Goshen College - Maple Leaf Yearbook (Goshen, IN)

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Maple Leaf: What is your department about? Floyd Saner: We are interested in pro- viding a good education in computer systems in the liberal arts context. It means not only that we train someone in the technical aspects of a machine or the pro- gramming aspects, but that we're in- terested that they also get a good education in the liberal arts. The old stereotype that has been with computer science is of a 'Lhacker or a L'nerd who is totally withdrawn into the realm of their machine. Much of the programming now is not just communication between the programmer and the machine as much as it is between the programmer, the person who's going to use the machine and the machine itself. ML: What is one idea that sticks with you or that you wrestle with as a teacher? FS: What I wrestle with is trying to get across good problem solving techniques and good skills in developing solutions. So often the approach to a problem that is pre- sented is to sit down at a computer and begin typing in code. That's the last thing you should do. What needs to be done is to sit back and look at general principles and abstractions. That's probably the most dif- ficult thing to get across. ML: Is there one class that was especially meaningful this year? FS: I had a special topics course in microprocessor interfacing. We looked at microprocessors and electronics. The last class period we had demonstrations of stu- dent projects which they had designed and built. That was really neat because I saw students get excited about what they had done. Fleyld Sauer is chair tj the computer science department. Assistant systems operator Bryan Leaman keys in Assembler language code for the VAX system. Monitoring the administration VAX com- puter, Mark Krisetya and Vishal Varma train for the monthly backup of files.

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omputer Science ' 5. . if ,N 2, 2 K -In .Ani Kevin Gross explains the ins and outs of word processing in a seminar for Ex- pository Writing students. One of the hundreds of students using the Schertz Computer Center, LaDonna Red- dick interfaces with the concluding paragraph of her paper.

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J its P if .. , H? hiv., sp z, I fi ' 1 . 'L,55j Z 1v1.f .af 4. M532-A ,.. .- Ay, S., Q, 99 ?t.,, , 'gil L xx 'r ,,:'s5LJ Kathryn Aschliman Mary Kay Nafziger aple Leaf: What is the overriding conceptithat your department is about? Kathy Short: The notion of teachers as learners. This also gets into the notion of empowering teachers to empower students. That focuses on the decision-making aspect of teachers as professionals versus the teacher as merely a technician implemen- ting what someone else has thought up. ML: How would you define Hteacher as learner? KS: As a teacher who sees learning as a process that all of us are engaged in all the time. They aren't a person who has al- ready learned and is pouring that knowledge into children, but is instead a person who is continuing to learn about the world and to learn through children as well. ML: Is there one event or class that sticks with you from this year? KS: A very special event that occurs in Children's Literature is that students write and illustrate their own book. Then we have an author's tea at my house. We pass around the books and people tell why they wrote that book and what the connections were that brought this particular piece of writing into focus. You get to know people in a different way because they have chosen some part of their life that is very signifi- cant. ML: If you met one of your current students in 1997, what would you hope they would remember from education classes at GC? KS: To be a decision maker. One of the major issues of any education department is how to prepare students for the world that is out there so that they can deal with it but not be satisfied with it. One of my goals when I talk to student 10 years from now is that they'll tell me in what ways they have learned to both cope with and grow beyond the situation in the school when they first went out there. I really see Goshen produc- ing teachers who care about their students. It's not that subject matter isn't important, but if you don't care about your students then I'm not sure why you're in the schools at all. Kathy Gnagty Short is associate pnwssor fy' education. 30 1 A . MM , , Pr! .x rch ..,..... ...... ..... ,.,.,.,................ '21 . If 1 A ff' 4 9 it fiiifizziz-zi:2.:,-. .1 Q. n .M .,.,.:.t . . , , If-9' .QS5 .. ' x 5