I was talking with Ben (the CTO at Zane) about what some of the core skills that set apart good programmers from bad ones.  Probably the most important thing is a solid understanding of how to store and retrieve information from a database.

I understand databases pretty well.  I'm no expert, but I almost never run into a situation where I can't easily implement a database-driven solution to a problem.  My initial reaction was, "thank god I learned about databases at Wash U."

Then I though about it.  I don't think I ever once dealt with a database in school.  I never learned how they worked.  I never used them to store data.  I never ran a query.  Not once.  How in the world could I have gotten a CS degree from a great school without once coming across one of the most fundamental aspects of programming?

Ok, so to be fair, a computer science education is supposed to be more about theory and less about learning what you'll use in the real world.  But I still had to learn Java, C, C++, VHDL, and the list goes on.  If I only needed to learn theory, then I should have only needed to learn on programming language.  Hell, I shouldn't have even needed to learn one if the point was to study theory.  And if there is even a hint of practical experience being taught, databases should be as high on the list as learning any programming languages.

Also, there was one database class which I was planning on taking as part of my Masters program.  I'm sure I would have learned more than enough in that class.  But that class wasn't required and most of the people I know didn't take it.

I'm not trying to blame Wash U for this.  I think my coursework was very similar to the status quo.  But still, shouldn't every CS major be required to at least understand the basics?

Tom sent me an article that follows up on my question about why education isn't moving online as quickly as I'd expect.  Apparently the state of California is going to start using open source, digital textbooks in public schools.

There's one really obvious point the article makes that I didn't mention in my earlier post.  Online education doesn't just save money for the students, it saves money for the schools.  I was assuming that this change would start in college because the students are consumers at that point and they should be able to force the change.

It makes a lot more sense for the change to start in middle school and high school.  An entire state can save hundreds of millions of dollars with one decision where as college students individually can only have so much of an impact.

Anyway, it's good to see that California is taking a step in the right direction (even if it was forced upon them by crippling budget problems).  Hopefully it works out so that other states can follow suit.

With the economy how it is, a lot of people are calling for a mandatory personal finance class for high school students.  I think that's a great idea, but it makes me think of a different topic that I think everyone should learn about:  The Internet

From online banking to Facebook, it's virtually impossible to escape daily computer use.  I don't think technology users need to understand how to program or how to put together a computer, but understanding the basics of the internet seems pretty important to me.

Here's a case where a little basic knowledge would help out a lot.  I get a lot of I.T. related questions from people where they can't get online.  They tell me, "The internet isn't working.  Can you fix it?"  Most of the time the internet isn't the problem.  Either the router is broken or the computer doesn't have any enabled network adapters or something like that.

With that in mind, here are a few concepts that I think everyone should be taught in high school (this is all dumbed down, but the concepts work):

• Modem - A modem is the hardware that connects you to the outside world.  It generally doesn't do anything except take in data from some signal (such as cable or DSL) and convert it into a standard network signal (The kind transferred using ethernet cables).
• Router - This is the blue thing that looks like an alien and says "Linksys" on it.  Your router is not your connection to the internet.  The router is what creates a local network.  Rather than plugging one computer directly into another computer or a modem, a router allows several different network devices to communicate together using local IP addresses.  Your router is the reason multiple computers can share the same internet connection.
• Computer - Your computer runs files locally, but it can gain access to files using a network connection.  If you look at a web page, that page is downloaded to your computer and then displayed to you.  If you're streaming music, the data is sent to your computer and then played.  Computers aren't some magical portal to a series of tubes.
• Troubleshooting - If your computer can't connect to a network, it's either because your network card isn't working or the router isn't working.  If you're on a network but websites won't load it's either because your router and modem aren't playing nicely together or your modem isn't getting a connection to the outside world.  The go-to diagnostic move is plugging your computer directly into the modem.
• Web Servers - Servers are just computers sitting in a room somewhere.  There's nothing fundamentally different about a server that makes them special.  They are connected to a local network just like your computer and the way they serve web pages is through an internet connection not unlike yours.
• Web Pages - Web pages are just text files for the most part.  A server (which is just a computer with an internet connection) sends your computer a text file (and some images) and your computer takes all that and figures out how to display a web page.

This post is a follow-up to my question about online education.

I was recently looking into the GMAT and I was surprised to learn that you're not allowed to use a calculator.  This test is one of the main things that determines admissions to MBA programs across the country and they're measuring one's ability to do mental arithmetic.  What does that have to do with an MBA?

There are certain things that I really resent about how education works in this country (and maybe everywhere else, I don't know) and one of the main things is that educators often measure useless skills just because useless skills are easy to measure.  There are very few jobs where mental math abilities matter.  There are very few jobs where you aren't allowed to use Google to help solve problems.  There are very few jobs where you can't collaborate with your peers.

So why should college students ever have to take a test without a calculator, an internet connected computer, and a group of friends?  School is supposed to prepare us for the real world and in the real world you're rewarded for leveraging all the tools at your disposal.

I understand that kids in grade school benefit from rules because it helps teach fundamentals and boundaries can be healthy. By the time someone reaches college, it's time to do away with the games and try to actually teach instead of setting up artificial challenges.

When I came out to Park City to interview for my job, I was given a pretty tough MySQL test.  I probably only knew the answers to half of the questions, but I was allowed to use a computer to do research during the test and I ended up getting pretty much everything right.  This told them a lot more about me than a closed book test would.  My employer doesn't care what I know.  They care what I'm capable of accomplishing in real-world situations.  That's one thing that made me know I wanted to work here.

The reason that I bring this up is that I think I can use it to help evaluate others in my day to day life.  It's easy to be impressed by big name colleges, high GPAs and fancy resumes.  It would probably benefit most people (including myself) to ignore all those things and focus on results.

I have a question for anyone that happens to read this.  Does anyone have any ideas as to why online tools aren't replacing traditional text books and paper tests very quickly?  We probably all used something like Blackboard (or Telesis at Wash U) in college, but I didn't have a single class that really made any good use of the internet.  And I was a CS major, so you'd think the professors would be down with that stuff.

I ask this because my dad is currently looking for a tool that can help him deliver content to his students and then give tests with intelligent automated feedback and all that good stuff.  There's probably something out there that does what he needs, but I don't understand why my professors didn't do something similar.

First, let me address the obvious reasons:

• Professors aren't very tech savvy - I already mentioned that I was a CS student so this argument doesn't hold water for me.
• Nothing can replace face to face contact - Most classes at most colleges are just lectures.  I don't think there were ever more than three or four professors at Wash U that actually knew who I was.
• People can cheat at online tests - This is true, although many professors give take-home tests.  Also, I think that students should be allowed to "cheat" as much as they want (where cheating means using a calculator, google and friends for help).  I'll discuss this in a future post.

So what are the other reasons?  Why did I have to buy $200 text books when I'd be happier reading everything online?  There's no ctrl+f with a book.  That always drove me crazy.

It also looks like there's a chance that I'll be building something either for my dad or for work that administers this type of thing.  If you've got any brilliant things that you've always wanted to see out of online education, hit me up in the comments.