A Debate over the Teaching of a Legacy Programming Language in an Information Technology (IT) Program

Abstract

This paper presents a debate between two faculty members regarding the teaching of the legacy programming course (COBOL) in a Computer Science (CS) program. Among the two faculty members, one calls for the continuation of teaching this language and the other calls for replacing it with another modern language. Although CS programs are notorious for continuous updates (and hence debates over the updates) of their courses, but the teaching of COBOL programming language has sparked many debates that have been on-going for years. Each side of the debate provides evidences that support their position.This study, although, provides a debate over the same topic but it is different from ongoing debates because it balances the views expressed by both sides of the debates. This in turn shows the difficulty encountered by various departments when making a decision about COBOL. We are presenting in the paper a thorough literature review regarding both sides of views. We are also incorporating in this debate the lessons we learned from our long experience in this field. Thus, we will present our conclusion and recommendation in this paper based on the literature review and on our experience in this field. Our goal from writing this paper is two faceted: first, to present opinions about each side of the position regarding the teaching of COBOL, and, second, to reach a consensus regarding the continuation of teaching this programming language (or for this matter replacing it with another language).

The Effect of Using Some Brain- Based Learning Strategies on Developing Journal Writing of English Majors in Basic Education at Faculty of Education - Beni-Suef University

“…The article concludes with recommendations for shared journal writing as well as ways to extend it. Ali and Smith, 2014) presented a debate between two faculty members regarding the teaching of the legacy programming course (COBOL) in a Computer Science (CS) program. Among the two faculty members, one calls for the continuation of teaching this language and the other calls for replacing it with another modern language.…”