Education

CaN yOu ReAd ThIs?

By AMH

So many fun things to explore in this suggestion that students learn better from materials printed in harder-to-read fonts. First, I have only skimmed and not read the source paper, but they do acknowledge up front that this is part of a larger body of work that suggests that students learn better and retain their knowledge longer when they have to exert more thought in obtaining the information or knowledge. What is novel is that something as simple as the presentation font can trigger this effect. I liked the finding that just shaking a page while copying it to make … Continue reading CaN yOu ReAd ThIs?

Back to school – spend some money, make some money

By AMH

It is time for back to school sales, services and advice to start flowing, and a few things have caught my eye recently. There is always interest in saving money on textbooks, and the Lifehacker guide to saving money on textbooks isn’t a bad start, though the comments do rake them over the coals a bit for suggesting photocopying as a valid option. But you get the standard list of sources for new and used books and a wonderful reminder at the bottom to make sure that you are getting the correct book. If at all possible – remember to … Continue reading Back to school – spend some money, make some money

Gmail.edu

By AMH

I know that a lot of schools are looking at outsourcing more and more services to save money – both physical services like facilities maintenance and technological services. I liked this student perspective in a recent Yale Daily News on Yale’s plan to transition their email to Gmail. Besides enumerating some of the privacy and accessibility concerns that such plans have raised, the article argues for an open process when making such a significant change. It seems, from these students’ perspective at least, there are questions they would like to have answered about the services Gmail will provide before a … Continue reading Gmail.edu

No Wookies in the classroom

By AMH

This article via Wired about whether geeky decorations turn women away from computer science has me conflicted. The article is definitely provocatively titled, “Star Trek Stops Women From Becoming Computer Scientists”, but the underlying study being reported shows that sitting in a room with Star Trek decor correlates with women responding more negatively to a survey of attitudes about computer science, with men not showing the same effect. As always with this type of study, there are things to poke at – would other strongly themed decors have the same result? What about a non-neutral room with lots of academic … Continue reading No Wookies in the classroom

Math as Art

By AMH

A Mathematician’s Lament was Slashdotted weeks ago, but I finally sat down and read my way through the whole thing. Lockhart, a math professor who returned to elementary and high school math education, writes about the fundamental flaws he sees in how we approach teaching math, particularly at the youngest levels. He opens with two stories that describe in his view what music and art education would be like if they were taught in the same way math is taught: I was surprised to find myself in a regular school classroom— no easels, no tubes of paint. “Oh we don’t … Continue reading Math as Art

T-minus 12 days

By AMH

Thoughts on the approaching semester: Syllabi – There are two philosophies here, it seems. Go bare bones – who are you, what book is being used, and when are the exams. Or go all out – detailed policies on late homeworks, attendance, academic honesty, etc. and day-by-day breakdowns of every class meeting for the entire semester. I’ve been veering more and more towards the later, but that is really not my style. I’m thinking about how I can start to streamline. For now, I think it is going to vary by courses – low-level courses predominantly taken by freshman or … Continue reading T-minus 12 days

Science in the university

By AMH

In response to Harvard releasing its internal report on their educational objectives, Steven Pinker discusses some reservations, more with the high-level phrasing than the specific steps to be taken, it seems [via Arts & Letters Daily]. Of particular interest – even at Harvard the debates about requiring science, how much science, and of what types for what reason take place. Pinker laments that the current argument for science education seems to have a greater requirement that the applicability to social issues be made the focus than other fields find required of themselves. While it isn’t a full argument, I thought … Continue reading Science in the university

Next up, Survivor: Grad School…..

By AMH

I was chatting with a friend about life, and the topic rolled around to issues of grading and busting cheaters. Which led me to speculate about how awesome it would be if that awful reality show “Cheaters” was about academic dishonesty. Which led me to write the following: CHEATERS: ACADEMIA Scene: at bucolic college campus, a professor calls up a PI. Prof: “I think I have a case of cheating, but I need evidence.” PI: “Give me the details – I’ll build up a dossier.” Night vision camera shots of the professor at the computer using Turn-it-in PI: “These cases … Continue reading Next up, Survivor: Grad School…..

But from whence the five minute rule?

By AMH

If I could afford to add any more books to my to-read list, I would pick up a copy of Clark’s Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University, reviewed here by The New Yorker [via Arts & Letters Daily] Tracing the history of modern academia and its traditions forward from their roots in 18th century Germany (including the ancient roots of faculty balking at oversight and bureaucratic instrusion, such as early requirements that faculty publically list what courses they are taking in a course catalog), Clark uses the idea of charisma to talk about the sources of authority … Continue reading But from whence the five minute rule?

Not BASIC Enough

By AMH

David Brin laments the lack of simple built-in programming environments on personal comptuters [via Slashdot]. I too remember learning to program on my Apple IIe – if you turned on the computer without a programmed disk in the drive, you fell into BASIC, and I copied many listigs out of magaziines or books and played around with their functionality. Brin is entirely right – this type of built-in, no-fuss programming environment got a lot of us started. Now, there are still command-line options. My programming students download Java off the Sun website and compile and run from the DOS prompt, … Continue reading Not BASIC Enough