[nabs-l] Computer science info

Bridgit Pollpeter bpollpeter at hotmail.com
Sat Feb 5 23:47:22 UTC 2011


Thank you so much for the info.  I am asking on behalf of my husband,
Ross, who briefly minored in the topic years ago, and is considering
getting a second degree in computer science.

He has some foundational knowledge on the subject, but is looking to
learn more that may help him in the classroom.

This has been helpful, and I will let him know he can contact you for
more info.

Thanks.

Bridgit

Message: 25
Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2011 02:03:32 -0700
From: "Joseph C. Lininger" <jbahm at pcdesk.net>
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
	<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Looking for infoComputer programming
Message-ID: <4D4D1264.4020505 at pcdesk.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Howdy,
Sorry for my late arrival to this discussion, but I've been just a bit
busy with school and work.

The short answer is that not really all that much has changed in the
past 10 years or so as far as the computer science curriculum goes. The
exact tools used for teaching have changed some, but over all the topics
covered and the order in which they are covered really hasn't changed
much. That makes sense if you consider it a bit because while we have
had some major developments in technology, the foundations on which they
are developed just haven't changed that much. Same general
architectures, same players in the market, same programming languages,
same algorithms, etc.

That being said, there are some things you may find which are different.
Some schools now place a greater emphasis on web based applications and
their development. For instance, having you develop java applets or ruby
applications instead of traditional console or gui based applications.
It doesn't really matter as far as learning to develop software goes,
but there you have it. Second, there have been some developments in the
software life cycle and in how software is engineered, and computer
science programs have adapted to encorperate these new ideas and models.
Third, people have, in the past 5 years or so, really started to take
notice of security issues as far as how they relate to computing. As a
result, many computer science programs now offer one or more courses
which focus on this topic. Usually it's an elective, not a requirement.
At least it has been with every school I've looked it up for or talked
to others about.

Let me know if you would like more information. I can say more on this
topic if desired, including providing a list of the general topics which
would be covered in any decent computer science curriculum and the order
in which those topics would most likely be covered. Joe








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