A little bit of positive news comes from economics? Jobless claims failing. Mortgage rates at historic lows. So this Christmas, remember that all those gifts you can afford to give (and get) comes primarily from our improved standard of living. (Yes, even the poor are getting richer).
To get you in the mood this season, take a gander at my Christmas Poem.
Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!
12.23.2011
12.14.2011
Creating an environment for classroom success, Part 2
As I stated in my last post, the goal of my web application development class is: To develop sufficient knowledge of web programming and e-commerce concepts to
successfully start a career as a web developer.
How can help facilitate success in their careers? There is the obvious knowledge component, which is a major part of my class. However, habits and virtues can make or break the long term success of my students. In this, Rand's ethics provides the perfect basis for developing the habits and virtues necessary.
To be successful, students need to be rational, productive, and proud. Students must actively try to understand and integrate concepts in a meaningful manner so that they can utilize those ideas later in their career. Rationality demands a respect for facts and a strict adherence to logic. Abstract integrative reasoning is necessary to apply knowledge to new situations. Students must also develop the habit of productiveness, consistently developing their knowledge in order to create web solutions to business problems. Productiveness is not just about hard work, although hard work can often help. Productiveness demands a focused effort to produce something of value. Lastly, students should produce work they are proud of. The results of their efforts should be something they want to show off - something they are excited they brought into existence - something that shows the best within them.
Below are some of the things I'm considering in my class to facilitate the adoption of these virtues. I'm always open to new ideas if you have them.
How can I encourage rationality?
1. Eliminate evaluations that depend on rote learning
2. Encourage abstract integrative reasoning with writing assignments
3. Require application of knowledge to real world situations
How can I encourage productivity?
1. Reward output, not time spent
2. Push them to create increasingly higher valued web solutions
3. Motivate them by keeping reality based and addressing real world problems
How can I encourage pride?
1. Give them a chance to fix their mistakes
2. Reward going above and beyond requirements
3. Do not provide a means for hiding in anonymity
While I could also identify Rand's other virtues of Independence, Justice, Integrity, and Honesty, those are often taken for granted in most classroom environments (I know... not all. But most). Those virtues are vitally important to success as well, but not interesting enough for me to write about today.
How can help facilitate success in their careers? There is the obvious knowledge component, which is a major part of my class. However, habits and virtues can make or break the long term success of my students. In this, Rand's ethics provides the perfect basis for developing the habits and virtues necessary.
To be successful, students need to be rational, productive, and proud. Students must actively try to understand and integrate concepts in a meaningful manner so that they can utilize those ideas later in their career. Rationality demands a respect for facts and a strict adherence to logic. Abstract integrative reasoning is necessary to apply knowledge to new situations. Students must also develop the habit of productiveness, consistently developing their knowledge in order to create web solutions to business problems. Productiveness is not just about hard work, although hard work can often help. Productiveness demands a focused effort to produce something of value. Lastly, students should produce work they are proud of. The results of their efforts should be something they want to show off - something they are excited they brought into existence - something that shows the best within them.
Below are some of the things I'm considering in my class to facilitate the adoption of these virtues. I'm always open to new ideas if you have them.
How can I encourage rationality?
1. Eliminate evaluations that depend on rote learning
2. Encourage abstract integrative reasoning with writing assignments
3. Require application of knowledge to real world situations
How can I encourage productivity?
1. Reward output, not time spent
2. Push them to create increasingly higher valued web solutions
3. Motivate them by keeping reality based and addressing real world problems
How can I encourage pride?
1. Give them a chance to fix their mistakes
2. Reward going above and beyond requirements
3. Do not provide a means for hiding in anonymity
While I could also identify Rand's other virtues of Independence, Justice, Integrity, and Honesty, those are often taken for granted in most classroom environments (I know... not all. But most). Those virtues are vitally important to success as well, but not interesting enough for me to write about today.
12.09.2011
Creating an environment for classroom success
In my web applications development class, I have created a goal for my students: to develop sufficient knowledge of web programming and e-commerce concepts to successfully start a career as a web developer.
