MIDTERMS AFTERMATH

What happened after both the mid terms ended?

I was flooded with six submissions for six courses. It was hectic. i was not studying. i was making one project after another, co-ordinating with no less than eight people for four projects. and heading two projects on my own and giving four presentations. and the month just went by in a flurry. i didnt manage to study anything that was being taught. and believe me not much was taught.

and the last submission was four days before the finals start. and the finals..

Things that happen when the final submission is due

1. Expect everything to go wrong at the worst possible moment.
2. KESC will chose the night before the submission to do all its load shedding.
3. The printer will print in all colors except the one you want.
4. There will be a huge traffic jam at every possible place there can be a traffic jam just so that you don’t reach on time for the submission.
5. You will forget to save your final editing and close all windows.
6. You will get sick, really sick just when you have to work the most. it will be a virus thats running around the city.
7. Your brother from abroad will land a day before the submission with his family after five years.
8. Your group member who is doing the most crucial work, whom you are waiting to finish so you can start, will fall asleep. .. in deep sleep.
9. When you have finished your report you will realize there is a section you had completely forgotten about.
10. There will be a glaring spelling mistake on the cover page.

Branded Tortoise Computers

The computers are just too slow. like really really slow, cause of the virus. the lab attendant said that due to power failure combined with UPS failing the anti-virus servers went down. when the next day computers were switched on, the virus had breached the walls and now it couldn’t be removed using the anti-virus from within the system. The only way is for the computers to be formatted.

At such a crucial point where the reports are in bulk, the technological infrastructure failing in the leading business school just prepares you for real life.

The problem with PhD-student-teachers’ projects

the problem with PhD. student-teachers is that they think projects can nothing be less than research papers. that the world revolves around research papers and if you have to give a project it has to be of the same level as PhDs have. i get the part where we learn a lot while doing a huge project or read the otherwise never touched research articles but am pretty sure that there is something called too mature projects given too immature minds leading to them learning nothing and just wasting a good project opportunity phenomenon[1] . The point is that when someone is not a PhD the point of trying to understand a very specific phenomenon really leads to nowhere. projects should be more substantial in adding to the understanding of the student rather than just a forced review of a paper which is remotely related to the topic.

Instead to ensure that the students are reading research papers,  a more better approach would be to make research papers available electronically to them and to allow them the liberty of choosing a topic which interests them and a bit of pushing towards the writing of the paper for entry into some conference.  in fact, a much better , academic oriented approach leading towards better understanding of the students mind.

REFERENCES:

[1] Li Peng Shui and Shing Zong Tsu, The Peng Zong Effect and its ripple effects,  University of BS, ISACA paper 2005 pp.44-49

MIDTERM AND TERM PROJECT DILEMA

With the second midterm ending we saw a huge list of term projects due within one month.

Six term projects, each due within five days of the next. Presentations, reports, submissions. and if you catch the currently running virus, life’s just dandy for you. and to top it off if you were so macho to think that you could do a term project alone where as the rest of the class decided to work in groups, we ll just call you plain dumb, stupid, idiot, jackass. cause well you did something like that.

anyways. i’d midterms crammed stuff up a lot.

so  the month after the midterms, which we treated so much like the second hourly, rushes by like anything and you realize you almost reached the finals. how the hell are we going to give a cumulative course final when we haven’t even touched a word since the midterm and have certainly forgotten everything before that.

food for thought…