waashk/acm huggingface dataset:
lab interns: a new level of service  faced with ever increasing financial constraints imposed on universities and increasing demands for service from academic and administrative areas, university computing facilities are being forced to either increase computing charges or limit services. northern has developed a program designed to increase service while providing better trained personnel at a relatively modest cost to the academic computing center.  before establishing an internship program, northern provided two levels of service at two different labs, using undergraduate students, who were paid minimum wage on an hourly basis, graduate students on contract, and full-time consultants. the problem users faced lay in the fact that the consultants were on duty only during the day, the graduate students worked a staggered schedule, some days, some weekends, and the center could not afford to give undergraduates, who made up the bulk of the work force, the extended training on the different packages and systems that would enable them to help with consulting. the primary responsibilities of the undergrads were maintaining the equipment, filling out reports, and keeping the labs running as smoothly as possible. consulting provided by undergraduate employees consisted of only helping with syntax errors in job control language and programming languages they were already familiar with, such as cobol, assembler, and pl/1.  the establishment of an internship program provided the center with an opportunity to provide undergraduate students with training that goes beyond maintaining equipment.  bradley e. coxhead
how the nintendo generation learns  recently, i was chatting with my son, daniel (age 7) about nintendo. i asked him if he could bring it in to school for show and tell and he was horrified! "no," he exclaimed, "that's not for learning." well, what do you, dear reader, think about that? is nintendo for learning? no one is watching/listening … go ahead … admit it … you don't really like nintendo. (of course, when you play tetris, that is exercising problem-solving skills. right.) and, afterall, you didn't use all that technology in school, and you learned just fine. so, why do "kids these days" need all this new multimedia technology, anyhow? that technology just makes it fun and easy to learn---it's just glitz. and as for calculators.....  elliot soloway
a fundamentals-based curriculum for first year computer science  at wits we are concerned about offering a good computer science degree but at the same time making our degree programme accessible to all students who have the potential or ability to cope with the material. this paper discusses a new first year curriculum which has been developed to address some of the problems which the course that we offered from 1990 to 1998, with minimal changes, has begun to encounter. the most important of these problems is that of student perceptions of our old course. the new course stresses fundamentals of computer science and is structured around teaching basic principles and competencies.  ian sanders conrad mueller
how acceptable are computers to professional persons?  although our lives are all touched by computers these days, a great many people seem to be ambivalent about them, either fearing them or exhibiting reluctance about interacting with them. the most relevant study about attitudes towards computers was conducted by lee [1] in 1963. he found two major orthogonal factors: the computer viewed as a beneficial tool of man, and as a superhuman thinking machine that downgrades man's previously unique significance in the order of things. not only have computers changed quite dramatically since 1963, they have also become increasingly common. it would seem likely then that attitudes towards computers have also changed and hence need to be re- evaluated in the present decade.  in this study, the attitudes of certified public accountants (cpas), lawyers, pharmacists, and physicians were investigated. professionals were studied because many marketing and electronics analysts have commented that industry is currently designing computers for professional persons [2]. computer availability, however, does not necessarily lead to computer acceptability. therefore, the primary question this study sought to answer was - how acceptable are computers to professional persons?  elizabeth zoltan
burn out in user services  the term "burn out" is frequently used to describe a person's fatigue or tire of a particular job or task. more often than not, it is associated with the helping professions and other jobs where people help other people. it is common to hear someone say that they are "burned out on the job," or "burned out on people," or just plain "burned out." one of the themes of the 8th user services conference held in 1980 in morgantown, west virginia, was the topic of the effects and treatment of burn out in user services personnel. papers presented by dr. james f. carruth of west virginia university and janice a. bartleson of southern illinois university were helpful in defining and coping with the problems of job fatigue in user services. in 1984, we have organized this panel discussion to reinspect the topic, especially with regard to the numerous changes that have taken place in our computing environments and the ways in which we help our users. to anyone working in user services, it should be obvious that the spreading out of computing services, in both quality and quantity, will continue to have dramatic impacts on the people who are designated to "help the users help themselves."  john e. bucher
