Proactive Facebooking

(No, this is not a substitute for facepalming, facedesking or the like)

I have a fairly terrible teacher for ECE 264.  Dr. Pomeranz is a great researcher (so I am told), but her teaching style has been worse than awful.  At the start of the semester, she gave us each a 30+ page packet containing all of the lecture material for the rest of the semester.  It contain some beautifully written code.  and nothing else...


Yes, our entire class is nothing more than super-compressed, UN-COMMENTED code which she explains one line at a time in class.  It doesn't matter if one line has been covered 50 times previously or never before, she gives it the same monotonous attention as every other line.  Nor does she show how to write similar code based on that code; it is simply assumed that you can modify the preexisting code perfectly for all assignments that might need it.  Other annoyances include not given us homework grades back except during office hours (with the TA), and using a non-standard gcc compiler which we must accommodate.

Well, while sitting in another class with other students from Purdue Computer Engineering, I finally brought up the topic.  My neighbor, also a student of Pomeranz, agreed that something should be done, but neither of us had at that point any conviction in getting it done.  But then our teacher (a scheduling advisor) apologized to the class for Dr. Pomeranz poor teaching, and suggested that we individually find a pattern to work with.

Nick, my neighboring classmate, and I resolved to get it done.  Before class was over, we called all students of Pomeranz class to come to the front to plan.  We, as a group, decided to create a Facebook group to keep in touch.  Any group meeting would be announced to all members, anyone could attend them, plans and homework tips could be shared, etc.

That was last week.  Within that week, we plan and executed a study session of 15 students (from a class of ~60) an hour previous to the exam.  Seeing the success, Nick and I have begun plans for a greater project.  We figure, if it works for 264, why not expand our operations to other classes?

Our current vision is a bit grandiose, but it is possible.  We plan to start a forums and wiki combo.  On the forums, we can post homework tips and schedule meetings for specific classes.  On the wiki, past homework solutions, equation explanations, teacher descriptions, and other information can be kept and passed on to future Purdue Computer Engineers.

Should this become successful (and I dearly hope it will), we would have set the foundations for a complex learning source for all future computer engineers, not to mention collected the members and purpose needed to create a Computer Engineering Club.  I will keep you updated on our progress!