To achieve expert ability, evidence from many fields suggests that we need at least 10,000 hours of sustained focused practice. Note the wording is sustained focused practice, not just experience or repetition of a skill. Instead, it's conscious practicing toward improvement. Although there are no agreed upon numbers for other levels, I suggest that 100 and 1,000 hours also offer plateaus in ability attainment. At the 1,000 hours of practice, individuals establish their skills in a specialization to be fully productive in most occupations. At the 100 hours of practice, individuals establish skills sufficient for entry level work. By 100 hours, most employees have established the basic vocabulary and conceptual understanding to function within a domain for continued growth. Without that basis, a new employee would be essentially worthless. Some businesses require a new employee to have at least a little experience in this field. Other employers might send new employees to 2-3 week training workshops (which takes approximately 100 hours). My goal is to accomplish that within my class - 100 hours of deliberate practice.
In my class, we meet for 3 hours every week for 15 weeks for a total of 45 hours. That means I need at least 55 more hours in out-of-class activities to reach the 100 hour mark. The classroom activities and homework should integrate to form a complete package driving the development of conceptual understanding and programming skills for web application development.
To make this happen, I plan in class to lecture on e-commerce and web programming skills for 1 1/2 hours per week, provide exercises and lab work for 1 hour per week, and review and discuss class topics an additional 1/2 hour per week. On their own time, students will every week read a chapter in the book for 1 hour, write two blog posts on class concepts in 1-2 hours, and complete web development assignments in roughly 1-3 hours.
To help supplement their education, I will record all of my lectures and make them available online for later referral. I will create short video clips on specific topics that might cause problems or that only a small set of students would be interested in learning. Furthermore, there are numerous free web resources that will be provided to the students. I will also maintain a Twitter feed that I will update with interesting links and commentary about current web development and e-commerce issues.
I have a number of other ideas on how to make this experience awesome, but I'm keeping a few of them under wraps for now. It should be a good semester though and I'm looking forward to it.
To achieve expert ability, evidence from many fields suggests that we need at least 10,000 hours of sustained focused practice. Note the wording is sustained focused practice, not just experience or repetition of a skill. Instead, it's conscious practicing toward improvement. Although there are no agreed upon numbers for other levels, I suggest that 100 and 1,000 hours also offer plateaus in ability attainment. At the 1,000 hours of practice, individuals establish their skills in a specialization to be fully productive in most occupations. At the 100 hours of practice, individuals establish skills sufficient for entry level work. By 100 hours, most employees have established the basic vocabulary and conceptual understanding to function within a domain for continued growth. Without that basis, a new employee would be essentially worthless. Some businesses require a new employee to have at least a little experience in this field. Other employers might send new employees to 2-3 week training workshops (which takes approximately 100 hours). My goal is to accomplish that within my class - 100 hours of deliberate practice.
In my class, we meet for 3 hours every week for 15 weeks for a total of 45 hours. That means I need at least 55 more hours in out-of-class activities to reach the 100 hour mark. The classroom activities and homework should integrate to form a complete package driving the development of conceptual understanding and programming skills for web application development.
To make this happen, I plan in class to lecture on e-commerce and web programming skills for 1 1/2 hours per week, provide exercises and lab work for 1 hour per week, and review and discuss class topics an additional 1/2 hour per week. On their own time, students will every week read a chapter in the book for 1 hour, write two blog posts on class concepts in 1-2 hours, and complete web development assignments in roughly 1-3 hours.
To help supplement their education, I will record all of my lectures and make them available online for later referral. I will create short video clips on specific topics that might cause problems or that only a small set of students would be interested in learning. Furthermore, there are numerous free web resources that will be provided to the students. I will also maintain a Twitter feed that I will update with interesting links and commentary about current web development and e-commerce issues.
I have a number of other ideas on how to make this experience awesome, but I'm keeping a few of them under wraps for now. It should be a good semester though and I'm looking forward to it.
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