So today I am working on the GIS Certification Institute application to become a Geographic Information Systems Professional. Being completely honest here, the application is a complete pain in the … as it were. Having gone through a number of other certification programs, this is by far the worst I’ve ever worked on. Hopefully from here on out it will go smoothly, but griping about that isn’t the point of this post. The point here falls more to the academic side where I’m still sitting.
So the story… I’ve been sitting in the lab all morning plugging away at the application, and there are a number of students in the main instructional lab presumably working on homework for summer session classes or their theses. Still it seems that every time I walk into the lab to get to the printer, or to speak with faculty about any number of topics that I’m working on back here, I get inundated with the “how do you do..” questions, which is all well and good when an undergraduate student who has never had a GIS class asks or when the task is marginally complex, but some of the things that I’m getting asked are fairly self explanatory if you spend a minute to figure out what you’re doing.
And here’s where the ethics comes into play here; finally you’re saying. If I point click the students through the task they won’t learn anything, if I point click them through it they aren’t even doing their work. So lets call this my official declaration that I’m not going to help students anymore here in Akron — I’ll help point you to where the information that will help you answer the question is, but I’m not going to answer it; cowboy up and solve the problem yourself. That’s why you’re here on your “summer break” anyway. I say this as an ethics thing because I’m considering it part of my professional contribution to the “faith”. Time for y’all to “get some” for yourselves. Good luck and happy hunting.
May 22nd, 2009 at 15:16
So I think I’ve told you before what my feelings about Certifications are. They aren’t worth more than the paper they are given, execpt to those that do the hiring. The problem I’ve always had with Certifications all it means is that you’ve taken a class, or passed a test. It doesn’t mean you actually know how to apply it.
People in general are lazy…they want people to do it for them or show them exactly what is needed. So this is where the Craftsmanship of programming comes into play. A Craftsman will go the extra distance to LEARN a topic, instead of just asking how to do it (i.e. do it for me). A friend of mine calls these latter people, Teflon Programmers. Nothing sticks to them for very long. The world of programming needs more Craftsmen and less Teflon. Certifications are what Teflon programmers show…Craftsmen show what they have done, not what tests they have passed.
You my Apprentice are on your road to Craftmenship. http://manifesto.softwarecraftsmanship.org/
May 24th, 2009 at 14:46
Thanks bubba. I’ll give you my “Back of Jeep” thoughts on the topic next time I catch up with you. But as it stands:
if lazy:
print “here is the site where you can surf through and find a point by point…”
else:
…
teachable moment.
….
May 26th, 2009 at 14:36
did you sign the manifesto for me?
– young Apprentice
May 27th, 2009 at 09:08
You might have signed it a while ago.