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Teaching Matters (It really does!)

Items of general interest

• Learning 101 - A Student Guide to Effective Learning, on-line slides and full text (pdf 371kb), recorded presentation (exe 4.7Mb, 12 minutes).
• Teaching 101 - Some tips for educators.
• Mastery (ppt 125kb) - proceeding with a sense of quality.
• Critical thinking - Not to undervalue knowledge but what good is knowledge if it is not used properly?
  • Related to critical thinking, is the matter of holding unsubstantiated beliefs.
• Material Format - notes on establishing and maintaining an effective format for the development and presentation of technical material, including web related issues.
• Web Pages for Absolute Beginners Using Windows 95/98 and Microsoft Internet Explorer - These pages will show you how to make your own web pages using HTML code. All you need is Windows 95 or 98 and a browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape. You don't need any other software /programs They are designed for ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS but may also be used as a reference by anyone else! I have captured this site as a pdf file(538 kb) which you may fine useful for study purposes.
• See the Downloads page for engineering software and compilers, etc.
• Auditing Classes at M.I.T., on the Web and Free, from the New York Times. Also captured in pdf format (154kb). I strongly agree with the notion of making educational material freely available online. On 2002.10.07, www.planetpdf.com quotes Charles M. Vest, President, MIT:
  "And let us also resolve that our new technologies -- the Internet and the World Wide Web -- will be used as tools of empowerment and democratization on a global scale. Next fall, the MIT Faculty will launch its MIT OpenCourseWare initiative-a program that will make the basic educational materials for 2,000 of our subjects available on the Web -- available to anyone anywhere free of charge. Why would we do this? Because we see it as part of our mission: to help to raise the quality of higher education in every corner of the globe."
  I couldn't have said it better.
• Teaching and Learning Method in Higher Education: A Glimpse of the Future, by Tom Bourner and Steve Flowers - The aim of this article is to look at the future of teaching and learning methods (TLM) in higher education (HE) over the next decade. The purpose of the article is to develop a viable new vision of the future teaching and learning methods (TLM) that is preferable to the destination towards which we are currently headed. The chief conclusion for me is that the more 'high tech', the more 'high touch' is needed. Also captured in pdf format (pdf 105kb).
• Writing a Smashing Abstract Takes Practice!, by Barry Costa-Pierce, University of California - An Abstract is the most important part of a scientific paper. It not only summarizes the salient aspects of the paper but also lures a reader into reading it!
• The Mathematics Learning Centre at Memorial University of Newfoundland - check it out, they are doing some good stuff here that all universities would be wise to emulate. Go Sherry, et al !
• [JUMP]JUMP is an education program founded in 1998 by mathematician and writer John Mighton. They are a volunteer-based, registered charity committed to the advancement of education. JUMP believes that all children can be led to think mathematically, and that with even a modest amount of attention every child will flourish. By demonstrating that even children who are failing math or are labeled as slow learners can excel at math, they hope to dispel the myths that have caused us to neglect our children. And by offering inner-city children effective and consistent help in mathematics (and eventually reading and other subjects), they hope to break the cycle of ignorance that lies at the root of all poverty. Go John, Laura, Katie and all the volunteers! This is one TERRIFIC and ESSENTIAL initiative. It is aimed at the grade school level at the moment but I think that the underlying methodology is profoundly important to all levels, including the university level. Why I think it is important to us all.
• Modelling. Why do students have such a hard time going from word statement to solution formulation in engineering and science? Why do they have such a hard time constructing numerical solutions to differential equations? What is the internal process of constructing concepts internally? We view 'understanding' as our end goal. Yet we cannot quantify it; we don't know how it occurs internally. So is this not a ripe area for research and worthy of our attention? More thoughts on this.
• [BB]Capture your lectures using BBFlashBack (company Home Page). View my crude self playing 4 minute intro (exe 1.8Mb) . You can be up and running in a flash. It really IS easy!
• KhanAcademy - Terrific use of video as a learning tool. See the TED talk on this initiative.
• [DISTED]Web-based collaboration using Skype and Unyte. It's basically a free way to have a virtual meeting (audio + shared desktop).
• Teaching vs. Research: Myths and Reality. This is a collection of thoughts and articles motivated by the notion that we need a better balance in today's universities.
• Teaching news item in the McMaster Daily News "Stepping into the iPod age" (pdf version 35kb).
• OEDb - the Online Education Database. OEDb contains reviews of 1,004 programs from 86 accredited online colleges. Unlike other leading online education directories, the database only lists accredited online colleges so that you can be sure that these degrees will be respected by potential employers. The database allows you to sort reviews by program, college, or degree level. The library section will educate you on the basics of online universities. Check out the list of the Top 100 Open Courseware Projects. You will find a lot of useful resource info at this site.

On-campus Services

• Centre for Student Development
• Centre for Leadership in Learning (formerly the Instructional Development Centre)

Random Thoughts

• There is nothing quite like seeing the light go on in a student's eyes.
• "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, either way, you're right." - author unknown
• "I've always believed the world is what we make of it." - Elle, from the movie "Contact"
• May your passion for life generate a gentle breeze in your back.
• “If you understand something in only one way, then you do not really understand it at all. ... The secret of what anything means to us depends on how we have connected it to all the other things we know. This is why, when someone learns ‘by rote’, we say that they do not really understand. ... well connected representations let you turn ideas around in your mind, to envision things from many perspectives, until you find one that works for you. And that is what we mean by thinking!” - Marvin Minsky, The Society of Mind, Simon and Schuster, 1987.
• "If your requirement is to make a large amount of money, then your options in life are rather small." - Tim Berners-Lee, MIT, one of the originators of the web, Toronto Star article, 2002.06.17
• A Chinese Fable: A Loss May Turn Out to Be a Gain, reinforcing the notion that the only thing I am sure of is doubt!
• "The original 'three R's' were 'reading, reckoning, and rhetoric,' a triad known to alarmingly few pedagogues." -- Donald Chain Black, found at http://www.illinoisloop.org/quotes.html#selfesteem on 2007.06.26
• ...

Humour

• First Boy: I taught my dog how to speak last month.
  Second Boy: But I have never heard your dog speak.
  First Boy: I never said that he learned!