She was accepted to Teach For America after an arduous interviewing process and today she accepted her position in a rural area outside of Honolulu. She will be gone for two years teaching special ed. Congrats to her! She’s very excited and I’m confident she will do an amazing job. It will be sad to see her go. I’m staying mainland to look for a job here in Kansas. I can’t wait to hear about her experiences. Maybe I can convince her to start a blog 
Posts Tagged education
My lady-friend is headed to Hawaii!
Radical experiment in teaching – World Simulation, Twitter, and media literacy
Last week Dr. Wesch and his class ran the 5th(?) successful World Simulation for Intro to Cultural Anthropology here at K-State. I was there helping get things set up and video taping the action. Every year the World Sim always proves to be an awesome experience. Having taught for Dr. Wesch twice and guided more than 60 students in creating their own culture to let loose at the simulation, I can attest for the simulation’s effectiveness. Afterwards, students always give it rave reviews. It’s valuable to be able to roughly simulate world history and get the feeling that you are a part of something rather than a casual observer (having taken the class back in 2004 and participated in the simulation, I can attest to that as well).
To get a better idea of what happens during the simulation, this year Dr. Wesch introduced Twitter and Jott to the class which they used to post updates on the status of their cultures as the simulation unfolded. I was amazed at how quickly the students adopted it. Anyone who has tried to explain any type of social media to someone who isn’t familiar with them knows how difficult it can be (if anyone has tips on how to do this effectively, please let me know!). I’m always surprised by the lack of (new) media literacy among my peers here at K-State. So to see a class of 300 students or so really take in a new technology and use it so effectively was great! Granted not all 300 of them were tweeting but Twitter was integrated into the simulation in such a way as to promote media literacy (IMO) through various levels of interaction; some were tweeting, some were reading, others were being told what was being twittered, and the stream was displayed on a huge projection screen in the front of the room thus you couldn’t miss it even if you wanted to.
Integrating social media into the simulation seems like a move in the next direction of taking it completely mobile and outside the walls of the classroom. I can’t wait to visit in the next few years and see students running around campus using their mobile phones to communicate that their culture has just been colonized or that they are forging a rebellion against their colonizer.
Dr. Wesch just released a quick recap of the simulation roughly synced with the Twitter stream, you can check it out here, or you can watch it below. Also, I think he’s still editing the footage, but the final video which will be shown in class should be up sometime soon, so keep an eye out.
Bob Stein visits K-State, talks about Sophie
Yesterday, Bob Stein visited us here in Manhattan to talk about, among other things, the future of the book in the digital age. Bob is the director for the Institute for the Future of the Book which he dubbed a “think and do-tank” that is interested in exploring the emerging forms of and potential changes to intellectual discourse. They are working on an interesting piece of software called Sophie, which Bob demonstrated for us. From what I saw, Sophie is like PowerPoint on steroids but, given my disdain for PowerPoint, making such a comparison may be inappropriate. To give a cursory overview from my own perspective, Sophie allows you tremendous freedom in making, well, anything you want. It is deliberately open source so users can tweak it however they choose. Additionally, on the front-end it is easily customizable and malleable. I just downloaded it last night so I haven’t been able to thoroughly check it out yet, but it seems like a very valuable tool for the classroom. It allows you to aggregate all kinds of media formats making for a truly rich presentation. Also, it has wonderful commenting functionality that could be used to encourage participation and interaction between students. Indeed, Bob himself said he valued “writing in the margins” and Sophie really allows this to happen. Anyhow, I won’t say too much more because it’s probably best if you just check it out for yourself and play around with it. Bob said they are working on creating a browser plugin for Sophie, but that it won’t be out for a little while. It will be great to see Sophie move onto the Internet, I’m excited to have Sophie’s user-friendly interface and functionality on, say, a blogging platform.
Check it out, lemme know what you think. I’m gonna play around with it some more and I’ll do the same. Oh, and I don’t know if anyone is familiar with This Spartan Life (I just learned about it yesterday), but Bob was interviewed on it and his introduction is hilarious (the interview is good too).
What makes a good exam?
