On Wed, 9 Nov 2005, Shane Hathaway wrote:
That's a great example, although AI is a bit of a special case since the way
to practice AI in the real world is to further develop the theory. From what
I can tell, AI practice is never far from theory.
Ha ha, good point :-)
Of course, this is simply an example of learning the theory alongside
practical application of it, not learning practical applications *before*
learning the theory. What do you think of that sort of teaching
methodology, learning them alongside each other?
That works too, as long as the instructor can still make a clear distinction
between theory and practice. If the instructor presents both at the same
time, the students are probably going to have a hard time distinguishing the
two.
I don't know about that so much. I mean, back to the database example--if
you have a real-world project you're assigned to solve, and the teacher
lectures on theory but relates it to the project every once in a while,
will anyone be confused?
One way to separate them is to teach practice for a week or two, then
theory for a week or two, etc.
The thing that worries me about this one is that (a) this may be too much
teaching-practice for a University curriculum, and (b) it's difficult for
many people (both the teachers and the students) to go back in forth
paradigm-wise in their head. I can just see people being very confused,
especially the ones who are already slower at picking up the subject to
begin with.
~ Ross
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