on the problems of information technology management in developing nations  many developing nations treat information technology as a high priority item in their economic planning. the pace of computer introduction and the span of computer-based systems are expanding rapidly. this emanates from the realization that information technology has a great potential for the economic development of third world countries. however, it is our view that while information technology products open new opportunities for developing countries they also pose a new set of challenges. the often poorly managed computer resources tend to complicate the decision making process due to the introduction of new uncertainties. the problems of the industrial and communications infrastructure, personnel issues, political and social factors are important elements hampering the sound management of information technology resources in many developing nations. after giving some background material on characteristics of the computerization process in developing countries this paper discusses the manifestations of information technology mismanagement, the factors hampering the proper management of computer resources in a developing nation context and points to some of the potential solutions to these problems based on the experience of several nations in this field.  adnan h. yahya
interaction factors in software development performance in distributed student teams in computer science  this research in progress paper compares the characteristics of high and low performance distributed student teams doing software development in computer science. the distributed student teams were involved in a software development project that was part of a computer science course at two universities located in different countries.  we developed a set of categories to examine the email communication of distributed student teams. this paper tracks the progression and changes in the categories coded for each team's communication throughout the project's timeline, particularly during key decision periods in the software development cycle.  martha l. hause vicki l. almstrum mary z. last m. r. woodroffe
motivation in the high technology industry  motivation of employees in the high technology environment needs some very special considerations. this seminar will address some ways of motivating employees in this environment. each of the speakers/panelist are noted for their technical achievement as well as their ability to stimulate a healthy environment and generate enthusiam among their employees. the agenda will be a 15-20 minute statement of position from each participant and then questions and answers. the participants are:  marshall bynum warren moseley
seed corn session  there is a consensus in academia and industry that the shortage of computer science faculty is at crisis proportions. the solutions to this crisis involve actions both independent and concurrent. some of the actions suggested for the academic arena include the offering of salaries competitive with industry wages, marketing the perceived advantages of university appointments as opposed to industrial positions, recruit from industry, provide stronger career counseling to avoid a surplus in esoteric specialties, reaffirm teaching as the primary responsibility, actively develop industrial contracts and acknowledge the validity of industrial research and selection of directions for computer sciences. industry could help alleviate the problem by rebuilding computer science laboratories with state-of-the-art hardware, provide summer jobs and encourage graduate students to complete degree work before seeking employment. both groups need to work together to improve channels of communication, to share personnel, seek better job matches and open research centers on both sides.  artie briggs roger elliott orrin taulbee ray miller fred maryanski
cs265 web network and web site management development of a core course in the internet technology minor curriculum  the internet is rapidly expanding into the world of commerce and communication media. the students in many different college majors, including cs and cis, have an increasing desire to learn more about the internet and what, where, when, why and how it is used. the question that they have is "how can they get involved and learn about the internet as it relates to their major field of interest. our current college students are witnessing a phenomenal effort by organizations of all types (e.g., government agencies, educational institutions, corporations, and small businesses) to exploit the web to deliver information to prospective customers and clients. developing web applications requires people skilled in the use of state-of-the-art technologies such as html, dhtml, cgi, java or javascript, javabeans, microsoft's activex and xml (extensible markup language). in addition, there is a need for an understanding of internet information architecture, distributed systems, client-server capabilities, user-interface usability, web-based databases, maintaining security, designing "effective" web pages, and maintaining a web site/server. this paper describes the development of cs265 "web network and web site management" a core course in an innovative curriculum for a computer sciences minor in internet technology. cs265 has been developed within a minor that includes several aspects of internet- related computing science that are interesting to both the cs/cis major and non-major alike. this paper presents the development of a successful course curriculum including lectures, lab exercises and projects. it is the intention that the variety of lectures, lab exercises and projects for cs265, "web network and web site management," presented here may easily be adapted into any computer science curriculum wishing to include a focus on programming for the internet and the information systems involved.  kevin d. hufford
the challenges and directions of mis curriculum development in respect of transformation of business requirements effective use of information technology (it), is becoming one of the prime determinants of success of business organization. however, rapid advances in it cause that knowledge and skills required by is professionals have to be changed continuously and profoundly. in this environment, is/it skills can become obsolete quite easily. the is/it jobs of tomorrow will require the flexible updating of knowledge, skills and abilities for effective performance of changing tasks and duties. stanislaw wrycza thaddeus w. usowicz andras gabor borut verber
