Recently in Teaching Notes Category

I've recently returned to the world of course development and am now working on some more mathematically oriented courses...which is nice because I can contemplate the minor teaching sins I and others commit in teaching "formalisms" (sometimes math, sometimes phonetics).

One I'm noticing is what I will Scrambled Notation Syndrome. Although mathematical formalism is a precise system, let's just say it comes in several dialects. In physics land, the acceleration measurement of "meters per second per second" can be indicated as either m/sec² or m•s^-2...depending on which textbook you're using or which methodology you are working with that day.

In linguistics, you also see variant symbols such as the "y" in yellow being transcribed as /y/ (U.S.) or /j/ (IPA) or even "consonantal i" in historical linguistics (this is i with arc below). There are rational reasons why these variants were selected, and at some point students may encounter them all if they stay in that major. Once you hit "expert" level, it's very easy to switch back and forth (it's almost transparent). Experts know which factor is the most important (the 2 exponent in the case of acceleration) and can ignore some of the rest as noise (or at least interpolate quickly).

The problem for students is that they are still working through the basics (usually with just the first textbook). Considerate instructors try to stick to one notation system, but it's surprisingly easy to slip. It's worse if you happen to be using more than one textbook in the same semester. In an online course, you should be able to circumvent it ahead of time, but I'm noticing that variations are creeping into graphics and video where it's harder to edit the inconsistencies out. Eek.

Speaking for myself I do introduce the common variations for different phonetic symbols. Not only because I know I'm likely to slip up once in the semester, but because it is a fact that students will have to adjust to working with variant symbols sooner or later. Still I have to brace myself for students who ask what that near equivalent is. For them it's still opaque.

One of my Listservs passed along a great resource on online poetry for many languages at http://lyrikline.org/. This is similar to the Penn State Scola service which allows instructors to access foreign language video.

For each language, you get to see one or more authors and a selection of his or her poems. Each poem shows the original text and includes an audio file (great for listening practice). You can also access the translation in English, but it's on a separate screen.

Real Audio required.

I'm prepping for a course (along with many other of my ITS collegues) and I'm noticing with a certain amount of chagrin how hard it is for me to break free of the old lecture model. If I'm an instructional designer and am stuck in this mind set, how hard is it for other instructors to move beyond the lecture model they grew up with?

But I am starting to rethink my methods

* At one point I was trying to figure out to explain a bunch of new vocabulary terms for students, some of which are actually categories. And then I remembered this thing called the CONCEPT MAP which lets you show relations between different items (such as categories). This is the semester I finally opened Omni Graffle and created a concept map for a class I teach. I even did it twice!

* Then I was trying to explain different tongue positions for different sounds (it's a linguistics course). I had done these images for a homework assignment last time, but what about INCLUDING IMAGES IN THE LECTURES? Oh my goodness, that might actually help student visualize the concepts.

* And last night, I was fretting that my lecture notes on dialect differences and was so long, I might not be able to have my students do some practice readings from some cool phonetic transcripts I found. But then it occurred to me...why don't I skip some of the details in class and jump into the practice exercises and discuss features as we encounter them. Maybe it would put the information in context. Maybe the students could read the rest before or after class. Could this be JUST IN TIME LEARNING or AUTHENTIC LEARNING?

This last one I am curious about since many students prefer a structured presentation, but I think the reading weird accents aloud might be more entertaining than my usual lecture.

This instructional design stuff is really very exciting when you think about it. I hope the students appreciate it as much as I do.

Here's a page full of quotes from one semester in a physics course.

http://complex.gmu.edu/people/ernie/witty/mohapatra.html

As you can see, few of them deal directly with physics... except maybe for

"It's like unshooting your anti-grandmother... well, I don't want to get sued by the anti-grandmothers association."

I had a (basic) physics class like this once, and truthfully all I remember now is

• "If you don't want to do physics...don't come and waste my time."
• "Coal power isn't as safe as nuclear power, but it can't wipe out the state of Pennsylvania if something goes wrong."
• "Speed and velocity are different...Velocity always has a vector."

And although I wasn't sure of what I was doing at the time, I did ace my subject SATs in them.

And the guy posting his quotes is still in physics. Something else must have stuck.

So...if you've never had a memorable course like this, you really are missing out on a very important educational experience. Even if you think you don't remember everything.

I'm teaching again, and so I'm in the midst of the first chore - planning the syllabus.

I’m sure every instructor at Penn States goes through some version of the process I describe below, but it’s worth noting how much administrivia may be involved, especially if you are not a full time instructor.

1. I do actually plan the learning objectives first, although I suspect most instructors think in terms of topics.

2. Now, I check with the Registrar academic calendar to see how many weeks I have alloted to me and when Thanksgiving comes. I enter dates into a spreadsheet. This year, I will lose a week at Thanksgiving (actually I had always canceled that Tuesday class anyway).

3. Now I determine which topics I teach, balancing breadth vs. depth. Every semester I go out of town for some reason, so I have to work around that. One time I assigned a field research assignment. This time it will be a "study period" for the midterm.

4. Final assignment? For phonology, I've settled on the take home exam. For other classes, it may be research papers, but now I'm requiring bibliographies in advance.

5. Percentages? Attendance = 10% always, but the others vary depending on the structure. I prefer to emphasize weekly assignments so that students have an incentive to keep up and not cram. Weekly assignments are about 40-50% and Final assignments are about 20-30%.

6. How many weekly assignments? The Penn State tradition tends to be to allow students to drop one, so I usually do 11 assignments with one drop (10 total). But that 11th assignment usually comes right before a paper is due, so you have to be a little generous there.

7. Grading - I do a 1000 points scale so I can cope with Excel. So point values for each assignment correspond with total percentages (this helps with grading weekly assignments). It gets a little weird for papers, so then I have to do a rubric and convert the letter grade points.

8. Adding boilerplate statements for academic dishonesty and access to disability services. Fortunately, I've gooten mine from the College of Liberal Arts and can cut and paste.

I usually get this done in early August. After that, I only have to develop lecture notes and assignments....