This paper raises many interesting questions about Computer Science Education. It did not, however, provide any data or evidence to support its assertions. Instead, it made references to what other publications have said, but to accept something based simply on whom said it is ludicrous. While I do agree with many of the paper's arguments, I don't think that they are supported well enough to warrant their use in restructuring a course. Instead, I think the ideas it presents should be discussed to see if they could be helpful.

Perhaps the most relevant question the paper addressed was how to deal with large classes. It states that small, interactive group meetings or labs are needed in addition to lecture. I agree with this, a large lecture does need to be broken down into smaller groups where students can ask more questions and have them answered more thoroughly.

Another issue the paper addresses is the needs of the industry being factored into an undergraduate CS education. I feel that the industry should play a very minor, if any, role in influencing undergraduate education. Students should not be taught what certain companies want them to learn, but should graduate with a set of skills that they can put to use anywhere

I found the secondary school portion the most interesting part of the paper. I have been talking with my high school CS teacher and talking to him about how he is changing his high school courses. He himself states that he has to do a lot if "self-education" to be able to keep up with what is current, and a "virtual university" would be very helpful. We spoke about the AP exam, the value of object oriented programming, and how to give the students the best possible background in the subject. The main problem seems to be that every year things change significantly, and there are so many different schools of thought that it becomes difficult to decide how to teach. Enter the virtual university.

However hokey it sounds, I think it could be very useful. A place that had information on different ways to teach, test, and learn different concepts would be very useful. The main problem would be finding an accepted method of teaching. Everyone has different ideas about how to teach CS, and no one method has been proven to work better than all the rest. The virtual university would do more good by serving as a place to have questions answered, by having programming resources, and the occasional article about what recent teaching methods have been effective.