Something Odd might just be Something Great

Coming home from probably the longest IT Project defense in our batch, I'm pooped. Not only did the proposal go longer than expected, heavily inconveniencing the groups that come after us but also, it was there that I realized the reason why our department's curriculum and standing hasn't changed nor improved for years. The academe fears new technology.

Quite an ironically bold statement though and I'm sure many will disagree, and I concur, I'm sure not all of the academe is like this but hear me out. This is based on my experience after all. 

Despite our department supposedly being at the top of the latest news in the field of IT, with the teachers often going out of school to attend seminars and the like, it took us a good three-fourths of an hour to convince them that the idea of using a startup idea as an IT Project topic wasn't as absurd as it sounded. 

Sharing ideas with Gerald Yuvallos of iSTORYA.NET at SWC4

They held our topic in question because it "didn't have a client" unlike most of our other batch mates' reservation or inventory systems. As we continued to defend our topic, the matter of it "being too similar to a regular forum website" popped up. Considering the reservation system proposed by the group defending before us was approved by them, were they really going to talk about that in our project proposal?

We were bringing something new to the table for our department, our topic being the first online, startup-based project topic for our whole college in years and they still questioned us about it "being similar to other websites" where they have been approving the same inventory, reservation and monitoring systems in every IT Project batch for more than fifteen years?

In their defense though, I was eternally grateful that the Dean of our college and our Technical Adviser understood our concept and helped us with the panel. They understood the proposal and were open to the new idea, as new as it was in our college.

Although I do understand their other concerns but I was honestly expecting them to be more open to the idea of presenting something new and redefining for IT Projects in our college. One teacher even simply questioned the member selection of our group, arguing that "those who could program must be in separate groups". GOSH, so are you saying you'd have a student with potential be hindered to reach greatness JUST BECAUSE HE HAS MORE POTENTIAL than the other kinds in the batch? The irony of it all just made me laugh at the end.

Our project proposal was "doubtfully accepted".

11/19/2014 Update:

Teachers changed their minds because the project we proposed wouldn't fit into the format they have set for all the required documentation. Well, at least we tried.

Questioning Values: Answering an exam in VALUES, a class subject

It was exam season in my sister's high school and I asked her how she did _{(like how we asians do)} through Skype. She gave me a pretty sketchy answer and sometimes, none at all, just that sibling look all siblings inherently understand. "Which ones did you find easy at least?", I said and then she replied with "Meh, the typical ones, Religion, VALUES, P.E.". As our conversation went on, she eventually told me, "Picking answers in a multiple choice for Religion and VALUES is pretty easy. Just choose the one you're less likely to do." And that got me thinking.

What she was referring to were the situational questions a lot of "moral-oriented" subjects use as questions in multiple choice. For example, "When you see an abandoned kitty in the sidewalk, clearly malnourished and dying, what do you do?" a) leave it or b) take it home. Clearly the correct answer is b) and choose that one to get points. Now think of it this way: if put in a the real-life version of that situation, what would you do? You would most likely just leave that cat. Mom was allergic to cats or I barely have cash to feed myself, moreso a cat and many other reasons. B was the least likely answer for you to do and so it was the correct answer in the test. 

I'm not going to pass any judgement on the educational system or human morals because I forsee myself doing that in future posts. This is just some food for thought. The irony just makes you laugh a bit.