Web Programming at PATHS

I’m finally typing up a summary of the meeting we had after the Advisory Dinner on March 13th.

Present:

• Valerie Green (PATHS)
• John Zaner (USM)
• Gene Ellis (Maine Dept. of Labor)
• Deborah Ellis (UNUM)
• Andrea Roma (UNUM)
• Jim Smith (UNUM)
• Mark McGhie (Medical Mutual)

The notes that I took centered around 2 topics: giving kids an idea of what it would be like to work in the tech industry, and proposed changes to the Java curriculum when I next teach it (2009 - 2010 school year).

“Life after high school”
- most tech classes at SMCC won’t transfer to a 4-year college. Often, core courses such as English and Psychology will transfer.
- I need more industry contacts. It would be great to have people come to class and talk about what they do. Note: maybe I can have a monthly panel with a few people, and/or combine with another class for this.
- Could people from UNUM come to talk to the class?
- I need more job shadowing opportunities for students.
- John Cole (Scarborough) is interested in UNUM. He may be a good contact for me.
- UNUM used to have kids come in for “a day in the life” or “a week in the life” at UNUM, often doing software or user testing.
- what are students’ perspectives on IT professionals? Can I find people to come in and talk?
- MESDA has user groups at night, and UNUM has something called Maine Bites. Could I get kids there after hours?

Curriculum Needs
- kids need practice in reading comprehension and study skills
- kids need to practice being precise
- kids need to practice getting out of their comfort zones, “daring to try hard enough to succeed”
- they need lessons in logical reasoning
- they need to know what they expect to happen, so that they can decide whether something is working correctly or not.

On June 7, a group of advisors met at UNUM. The subject of a “pipeline” for interns and entry-level workers came up a lot. I heard that people weren’t applying for entry-level tech jobs and that companies are starting to pay more attention to their internship programs.

Interns and workers need to have critical thinking skills, be able to think logically, and ask questions in order to figure out problems. Interpersonal skills are also important. The specific programming language is less important, as long as the thinking process is solid.

We talked a little about how to get kids interested in programming and tech. This is something that I think a lot about because the first year of my coure is programming in Java. How do I make it engaging (and yet still develop step-by-step, logical thinking processes) for a generation of kids who grow up with instant gratification in the form of video games and TV?

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Advisors from the City of Portland, L.L. Bean, and USM met at PATHS. Many interesting topics came up, and it was great to hear about what’s needed in some Maine companies. Here are some highlights that interested me. I’ll be thinking about how best to work these into next year’s curriculum.

Teaching the Agile methodology of development. With its simplicity, emphasis on testing, and quick iterations, this looks like a good way to get kids ready for internships/jobs in QA. For some kids, QA might be a good bridge to further education as well as a way of getting into the workforce after graduation.

Paired coding: pair up 2 people (different partners each time) to code an assignment or part of an assignment. This already happens naturally in the Web design part of the curriculum; I’ll introduce it for the first-year Java students also.

Kids need to learn “style” (for Web UI/design). Next year I’ll be working with Commercial Art, Graphic Arts & Printing, and Video Tech for some combined curricula.

Both the paired coding and the curriculum combining effort will also help students practice communication skills and working with different kinds of people.
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