Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!homxb!mtuxo!mtune!codas!usfvax2!pdn!reggie From: reggie@pdn.UUCP (George W. Leach) Newsgroups: comp.edu Subject: Re: Ph.D.'s and Teaching Message-ID: <2060@pdn.UUCP> Date: 18 Jan 88 18:39:06 GMT References: <2144@uvacs.CS.VIRGINIA.EDU> <115@mccc.UUCP> <3469@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu> <429@sdcc15.UUCP> <261@tmsoft.UUCP> Reply-To: reggie@pdn.UUCP (George W. Leach) Organization: Paradyne Corporation, Largo FL Lines: 68 In article <261@tmsoft.UUCP> mason@tmsoft.UUCP (Dave Mason) writes: [lots of good stuff deleted here] >PRETTY BORING. I like a VERY loose teaching style... maybe some notes, >or a few minutes before class (often in the halls on the way to class :-) >thinking about what I want to cover, then a willingness to go on a >tangent if it seems helpful in class. Yup, me too. Too often I find that the person who is so organized and prepared with lots of view graphs, etc..... can not deviate from the prepared script. Too often you find TAs teaching this way. I have also run into this in industry class settings. The overhead projector is one piece of equipment that I absolutely hate with a passion. If one uses it rather than the black- board because it is easier for everyone in the roon to see, fine! But if you are just going to put stuff up there and expect the students to copy it into their notes, why not just provide a handout. Why waste time with all the writing :-) Seriously, I also hated it when people gave me a handout to go with the viewgraphs. I can get just as much out of a book. The classroom is time for interactions to take place. Lectures can be delivered via other media, including computers. How often is it true that if a student simply reads one chapter ahead in the book, then s/he has effectively consumed the next class without ever attending? The classroom, texts, and assignments all need to fit nicely together, not simply duplicate each other. That is boring! > Today for example, I had a fairly (unusually :-) solid idea of what I >wanted to talk about, and how I was going to present it. Somebody >asked a question (looking for an example), and after about 15 seconds >thinking, I structured the lecture around an example I had just thought >of which, I feel, made for a much better class than the one I had >planned. I like this guy! Although I tried to have a rough outline and some rough notes available, if we went out on a tanget (but not astray) great! It showed that someone was interested in the class (and hopefully everyone else). It is a bit more of a strain on the instructor because it can show weaknesses, but what the heck you can't know everything. >A couple of times I have taken notes that students have taken >down in class, and photocopied them, and taught from those notes the >following year (or 2, or 3, or ...). This is very seductive, as it is >MUCH easier to do, but the resulting lectures seem very stiff, and >rigid, and, well, ... LECTURES, rather than classes. Even the classes >that had seemed so bright and alive the first time, seem dryer when >taught from the notes. I tried to restructure what I would teach and try to bolster my available information each semester. I hopefully improved upon those mistakes and weak areas with each semester. As you said, it was extremely easy to just pump out the notes and/or assignments from the previous semester (I had it all online). But I didn't feel like I was doing my job if that was all I did. I constantly tried to find new examples, more information, better assignments, etc.... if nothing else so that it wasn't boring to me :-) Oh, by the way, I was only an adjunct teaching nights. I also worked full time while I was doing this. -- George W. Leach Paradyne Corporation {gatech,rutgers,attmail}!codas!pdn!reggie Mail stop LF-207 Phone: (813) 530-2376 P.O. Box 2826 Largo, FL 34649-2826