What do you all think? I just finished taking a couple exams today and I noticed something: neither of them taught me anything (besides how to take tests and that there is always a correct answer). The common paradigm seems to assume that all learning takes place in the classroom before the exam and that test day is strictly for regurgitation of the material you learned before the exam; no learning should take place. You either know it or you don’t. And if you don’t, tough.
Personally, I think this method is counter-productive. I’ve taken classes where, although you needed to study, the exam questions were worded in such a way as to reinforce further learning of the material. If you don’t know the “answer” immediately, there are enough hints in the question to conjure up those hard-to-retrieve memories which leads to further rehearsal and ultimately better learning. Oddly enough, these exams were often the “easiest,” but I feel like I learned the most from them. It seems like “typical” exams reinforce argumentation and competition – a definite reflection of American culture (it probably extends beyond this). Is this beneficial? If our current testing method does indeed prepare us for a cultural environment characterized by argumentation and competition then perhaps the current method is the best, from a preparatory standpoint.
But I argue that a more cooperative format is more beneficial in the long run. I had a good conversation the other day about cultural differences in debate. One of my professors was talking about his friends in Papua New Guinea favor a more cooperative style of discourse. The simplicity of his example was perfect. Among his friends, first of all, direct confrontation or the display of an individual opinion is uncommon. Indirection seems to be more common. For instance, if there is a situation of A vs. B, each letter representing a difference in opinion, and B wants A to come over to the B side, B will exercise indirection and slowly try to convince A to come over to B. The whole process is slow, cooperative, and consensual. In contrast, here in the United States, we tend to have our opinions and stick to them. Recently we’ve seen such a display on television with the presidential candidates. Little to no effort is made to come to a consensus. It is always “I am right, you are wrong.” I question what the impact is of such binary, competitive discourse on American culture. Would a more cooperative, consensual discourse be better? I’m not trying to say that fixing our testing methods will magically transform the nature of political discourse, or any other discourse for that matter. But I think it’s worth considering and elucidating the relationships between these things…. what do you all think? Any thoughts about testing methods and how this influences/reflects American culture? Any ideas for change?
Observations from a concerned student
I thought I’d post some general complaints/concerns I have when it comes to teaching. I have a particular class this semester that embodies many of the things I feel are counter-productive to an effective learning environment. The class is an upper-level psychology course comprised mostly of juniors and seniors. The approx. number of students is 70, half of which didn’t show up today. Often, poor attendance reflects poorly on the students themselves. We are often the focus of criticism when it comes to “poor” performance. Our bad test grades represent our lack of trying. However, I don’t feel this is fair. Why is the teacher free of blame? Perhaps a better question is why does anyone have to be blamed at all? Why can’t we all (teacher included) take on the role of students and learn together (Kumbaya). It’s within the teacher’s power to modify the learning environment. This can drastically improve the learning experience and probably help engage students. Below I’ve listed many of the things I think are working against my psych professor and the learning environment he is attempting to create. Many of these observations apply to other “bad” classes I’ve taken in the past, so this could be considered a general list of complaints, observations, etc. with regard to education.
1. Ineffective introduction. First communication teacher has with the students is a sigh. ::sigh:: “So, how is everybody?” Sending the message that he would rather be somewhere else other than in the classroom teaching.
2. Haphazard rehash. He attempts to recap the previous class period, but fails miserably. He uses no visuals, just quick verbal summary filled with speech disfluencies (“uh,” “um,” etc.). Very little is gained from this. Granted, there is some benefit of such a review, but considerably more could be gained from slowing down and putting more effort into the review if his true intent is to improve our retention and comprehension.
3. PowerPoint slides FULL of text. Images are rare. No way to distinguish one slide from the next, which prevents memory chunking and ultimately the effective learning of the material. Also, when lecturing over so much text there is a competition of media. Do we read the slides? Or do we listen to the prof? Also, just so you know, we can read faster than you can speak. You’re better off using little text and relevant pictures to drive your points home.
4. Irrelevant tangents that seem to bolster the prof’s own ego rather than benefit the learning environment. Represents an inability to take the perspective of the students.
