TITLE: Joining the Present
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: December 22, 2005 12:18 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
Yesterday I received e-mail from the chair of
a CS education conference.  For some reason,
this snippet caught my eye:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
We encourage you to visit the conference website
<BR/> <CENTER>[URL]</CENTER> <BR/>
on a regular basis for the latest information
about [the conference]."
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

My first thought was, "You need an RSS feed!"
I am not very good about remembering to check
a web site on a regular basis, at least in part
because there are so many web sites in which I
am interested.  The result: I tend to miss out
on the latest information.  But with a subscription
feed,
<A HREF="http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/">
   my newsreader</A>
reminds me to check the sites that have new
content.

And this e-mail was for a conference in computer
science education.  A conference of techies, right?
Why haven't they joined the 21st century?

My second thought was, "Physician, heal thyself!"
I do the <EM>same thing</EM> to my students.  Here
is a snippet from the home page for my fall course:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
Welcome to your portal into the world of 810:154
Programming Languages and Paradigms.  These pages
will complement what you find in class.  You will
want to check the "What's New" section often --
even when I don't mention changes in class -- to
see what is available.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Can I really expect students to check the site on
their own?  At least I put up lecture notes (with
code) twice a week and homework once a week to
create some 'pull'.  But students are pulled in
many different directions, and maybe a little
push would help.

This raises a question:  How many of my students
use a newsreader or RSS-enable web browser these
days?  Offering a news feed will only improve the
situation if these folks take advantage of the feed.
So I will have pushed the problem from one required
habit to another, but at least it's a habit that
consolidates multiple problems into one, and a habit
that is growing in its reach.  But beginning next
semester, I'll ask my students if and how they use
news feeds, and encourage them to give it a try.

And I will offer a feed for my course web site.
Perhaps that will help a few students stay on top
of the game and not miss out on the latest information.

You would think that we computer scientists would
not be so behind the technological curve.  Shouldn't
we be living just a bit in the future more often?
You know what they say about the cobbler's children...
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