Teaching and Research: Front and Back of the Same Hand?

Amy Ko’s article “The false dichotomy of teaching and research” unveils great questions and a personal story.  That's amazing.

Forty years into my career and then retired, I began an M.Sc in IT (I'm ABD though so it is a University of Liverpool diploma for courses without the degree). My thinking was to qualify an adjunct/lecturer at a place like the U of W. What scared me was teaching taking me away from the scholarly/research pursuits that retirement afforded me. I was and am also wary of academic culture.

Work on the M.Sc, conducted on-line with many discussion assignments, did teach me something unexpected. It confirmed I am a good student, much better than when I dropped out of college in my freshman year.

I had never taken any academic CS courses (though successfully challenged the major for my late-career BA).  The M.Sc courses taught me how much I already knew and understood having grown up in the field.

Before retirement, I once sat down with Terry Winograd (when I was located at PARC) and pondered going to graduate school at Stanford. When he asked why, I said it was because I wanted to do the work. Terry's remark was I was already situated to do that, and if I did not desire to be a professor, I didn't need the graduate school.

I recognize now, as an independent scholar, the value of colleagues and a community where our mutual intellectual juices are nurtured. I get more out of GitHub issues that question and challenge my efforts than almost anything else. I can also confirm seeing how graduate students interact and thrive among themselves. It would be great if there were forums for that, especially for adult learners.

Oh, and I have been a mentor/TA on Coursera MOOCs. How did I manage to forget that? The discussion and sometimes-collaboration opportunities on MOOCs are also rewarding.