About DI
I'm DI von Briesen. I teach full time at Central Piedmont Community College in the Computer Information Systems department, and I teach as adjunct faculty at UNC Charlotte, in the Software and Information Systems area of the College of Computing and Informatics.
Between the two, my courses run from a student's first contact with a computer through database-driven web applications. I spend my weeks with people who have never written a line of code and people shipping working applications, often on the same day. My surname takes some explaining, so I wrote a page about it.
What I Believe About Teaching This
The Course Standards and Web Standards are these beliefs written down as rules.
I Tell You What Good Looks Like
If I can't tell you exactly what "good" means before you start, I have no business grading you against it afterward. So I write the rules down, and a script checks them. Run the script on your own page as many times as you like, watch it go green, and submit knowing what I'll see. No surprises when you get your grade.
It Works Like a Job
I run my courses like development work, not like a lecture class. Requirements change. Specs change after you've started. Work you thought was finished comes back with notes. That's not a flaw in how I run a course. That's what the industry you're heading into is like.
So treat every assignment as a work in progress, not a final grade. You submit, you get feedback, you improve it, you resubmit. What earns a grade here is being willing to fix something after somebody tells you what's wrong with it. That's also what earns a living.
Habits Outlast Frameworks
Whatever framework is all over the job listings when you graduate, it won't be the one that was hot when you enrolled. What lasts is smaller and duller: naming things so the name answers the question, writing comments that explain why instead of what, validating as you build. I teach the trendy stuff because you need it, and I grade the lasting stuff because you'll keep it.
Struggling Is Part of Learning
The moment when the page won't center and you can't see why isn't getting in the way of learning. It IS the learning. My job is to keep the struggle in the range where you can win it, not to take it away. So I answer the question behind your question, and I'd rather hand you the search term than the code.
Use the Tools, but Know What You Turned In
I'm not going to police which tools you open, and generative AI isn't going back in the box. The test I use hasn't changed: can you explain what you turned in, and change it when I ask? If you can, the tool made you faster. If you can't, it did the course for you and you paid tuition to watch.
Everybody Starts Somewhere Different
In one week I teach students meeting a file system for the first time and students deploying applications. Neither group is the "real" one. The beginner isn't behind, and the experienced student isn't done. They're working on different edges of the same craft, and both deserve a course that meets them there.
Why a Vicuña
Every site I build has a Camelid Software mascot, and students name their own the same way - which is why the standards have a naming rule. Mine is a vicuña: a small South American camelid that grows some of the finest fiber in the world and doesn't make a fuss about it. It seemed like the right animal.
If you keep on doin' what you've been doin' yer gonna keep on gettin' what you've been gettin!
Practical questions - how to reach me, how to ask for a recommendation, what happens when you miss a deadline - are on the FAQ.