quinta-feira, 16 de novembro de 2017

Being Self Taught At Uni

So, it's been two months since I came to the University of South Wales.
Today, I had a substitute to a class that I only started taking a week ago. It's one of those classes where you are not expected (that I know of) to have any basis whatsoever before you take it.
The substitute handed us a quizz and told us that, after we finished it, we had more questions that the teacher left us online along with some notes to help us in our "research". Last week, when the teacher was there with us, he did the exact same thing.

* BACKGROUND STORY TIME *


I told you guys in that last bit that I started taking this class a week ago. For the first 2 months of uni, I had this other class, where the teacher purposedly didn't teach us ANYTHING, literally. We had 6 weeks to develop a product, while self teaching ourselves on how to do it.
The objective was to give us a real life experience of being part of a team in the industry.

"It will be unforgivable",

"You'll eventually be given something to work with that you have never seen in your life",

"Shit will hit the fan at one point".

These was what that class was supposed to teach us, and I get it. It's a big industry with a lot to cover, and they would never be able to teach us all of it. I actually enjoyed what I was doing, so I didn't mind it at all. Alright, fine, it's done, moving on to the next class.

* BACK TO THE PRESENT TIME *

Right, so! The substitute had left at this point. Keep in mind that this new class has not caught my interest at all, so far. But I was doing my "research" and answering the questions on the quizz, just like everyone else was.
I don't know about you, but me + a class that does not interest me + having to be self taught at it = MAJOR SYSTEM FAILURE!!

*Clears throat*, anyways! In my boredom, I turned and I asked to no one in particular:

"Is this going to be another class where we self teach ourselves again?"

And one of my classmates, turns to me and says:

"You are supposed to be self taught"

HOLD ON, HOLD ON, HOLD ON! So, you're telling me that I'm paying £9000 for help documents that I can get online and tutoring that I can also get online?

...buying a computer for £1000-2000 is overrated all of a sudden, huh?

My point being (TL:DR): 

I can see what the teachers' point of view is: "The real world is not easy and you have to learn to be alone", okay, that's fine, but I am paying to be taught stuff, which is exactly what I'm going to do if I don't know something in the real world! I will ask for help, pay for courses and find a way to get resources. I did not come to uni to learn how to be self taught, that's the whole point of going to school after all.
What bothers me is that it looks like a lot of teachers have this type of mentality, and I can guarantee that no student enjoys it.
We want someone to talk to us and put us in their shoes. Someone that will explain the material to us like it is the best thing they've ever done in their life. Powerpoints and quizz packets will not do it, ladies and gents.

We have time to learn about the real world, but for now: hold my hand, and tell me what I'm supposed to do.

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