this term, i have gotten annoyed with a student who has been consistenly rude in class. i haven't really made it obvious i am annoyed, but feel like perhaps my annoyance is showing to a degree. must develop a bit of a thicker skin and let stuff like this roll off me.
- posted by Mike @ 4:42 PM

 
i teach a multimedia class and we touch on powerpoint in a section about "instant" multimedia. i have tried to discuss the downside of the useage of powerpoint by discussing what edward tufte and others have said about it.

well, we moved on to discussing the system development process and i was a bit pressed for time in preparing for the class, so i pulled out a presentation i did about a year ago about the topic. i decided to kill two birds with one stone by a. showing the presentation as a way to reinforce the subject matter and b.) give the students a chance to critique the powerpoint presentation.

i think this worked out extremely well. the powerpoint presentation, i would describe as very average - nothing horrible, but nothing outstanding. the comments that some students gave were priceless though. one student desribed that when seeing this or any powerpoint presentation - regardless of how it is - she tends to glaze over and when an instructor simply talks and develops the ideas on a white board, she becomes more attentive and engaged - thinking about what is being said and processing the information. at least one other student reinforced that. powerpoint, a tool for sales presentations, seems to me to be at odds with the goals of a classroom. in a sales presentation, you don't want the audience to think; you want them to buy. by spoonfeeding and making a lecture look like a sales pitch, it seems, at least for some students, to turn them into passive observers as opposed to participants in the process; they are not thinking about what is being said, nor are they processing it. i rarely use powerpoint in class, and after this will use it less frequently still.

the same student told me that she had taken a class just in powerpoint and no one had ever mentioned any negatives about it until i did. i took that as a big compliment.
- posted by Mike @ 11:33 AM

 
content delivery in the 'blogosphere'

link from teachnology

note to self: read this article - it might help!
- posted by Mike @ 7:18 AM

 
i am giving my advanced web development class a chance to earn extra credit by keeping a blog - they must reflect upon their learning and post links related to web development with commentary.

an advantage of small classes is that it lends itself to experimentation. if i am going to look foolish with some new thing i want to try, at least i will embarass myself in front of only a handful of students. i feel good that i am comfortable enough in the day-to-day teaching activities that i can try some more innovative things.
- posted by Mike @ 9:41 AM

 
i have a different notion about teaching than when i started - in part - form the classes in education i have taken - both the material contained in those classes, nad the sincere pleasure of just being able to observe a few great teachers - and in part, from my own experience. teaching for me used to be figuring out how i could stand up in front of the class and give such wonderful explanations that students could not help but learn the material. teaching for me now, has become creating an environment in which students can learn. in some repects this means less "me" and more activities, discussion, peer-to-peer interaction and student reflection. i realized that i can't really "teach" the material; students have to "learn" it. my job is, to the best of my abilities, create an environment that will best foster learning for my students...

it's a horribly overused concept to talk of the "zen" or "tao" of this that or the other - but i think it's relevant here. the following verse from the tao te ching could be taken as advice for teachers:

When the Master governs, the people
are hardly aware that he exists.
Next best is a leader who is loved.
Next, one who is feared.
The worst is one who is despised.

If you don't trust the people,
you make them untrustworthy.

The Master doesn't talk, he acts.
When his work is done,
the people say, "Amazing:
we did it, all by ourselves!"

- posted by Mike @ 1:44 PM