5. Little to no student involvement. The overarching theme of the classroom is one of authority/obedience. The typical lecture format. This isn’t inherently doomed, but in a class of 70 (though, on avg only about 50 show up), there is more opportunity to involve students in the discussion. And with the class being an upper-level psych class, you’d think the prof would respect the knowledge of his students, most of whom have been in college for 3 or 4 years. To not interact with upper-level students in a relatively small class, in my opinion, is patronizing. We’ve worked hard to get out of the sandbox. We deserve the opportunity to speak our minds and grapple with the ideas being presented to us in an open atmosphere of collaboration and co-learning.
6. Inflexibility when it comes to students’ questions and incorporating them into the flow of the class. Much of the time, students are made to feel stupid for asking questions. There is an overall sense of annoyance, portrayed through the prof’s facial expressions and body language. Students’ questions are never entertained longer than absolutely necessary. They only serve as derailments of the planned lecture. Each class period has a point A and point B. If point B isn’t reached, the prof makes some comment about needing to “make up for lost ground” in later classes or something to that effect. Questions only serve to deter us from reaching point B. For example, I contested a point made in class and the prof responded with a rebuttal that I felt didn’t adequately answer my question; so I pushed further. We went back and forth (civilly) for a while when some students got involved. I addressed their comments but felt like we weren’t focusing on the point of my argument. After a while you could obviously tell not only the teacher but the other students were getting annoyed by my “difficult” behavior. I eventually gave up and let him continue his lecture.
7. Absence of questions. This works into #5. Hardly ever are questions posed to the class. We have class activities but they don’t require us to talk or even interact with each other. It’s the prof speaking, the students listening.
I know I’m leaving some things out, but here are some of the main qualms I have with this class and education in general. I’d love to hear other perspectives on this, or other examples, or ways you think these things can be improved!
*oh and for a humorous aside, sitting behind me just now were two professors having coffee together. As they got up to leave, one guffawed to the other, “I bet your students don’t even know what’s going on!” He patted the other on the back and they both exited to coffee shop grinning.
Crisis of significance and the future of education
My adviser, Michael Wesch, just published an insightful article about the state of education. I won’t go into terrible detail about it here. I’ll let you all read it for yourselves – it’s definitely worth it. He makes a poignant critique about the lack of vision and the overwhelming myopia that characterizes education today. Of course, I agree with him.
He introduced the provocative book Teaching as a Subversive Activity to me a couple of years ago and from there I’ve jumped head first into the world of media ecology. It couples very nicely with anthropology. Not to shamelessly inflate Wesch (he is deserving of it though), but the environment he creates in his classes is so effective in helping educe the potential in his students that I measure every class I take against his.
It amazes me when I enter a classroom environment that gives no indication of having changed in the past, hmm, decade? The addition of PowerPoint is hardly an exception when the professor reads from the slides; it’s just a visual representation of the notes she/he would use anyways. It in no way adds positively to the learning environment other than reducing spelling errors in the students’ notes. The emphasis here is heavily on content rather than form. Multimedia learning environments, in my experience and when used appropriately and effectively, are much better.
However, there is a continuum. Just using videos to use them doesn’t fly. Teachers should ask themselves “Can I express what I want to express better with video than by just saying it?” Each medium used in the classroom is better at conveying certain messages than others. For example, visual media are better at conveying emotions. They are more expressive. Text media are better at conveying information, facts, the raw material most teachers focus the most on. They are more informative (but this doesn’t mean they are the most important). This isn’t to mention the medium of the spoken word between not only the students and teacher but between the students themselves. I am a strong advocate of Wesch’s definition of teachers as co-learners. Teachers should be moderators, leaders, students; not lecturers. I think when teachers see themselves this way and begin practicing this behavior we will see a gradual flattening of the master/slave relationship that is implicit in many learning environments.
There is some great conversation going on about this topic over at mediatedcultures.net. Come share your thoughts!
