! Instead of worrying about not getting homework done, not fully understanding topics during a lecture, etc, I should have been thinking of ways to love the laptopsup policy. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

• No carpal tunnel
• No chance of Rick Rolling
• Improved hand-writing skills (code-review with a red pen)

What I’m trying to say is that we need to take a look at things from multiple view points. No, I’m not advocating a completely subjective world-view, but rather, a holistic one. But I digress…

I mean the list goes on and on… What is something that you love and are looking forward to about the neu policy?

today, the heart of Neumont University died.  today’s announcement, in my opinion, demonstrates a significant departure from the spirit of what Neumont University stood for: open discussion, collaboration, and the free exchange of ideas concerning software.

let’s set things straight. i love attending Neumont.  it has a lot of great things going for it, and is far superior to any traditional 4 year CS degree.  i have a vested interest in Neumont being the most awesome that it can be, from the standpoint of student and industry opinion… i WANT Neumont to be awesome, i NEED Neumont to be awesome… this morning, Sam Puich said that no discussion would take place concerning this policy… so i’m not discussing, i’m just thinking out loud, online.

for those unaware, today, Neumont announced the new “Laptops Up” policy. this policy states that at the beginning of every period, all laptops shall be down. then, if/when the teacher deems appropriate, the student can then open his/her laptop. this interesting Obama-esque re-branding of the old “Gaming” policy has some holes in it & a lot of questions to be answered. how will students follow along with the live coding session? how will students use ebooks? what about following along with the slides?

i disagree with the policy; i believe that the new policy will rob me of my ability to “wrestle” with the code during the demonstrations and i will be unable to review the material after class (there simply aren’t enough hours in the day).  sure, the teachers can put the code on the LMS for me to review, but I don’t want to become a script kiddie. also, the defense for the academic misconduct policy was that by simply copying a friends code, one can not learn anything.  i totally agree with this.  but if the teacher puts code on the LMS, i download it, learn how it works…etc., how is this any different?

the argument for this policy was that some students were gaming in class, and other students were being distracted. these distracted students then wandered into the Office of Sam Puich and made formal complaints. while i believe that this policy is beneficial to a few (detrimental to most), i’m mostly saddened to hear that my fellow students couldn’t solve their differences, and had to involve the administration.

what do you think?