New technologies - YouTube

YouTube is just phenomenal for teaching. All it takes is borrowing a digital camera from media services, buying a mini-DV cassette, making a short film:
e.g. see below Dr. Ali Dinar speaking on the crisis in Darfur and targeting of civilians... an undergrad who knows how to use imovie (or learn yourself- it takes 30 minutes to learn the basics) and then you just post the video to YouTube in about 3 minutes. The benefit is that now the clip is easily available to embed in your blog (as I have done) but also to share with others (in fact, with practically the entire world- the community of Sudanese using YouTube, for example, is apparently enormous judging by the quantity and viewing of music videos from Sudan being posted). Imagine teaching a music class on Sudanese music and having 1000s of clips available.

NYTimes series on teaching and learning

The New York Times regular series on classroom observations by high school teachers is a great source of inspiration for people interested in learning and techniques for improving learning. Here's how Bill Evans describes classroom discussion:

My classes are a kind of feudal democracy. In the classroom, I reign – at least theoretically. I pretty much organize things and direct, piping in as needed. But I generally try to get the kids to run the show. I try to draw important points that I want made out of their own observations and opinions, and many times they come up with truly brilliant things about the text that I’ve never even considered. During discussion, everybody gets to speak. If faced with a sea of hands, I order the flow. “O.K., you, then you, then you, then you, then me, then you, then you.” When faced with less than a sea or no sea, I call on people. That’s the beauty of the highlighted passages. During discussion, I can always ask a quieter participant to pick something they’ve highlighted and share it. I really try not to put people on the spot. I tend to warn people before I call on them. If a student really has nothing to say, I try to get him or her off the hook. “You know what? Think about it, and we’ll come back to you.”

I like that line, "Think about it, and we'll come back to you." A nice one to commit to memory. I remember a visiting prof. who gave a seminar at SCU... after every question from the audience, no matter what it was, he always started with a riff on, "That's a great observation, and..."

What is the virtue of "coherence" in the Core Curriculum?

Would you know it when you saw it? Surely incoherence is when a hundred courses qualify to meet a core learning objective, and the instructors never get together to work out a common purpose, never see each other's syllabi, and do not think, when designing their courses, about tying their course to other core courses. The courses are fantastic, no doubt. But cohere, they do not (Yodaspeak).

If you are interested in what a "structure document" looks like, here is a nice, clear example from the University of Wyoming. Does it inspire you?

By the way... here's a nice rationale for World Civilizations... rebuttals, anyone?

Assessment... do you want THIS one or THAT one...

ETS has a new assessment tool, called the "MAPP - Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress" Some kind of multiple choice test. And they even are offering an essay test that is graded by computer. Imagine that. (Here picture of old man sitting on rocking chair on front porch of midwestern town, smoking corncob pipe, as the automatic essay grading machine rolls by...."What in tarnation will they think of next?")

For a interesting discussion of assessment- mostly of the cranky negative kind- see the blog run by the Chronicle of Higher Education ; the links there will also take you to lots of other relevant discussions.

Where is the proposed structure?

Some faculty wonder where in the process do they get to see a proposed structure. The facetious answer: Right now. Each faculty member might be thinking about how to structure the core to best realize the learning outcomes that faculty members agree on as key, essential outcomes for every undergraduate. A blank piece of paper, and you may craft your own blueprint. Do not be a Howard Hughes with his Spruce Goose though. Be realistic. We are a real university, after all... The long-winded answer: The right way to proceed, in revising a core curriculum, is to discuss and agree upon a set of learning outcomes that will then later be the basis for discussion of structure. That is where we are now: agreeing upon learning outcomes. After agreement, we move to thinking about proposals for structure.

Edwired comments on scrapbooks for Western Civilization

I enjoy reading this guy a lot, and he has such pertinent things to say, including recently a confirmation of my longstanding belief that techniques like scrapbooks and portfolios, while generating better learning, do so at enormous costs...

Yet another slightly different approach to Western Civ

Those who read this blog regularly know that last semester in my introductory survey course I had my students produce scrapbooks of their learning throughout the semester. As a teaching and learning tool, my approach worked very well. As a group my students produced much better work and, based on my end of semester survey, they enjoyed the scrapbook approach more than others they had experienced in prior history classes. A number of them talked about how the format of the scrapbook really helped them to tie together everything they'd learned during the semester--a result that pleased me very much.

But I'm not going to do it again. Read more...

What kind of communication skills do we want? Oral in addition to written?

A faculty member writes:

Your email, in particular the Habits of Mind component of your pdf, reminded me Stanford now requires an oral component in addition to a written component in the equivalent of their core, in, as I vaguely recall, a two quarter Writing and Rhetoric Program, supported by their Oral Communication Program at Stanford (see http://ctl.stanford.edu/Oralcomm/ ). The program helps students with their presentations, among other things.

It does seem to me that SCU might consider incorporating an oral communication component in part of any new English 2 course for the core, or somewhere else. Oral communication in addition to written communication is becoming increasingly important in our world.

What kind of communication skills do we want? Oral in addition to written?

A faculty member writes:

Your email, in particular the Habits of Mind component of your pdf, reminded me Stanford now requires an oral component in addition to a written component in the equivalent of their core, in, as I vaguely recall, a two quarter Writing and Rhetoric Program, supported by their Oral Communication Program at Stanford (see http://ctl.stanford.edu/Oralcomm/ ). The program helps students with their presentations, among other things.

It does seem to me that SCU might consider incorporating an oral communication component in part of any new English 2 course for the core, or somewhere else. Oral communication in addition to written communication is becoming increasingly important in our world.