Student Coding & CMS

[Andrew Schreiber]

The better question, why does student coding matter? This goes back to a common theme discussed here; make vs buy. Now let us say that Team A has 15 students, one of whom is interested in programming (including doing the website) This student evaluates their options; build from scratch, use a CMS, beg a mentor to build from scratch, or modify a CMS. They consider that an off the shelf CMS would probably work really well and would allow them to offload the site content onto people who are more qualified to write the content (sub team leaders, mentors, PR students, etc) Would it be cost effective to code a site from scratch if a suitable system is available for free? Team A decides to go with an off the shelf CMS because their time can then be spent doing other things (such as making autonomous work)

Now the important question, was this student inspired and did they learn anything? My answer, no this student was not inspired* by creating this website. Did they learn something? Yes, they learned how things are evaluated in the real world and how best to utilize available resources. Both of these are important skills in any organization.

So, I ask that FIRST stop telling mentors how to inspire students. Some methods work for some students and mentors, others work for different mentors and students.

Just my $.02

*This student did not need to be inspired, they were already interested.