February 1, 2008
An Instructors' Blog - Teaching Praxis in Soc 203
Post on February 1 2008
Created on Friday, 02/01/2008 8:39 AM by Robert Hanneman
I was going to write a note after our class on Tuesday, but I noticed a sore throat by the end of class, and by the time I'd walked home, I had a full case of whatever it is that is going around. Feeling better now, thanks.
As I watch the class, I'm impressed by the extent to which most folks seem to be "engaged." That is, most of the time, most everyone is actually involved in doing something related to the tasks. The other good thing that I'm liking is that there seems to be a lot of "peer teaching" going on -- fancy word for helping others.
The format of the class was intended to keep us active, and interacting with each other and the problem. I had hoped that the dyads and teams would foster "peer-led instruction." And, I wanted to emphasize real-world like experiences of working with research data that builds confidence, a willingness to experiment, and practical skills. So far, I think it's going quite well with regard to these.
There is a down-side, or at least the potential for one. I'm relying on you to read and master the text-book sort of material -- I hardly even mention the text in class. This could be a problem, because reading and mastering the text is really important. Even though I've tried to design good exercises that raise most major issues, just working problems doesn't provide the overall "framework" and may leave out things that you should know, but aren't immediately needed to solve the problem. I hesitate to do much lecturing to reenforce these basics, because it takes away from our interaction and practice time.
I guess that, as the instructor, I'd really like 5 or 6 hours a week -- some for lecture/reading review and even more for lab practice. Given that we only have the 3 hours, I've decided to emphasize the lab side.
A word on the technology, since that's what I'm supposed to be talking about. The digital white board is a really neat tool. I still struggle with how to get the thing started and how to get a plain white background to write on. Last meeting, the class almost came to a halt when the battery in the pen device went dead. I had a reluctance to go back to the regular white-board and markers -- I really llike the digital board.
I need to learn how to save and retrieve the white-board notes. Apparently, we can save these, and they can be posted to the website. That could be useful for folks who wanted to review the lecture/discussion part.
Everyone seems to have mastered logging into teamspot, and showing and sharing. I'm making progress on mastering the controls for the projection devices. So far, the approach of showing the same content at both projectors and the white board simultaneously seems to work -- a sort of immersion. The next thing to master is how to get multiple different content showing on different devices.
Comments
Hope you're feeling better Dr. H. I am really amazed with the potential of the technology we are using. I think it could make the lecture experience much more seemless and accesable to all students. However, as WE ALL learn this new technology during class time, it does hindered and halt the lecture and learning processes. To addresses your comments from 1/28, as a student, my concerns revolve around absorbing and understanding all of lecture and adding the lecture material to already prepared readings and studying. But when we have multiple interuptions throughout the class, I feel this hinders this processes and may even add anxiety to the learning process - because we may have to rush through material or stay past 7PM. I think I would also like 5-6 hours a week of instruction (spread-out of course) - three hours a week is not very condusive to graduate study. But I think we'll make up for those lost hours by bombarding our professor with questions - I hope not too many.
Friday, 02/01/2008 10:10 AM by James Love
I just wanted to share my experience with this material so far. I am having a very hard time moving through this material at the same pace I am used to. I have not had a math class in many years, and nearly all of my learning for the last decade or so has been in the form of words, not numbers! So I am finding that analyzing these charts and converting the numbers into ideas is a very tedious, but clearly important and neccessary. If any of you feel the same way, you are not alone!
In terms of the collaborative learning in class, I love it. It frees up my concerns with what I don't know and focuses my attention to learning new ideas in a non-competetive manner. I have no problem reading the textbook on my own time. I look at that work as supportive to the main ideas and logic of statistical analysis which Dr. Hanneman deals with in class. For a non-number person, having a class devoted to undersatnding main ideas and logic is invaluable because it provides context to the more dense and generally unfamiliar terrain of the text.