Some Questions about Student's Course Evaluation

There are many myths and truths about the value of student's evaluation of a course and of a teacher. There has been a long discussion on what can be done with the information given by these evaluations, from the complete dismissal to the partial adherence to the suggestions and criticism given. An excellent article is that of Ken Bain http://www.montclair.edu/academy/services/white.html which is summarized in his book "What the Best College Teachers Do." Bain's assertion that comments and ratings by students are useful providing valid and reliable information is based on an extensive literature. But the question has to be re-address to how these end of course evaluations are structured and to the care on design and intentionality that the questions in the questionnaire are addressing. The most important thing according to James Lang (On Course p 277) is to ask the student questions that will help understand their learning advances not about any personal characteristics of the individuals involved, being the student or the teacher.
In this respect it looks like the end of course evaluation forms have to be adapted for individual courses and have to be reviewed periodically to accommodate to new forms of instruction and instruction technologies.

How long does it take?

4 years! This is how long does it take to go through college to get a Bachelor's degree. It doesn't matter if the degree is in the social sciences, humanities, arts, business, or hard sciences and mathematics. The time it takes is independent of the subject of study, the time is (was) established based on the need for the individual to mature from the late teens to the early twenties. It was designed as a post-secondary step in order to get a level of understanding and maturity that allowed the graduate to participate in society as a creative member based on his "liberal arts education." It was about liberating the individual to perform outside of the "being employed" scheme and allowed the individual to pursue a "professional" career through the skill s/he had developed during those four years. That could be "arithmetic" to do accounting, or writing in the varied disciplines of our society. As the amount of knowledge started to accumulate many colleges and universities started to use those four years in a different way. Giving more time to the area of specialization the so called "major" and less time was devoted to the general education core studies, all because there was a time restrain of four years to obtain the degree.
Time has come to re-examine this practice and time has come to re-evaluate the purpose of a baccalaureate degree.
As far as one can define the general purpose of education one should say that the purpose is to prepare citizens that are active constituents and builders of our society. Participants in the self preservation of the human species and means through which our society improves. Of course one is taking for granted that if the individual is performing task necessary for humanity the utilitarian nature of these services will guarantee that his/her own personal survival will be protected and in some cases rewarded with a very comfortable standard of living. This utilitarian nature has made some "majors" more attractive than others and in some cases will determine the starting salary or income as the new graduate joins the career market.
The idea that education will improve the way in which one is useful to society and therefore will be more employable is what is driving many adults to go back to school and this new market is feeding the desire for many institutions and business to get in the adult education endeavor, be it for profit or not.
So as these new programs are being established for these new kind of students the "4 year paradigm" is not longer valid or useful and shorter models have been developed. The question one has to address here is if this new model with less time of study will be good enough for all the disciplines currently being addressed in colleges and universities.
The other question one might address is if these new programs that are working for adults returning to classrooms after some years out of high school is adaptable to students  with much less experience who have just finished secondary education. Could it be that with new technologies and strategies one could have some students getting a bachelor's degree in three or less years for some disciplines while for some others will take more than the standard four years?

Genius Mind at Work

Hope you enjoy looking at this video clip of Richard Feynman explaining the scientific method.

Reviewed Lang's book at Amazon

This is the book review I wrote for Amazon.
"On Course is right on". James M Lang is a straight forward thinker with many practical applications about teaching. As an experienced college professor I found the ideas not only refreshing but insightful. It is good to have a step by step analysis of how to organize a class, how to communicate content, and how to assess performance.
The book is On Course: A Week by Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teaching.
Highly recommend, not only for those who are going to teach for the first time but also for those of us that have been teaching for a long time (maybe too long LOL) and need a refresher crash course to up date us and review on some of the techniques, strategies, and philosophies of modern pedagogy and andragogy.

Siemens Energy: This is why we care

Multinational companies are working hard to be socially responsible at the same time they are making money. Some of course are doing it more than other especially when it is about the environment. Siemens is and has been a leader in the world in technology and now in environmental technology.

On Course by James M Lang

As the second title indicates this is a book that guides new teachers week-by-week through the first semester. Starting with some advise about planning and general strategies such as how to use Bloom's taxonomy for defining course objectives described in the syllabus, to how to use the taxonomy for assessment. It is a good read not only for new teachers but for experienced ones as well, due to its ample and comprehensive review. Lang goes beyond the traditional idea of paper organization even though he sure gives the traditional methods a solid support but also analyzes the new technologies like online course management systems that are becoming increasingly used at colleges and universities.
This is a video of the book:
http://youtu.be/0ZWWIdVl89Y

Note Taking The Lost Art of Listening

In today's world surrounded by technology and what it looks like an infinite source of information note taking has become a lost art. Even the Ivy League institutions are aware of this phenomenon and have been developing technique for good note taking. Harvard has the Harvard Note Taking System http://www.law.harvard.edu/current/student-services/taking_notes.pdf that it looks is based on the Standford University's Center for Teaching and Learning.

For many students the use of a laptop during class for taking notes has become standard, but is it really helping them with note taking? Or is it more likely a distraction? We are in a wireless environment and mobile devises can and normally do connect to the Internet making it almost impossible to concentrate on what is happening during class.

Some of the questions I have asked are:
How can I optimize the use of these devises during class in enhance learning?
Is there a way that technology can help learning during a lecture?
How can the synchronous-asynchronous teaching-learning dichotomy can be resolved with the use of technology?

Let's spend some time clarifying these questions. We know that the technology is here and is evolving continuosly. Some of the devices are short lived therefore developing a strategy based on those might be time consuming and not very efficient. The technology available is diverse so working on developing a strategy bases on a particular platform might not apply to a different platform and might make some students feel that they are being pushed to a side. Some technologies and platforms have so many different applications that keeping track of one is hindered by the presence of the others, such is the case with word procesors in a computer that has also email, and other social media softwar like facebook. At the same time the use of social media might enhance the motivation of the student to be on top of the issues discussed in the class.
The presence of the student physically and mentally in the class is another issue with the interaction between the teacher and the student. While the teacher might be present and focused on a particular topic -the one s/he is teaching the student on the other hand might be mentally far away either day dreaming or through the Internet on her/his computer in front of him/her.