a pragmatic approach to systems analysis and design  the university of new brunswick offers a wide selection of upper year computer science electives. systems analysis and design, consisting of the study and use of the system life cycle for developing business information systems together with associated techniques and issues, has been offered for about 14 years. considered to be a "soft" subject in a sea of hard-core technical courses, for many years this course was elected by a manageable maximum of 15-25 students per year. in recent years, particularly due to reinforcement by an active group of employers in our expanding co-op program, the value of such a course has been more widely recognized by our students. this paper examines methods used to handle substantial enrollment increases (40-60 students) in a subject which is especially sensitive to class size. efforts made to improve the effectiveness of teaching this non-technical but vital material to technically oriented students are discussed. as well, the differences between software engineering and systems analysis and design are outlined. a case is made for a change in the acm curriculum '78 software design course cs14 to relect the very important role of the analysis phase in software development.  jane m. fritz
use of collaborative multimedia in computer science classes  while there is a lot of speculation about the benefits of multimedia exploration, research on learning and technology suggests that the _creation_ of media by students has even greater benefit for learning. students learn through articulating their knowledge in their multimedia documents, reviewing their own work, and receiving comments and critiques on their work. in the research of the collaborative software lab (http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/csl), we are particularly interested in exploring the creation of media through collaborative technology. by having students work together in creating diverse media, we encourage review and critique, and create opportunities for joint learning. we have been using an environment for collaborative multimedia in several computer science classes, and in this paper, we describe some of the activities that teachers have invented for using the coweb.  mark guzdial
planning student laboratories - what isn't new?  planning a computer lab is a complex project on any campus. most planners start from scratch because either they aren't aware that others have done it already, they believe that their situation is unique or they just don't have time to investigate efforts elsewhere. even when planning a second lab, technical, political and environmental constraints change so much that the methods used for the first lab do not apply to the second.  columbia university center for computing activities (cucca) is in the process of planning its second computer lab. the lessons we learned in designing and operating our first lab did not necessarily help us in the second. however, in searching for issues that are common to planning any computer lab, we have found ways to plan for the unexpected: changing technology, new faculty requests, even a change in location. instead of basing our planning on new considerations that differed from our first lab, we ended up defining issues that are common to any lab and creating a framework to accommodate the myriad of changing constraints that make every lab unique.  our framework has helped us answer some of the questions that many lab planners face. in designing the space, what layout will make it usable for both a classroom and a laboratory? in the budgeting process, how do the capital costs of installing a lab affect the continuing costs of operating it? what are the operational problems in a large lab? for upgrading facilities and growth, how does the choice of hardware and software fit into the plans for future services? how can the work be scheduled to least interfere with the present level of services?  although planning is still a complex process, the guidelines presented in this paper will provide useful information for lab planners at every level. in fact at columbia, where microcomputing has spurred the development of departmental labs, lab planning referrals have become one of the services provided by our group. once the issues are outlined and the possibilities are presented, informed choices can be made to create a facility to meet the needs for the chosen user population.  lisa covi
managing people who used to be your peers: how things change  when you become a boss to your former peers, many things change, because you have more influence, power, and authority than before. some changes are obvious (new office, new phone number, secretary, different meetings, to name some) and others are more subtle. for instance, you have to "think bigger" than before and on behalf of more people. if you have never been a boss before, you will probably find yourself wondering about the role of the boss. is the boss the ultimate facilitator? does the boss work to improve the working lives of his or her staff so that work gets done effectively and efficiently? is the boss the ultimate dictator? does the boss wield power, doling it out in dribs and drabs to chosen staff members? can a boss always stay at any place along the continuum between these two positions? you probably have some pretty solid opinions about the role of the boss, gained from dealing with previous bosses and noting their strengths and weaknesses. now you have a chance to test your beliefs, to try to avoid the bad habits and unwholesome personality traits you have suffered from, to try to be a good boss to people who used to be your peers. in this presentation, i'd like to talk about some of the more subtle changes a person experiences when he or she stops being a peer and becomes a boss.  s. webster