Teachers embracing technology
In contrast with my previous post, today has actually been a refreshing day regarding pedagogy. I’ve been asked to help a sociology professor here on campus set up a blog and a netvibes universe for the students in her class. I just spent an hour or so in her office going over the various aspects of blogging and netvibes, showing her how to use them and all that jazz. I’m excited to see how her students take on creating their own blog. We did it in Digital Ethnography and it proved to be a very effective teaching tool, not to mention it gave the students an opportunity to really collaborate outside the classroom (OMG! Students work outside the classroom?!…. I know, right?). In her class, the students are split into groups and are supposed to research the various roles of women in different parts of the world (I think? She hasn’t given me a lot of detail quite yet). Does anyone have advice for her/me that might make this work a little better? She was open to my suggestion that she might want to slightly modify her approach to the class so instead of turning in assignments to her on paper, students can just post them to the blog.
The state of higher education
Ok, so I have to vent about this. Test grades were posted today for my cognitive psychology class. I didn’t do as well as expected. In fact, in terms of my own standards I did poorly. Considering I made a point to study for this test almost everyday (no there is no hyperbole there) for two weeks in advance to ensure my test grade would rise from the first exam, I am fairly upset. Not to get into specifics of my GPA and my academic performance, but I certainly take pride in my own academic achievement. I am by no means a genius. I have worked very heard to reach the upper echelon of my class and for the past 4 years my academic performance has reflected that. However, this semester I have encountered a situation where it seems no matter how hard I work, I cannot produce the same caliber performance as I have been able to produce many times in the past. I let the first exam slide, citing my own lack of preparation. But when I performed poorly on the second exam, an exam I tirelessly prepared for, I knew something was wrong.
I requested to speak with the professor. He and I discussed the exam (well actually it was me looking at my test in silence most the time while he showed me my answers on his computer with ostensible annoyance that I, a student, would challenge his authority as a teacher). A couple of the questions I got incorrect were obvious blunders and I recognized that. It happens. But the other questions I got wrong had such varying degrees of ambiguity that I was astonished he didn’t recognize it. I stopped to inform him that I was especially worried because I am usually a stellar student and my poor performance on his exams is very atypical. He responded with hardly a constructive comment. “You just over-thought the questions.” He proceeded to tell me that I might know too much and that my own intelligence was getting in the way of my performance on his exams.
Wait, what?
So you’re saying that because I’m too smart, that I am going to do poorly on your exams? Is that counter-intuitive to anyone else? Just to make a brief comment here: I don’t think I’m too smart at anything… but I will recognize that I enjoy school and believe that if you put all your effort into something, you will see results. The look of confusion on my face had to of been noticeable. I replied stating that if that was the case then something is wrong with the system (the “system,” I know I know… but you get my point). Exams are suppose to reflect the intelligence level of students to some degree with regard to the content being covered. I was totally unaware that knowing the content too well would be cause for a poor grade. Granted, I’m assuming he actually meant what he said and that his comment was authentic. He may have told me that to shut me up so he could get on with his day… I wouldn’t put that past him or many other professors (not all but most). Assuming that, his remark would be utterly patronizing. So either way it’s F-ed up. When I told him that I had set a goal of achieving academic honors and that I planned to apply to graduate schools in cultural anthropology he simply told me that graduate schools don’t really care about GPA or graduation honors and that I should focus on getting experience and doing well on the GRE! :::fuming::: Ok, I know GPA isn’t everything but this guy couldn’t even appreciate not only my personal goal but that I planned to go to graduate school in a field entirely different than his (and that the state of the economy in the US is increasing competition for applying to graduate programs).
Surely such broad generalizing doesn’t have a place in the scientific discipline of psychology. Although it appears that many psychologists seem to think their research with American college students generalizes to the entire world. So maybe it does.
Moreover, we came across a question that, in my opinion, was so ambiguous that he should have thrown it out. I stated my case to an expressionless face of pedagogical rigidity. He hardly entertained the idea and, despite my demonstrating that I obviously knew the material and could make inferences beyond the content given, refused to even consider awarding me the points for the question.
When I realized I wasn’t going to get anywhere with this guy, safe in his ivory tower of academia, I decided to leave. Not only was I pissed, but even more so, I was disappointed. Disappointed in the reality that this “teacher” wouldn’t even consider the opinions of his student. Wouldn’t consider making any exceptions or accept that multiple choice tests aren’t the best way to measure knowledge. His inflexibility with respect to his own pedagogy represents everything that is wrong with the state of higher education. The message is absolutely clear: listen, be quiet, obey.
