Oct 11

Written by:
2011/10/11 08:37 AM 

We expect to get the latest and best in knowledge when we sign up at a university or college or some other form of higher education.

But what we find out is that the material, processes and software are way out of date.

I’ve had the opportunity to tutor and mentor a young man these past few months. What I found was something that made me very frustrated. His place of learning was using outdated and old software.

He has enrolled in some programming degree, but his lecturers are using Visual Studio 2008, Access 2003, MS Office 95.

Come on people, by the time he leaves, after say 3-5 years, he won’t be able to get a job with those outdated skills. New software is about to be released by the likes of Microsoft, eg Visual Studio 11.

These guys will be so outdated, they might not even find a job!

Another person I know well is also at university, studying for a Bcom or something to that effect. They are using a very old version of Delphi.

There are many more such institutions out there. Here in South Africa, and even in the rest of the world.

Now I understand that there is a lot of teaching around principals, but surely those teachings can best be learned while using the latest software and best practices.

Lost of free stuff available

There is so much free and discounted software available, even more so if you are a student or an educational institution.

Take Microsoft for example, you can get the latest development software in Express editions, 2010:

• C# Express
• VB Express
• SLQ Express
• C++ express
• WebDev express
• Web Matrix

All these are the latest that Microsoft offers. They are perfect for any student  or place of learning.

Then there is the Dreamspark program that Microsoft offers. This is a place where students can get a whole bunch of  full version, completely legal, software. Like:

• Visual Studio 2010 Professional
• Windows SQL Server 2008 standard
• Windows SQL Server 2008 R2 Developer
• Expression Studio 4 Ultimate
• Training Material
• Lots more

Then there are all the discounts available to Educators and educational institution. As well as the tons of free tools available to educators and students alike.

Not to mention the ton of free development tools available for PHP and Java.

Why then do institution continue to use outdated and old software?

What is your experience with higher education and current technology? Let us know by making a comment below.

blog comments powered by Disqus