implementing an it concentration in a cs department: content, rationale, and initial impact  the increasing use of commercial off-the-shelf (cots) software has created a demand for it professionals\\---people that build and manage systems assembled from cots components. in fall 1999, the etsu dept. of cis started a program of study for training it professionals. this it concentration differs from existing concentrations in four key ways:  the it concentration emphasizes vb instead of c++.  it emphasizes web, database, and networking applications instead of systems software;  it puts more emphasis on human issues in computing: ethics, computer-assisted instruction, and systems analysis and specification;  it deemphasizes science and math, giving students more opportunity to complete a minor of their choosing.  key design criteria for the concentration included making the content practical and attractive; teaching short-term and long-term skills; and minimizing the need for additional faculty. this final concern was addressed by reworking selected courses in computer organization, databases, networking, and software engineering for the concentration.  the new concentration should meet the needs of students and employers while improving retention and increasing enrollment. preliminary indications suggest that the it will become the department's most popular concentration.  terry countermine phil pfeiffer
estimating and improving the quality of information in a mis  most discussions of mis's assume that the information in the records is error- free although it is recognized that errors exist. these errors occur because of delays in processing times, lengthy correction times, and, overly or insufficiently stringent data edits. in order to enable the user to implement data edits and correction procedures tailored to the degree of accuracy needed, this paper presents functional relationships between three common measures of data quality. the mis addressed is one where records in a mis are updated as changes occur to the record, e.g., a manpower planning mis where the changes may relate to a serviceman's rank or skills. since each of the updating transactions may contain an error, the transactions are subjected to various screens before the stored records are changed. some of the transactions including some that are correct, are rejected; these are reviewed manually and corrected as necessary. in the meantime, the record is out of date and in error. some of the transactions that were not rejected also lead to errors. the result is that at any given time the mis record may contain errors.  for each of several error control mechanisms, we show how to forecast the level of improvement in the accuracy of the mis record if these options are implemented.  richard c. morey
computing education for secondary school teachers: a cooperative effort between computer scientist and educators  the proposed program will establish a computer education institute for computing, mathematics, and science teachers and supervisors in grade 7 to 12. the goals of the program are to: (1) provide teachers with a knowledge of programming in basic, and conceptual foundations of computer programming, (2) inform teachers of the variety of uses of computers in teaching science and mathematics, (3) provide an opportunity to observe and interact with youngsters as they learn to program, (4) establish a focus for teachers' future needs in computer education through contact with qualified scientists, and (5) develop and update teachers' knowledge about computers in society.  the objectives will be accomplished through enrollment during a six-week summer session in a structured programming seminar and a computer education seminar. intensive practice in a computer lab will develop programming skills.  during the fall semester, four guest speaker seminars will be held to provide nationally recognized experts as a resource. these meetings will also provide the program participants an opportunity to discuss their own implementation progress with the institute staff.  c. jinshong hwang gerald kulm grayson h. wheatley
finding a place for computer-equipped lectures in a lab-rich environment many computer science courses are taught via a combination of lectures and laboratories; many of the lectures use a room equipped with a computer and data projector. but such lecture halls create a problem for instructors: how to use the lecture-hall computer for more than poor approximations to experiences students could have working one-on-one with a computer in the laboratory. one solution is to use computers in lecture halls as tools for collecting and archiving information, much of it generated by students (via methods such as questions, discussions, and group exercises). my initial experience using a lecture-hall computer in this manner was a great success. doug baldwin
being creative in a user services environment or you have to be pretty crazy to work here - a workshop on synectics  in this workshop, participants will look at a particular situation, define the problem, study alternatives, consider metaphorical definitions and arrive at solutions. by familiarizing themselves with the concepts of synectics, participants will be able to take internal private connections and define them in a metaphorical sense, thus creating new ways of looking at the world.  phillip contic kathy smith pettit
computer science approval/accreditation (panel discussion)  a formal proposal for the establishment of an approval mechanism is being developed for presentation to the acm executive committee in february, 1982. some preliminary components of this proposal are:  \\---a year long study during which materials will be developed, trial visits conducted, and approval parameters identified;  \\---a volunteer based structure within acm which will grow to the final body responsible for approving programs;  \\---initial funding to be sought from outside agencies to initiate the approval mechanism which will eventually be self- supporting.  these and related items will be discussed by the panel.  john f. dalphin terry j. frederick william j. macleod david r. kniefel gordon e. stokes