We have started working with the Faculty of Information Technology at CTU, supporting its most active students with sponsored membership in vpsFree.cz.
The vpsFree.cz association needs bright people, and bright people need somewhere to run their projects. Where better to find them than at a university? We decided to try working with one and contacted FIT CTU, represented by Ing. Jan Žďárek, Ph.D.
At the start of the winter semester, we came up with a concrete plan: students taking Shell Programming 1 (BI-PS1) would have a chance to earn sponsored membership in vpsFree.cz if they met specific requirements and ranked among the best. The aim was to motivate students and find those with an idea and the desire to make it happen with us.
Students had to score at least 50% on every test in the course. Those selected then described what they would do with a virtual server and what project they wanted to run on it. The association's management assessed the projects and offered the students sponsored membership for four or six months. During that time, they have full use of the server to launch their projects. Afterwards, we will assess each outcome individually, and the students will either become regular members or have their sponsored membership extended.
The first round recently closed, and five talented FIT CTU students received servers:
- Josef Doležal
- Michal Hubatka
- Jaromír Mikušík
- Tomáš Sýkora
- Pavel Lučivňák
All accepted the sponsored membership and started using their servers. One student later apologized that his project had changed significantly and he would not be running it with us. He still started using the server and became a regular vpsFree.cz member.
Interview with the FIT representative
Jan Žďárek gave us a short interview about today's students, their results and how to motivate them.
What is the general standard of students like? Is it true that it is
declining?
It is easy to sum up a range of problems by saying that the standard of students is falling. Among other things, that fits neatly with the familiar idea that things used to be better, so it is now taken as an accepted fact. Reality is more varied, of course, but only a little more complicated. It just takes a while to explain.
I have been at university for some time, but I still remember starting out and seeing half my fellow students disappear after the first semester. Looking back, I realize that students are much the same as ever. Still, the statement above is not entirely untrue. The range of students has changed considerably. By that I mean university has long since ceased to be just for highly motivated people; particularly in technical subjects, getting in is often simply a matter of applying. To avoid any misunderstanding, our faculty accepts only half its applicants.
New students meet all the formal criteria, but what matters is not success in Scio tests, the state school-leaving exam or the admissions process. It is a real interest in the subject and the basic prerequisite for studying engineering: a technical way of thinking. Naturally, today's students do not particularly appreciate having computers available in all their forms. They take them for granted as tools for doing things. But only a minority are willing to look into how they work inside.
So once we start exploring details at university, from expressing problems as algorithms to Unix technologies, many students lose interest almost immediately. These things are completely different from their previous experience with computers. What we describe and explain turns out to be highly abstract and incomprehensible to them. Many also feel that they already understand computers very well and cannot see why we are presenting such uninteresting nonsense, with no connection to what they actually want to do.
We then put considerable effort into pushing these people to change the way they think, but it does not always work. The mistakes they make, the ways they try to solve problems and their reactions to difficulties often lead even me to describe what I see as a decline in standards.
But that really is a broad simplification. Every year has a certain number of very capable people, largely independent of how many students are admitted. Thanks to the technology available, they also have quite good knowledge. It often lacks a wider context, but it is a useful foundation for further learning. If these students are diligent and willing to accept that there is still something new to learn, they have no trouble with their studies. For teachers, the hardest part is resisting pressure from the majority who chose the wrong subject. They push to lower all sorts of assessment criteria and take up teachers' time with minor problems. That leaves less time for the capable students with an aptitude for the subject.
What do students lack? Motivation, enthusiasm, resources?
I think the biggest gap may be a willingness to accept that the familiar way of using computers is not necessarily the only correct or possible one. You need to understand the details thoroughly to build larger systems on them without everything falling apart.
Yes, motivation and enthusiasm matter, but I would again mention a technical approach: a natural desire to understand how things work in detail. You can force yourself to do that, but the difference still shows in the results.
The lack of motivation is particularly apparent in smaller specialist courses, where we can work and talk with students individually. I vividly remember how, in similar courses during our own studies, we hung on every word. Today, teachers have to beg students to at least look at the materials available. Given how hard it was for us to get information as students, this is probably the only thing about today's students that truly saddens me.
Can positive motivation help?
I hope so. That is exactly why I started working with vpsFree.cz. It can help students with a deeper interest develop further on their own.
What is your impression of the students who received awards? Do you think they have a better starting position than others?
There is no doubt about that. Just being willing to try something in a real operating environment shows that they are interested. Perhaps it supports my earlier observations that more than two hundred students qualified, but only a handful expressed interest.
The projects themselves vary. Those who qualified included both genuine first-year students and students from later years who had to repeat the course. Each has a different background and focus, and it will be interesting to meet again in a year to discuss how their projects turned out.
Finally, I would like to thank vpsFree.cz publicly once again for being so helpful and giving us a chance to offer students something beyond that "uninteresting" knowledge.
Congratulations to the students who received awards, and thank you to CTU's Faculty of Information Technology, represented by Mr Žďárek, for a promising collaboration.