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Archive for the '1' Category

Apr 01 2009

flitting home after last day of school proper

Published by flit under 1 Edit This

Well finally!

Ross + I are on the way home from Peterborough and I have been wanting to write my blog but couldn’t find a way in to do that. The dropdown box that allows us to change from our main blog to the second doesn’t show up in the Blackberry browser any more. I knew I’d managed to get here before but it took me a while to think of how. Spam, that’s how. Had just finished telling Stephanie that and an email notification of a new comment showed up. First time I have been glad to see spam in my inbox :)

It has been a busy day. Had class early for canLit today to allow time for our field trip to see sights in the area that are relevant to what we have been talking about this semester. Went to a small church that Catharine Parr Traill’s daughter was married at. Thomas Traill and several of the Stricklands are buried in its small cemetary. We also visited the cemetary where CPT is buried, and saw her house and also Margaret Laurence’s house. Oh and the Moodie homestead as well. I took a few pictures. Most didn’t turn out so well but will try to upload 1 anyway.

After the field trip, Ross and I still had hours to kill. Usually on Wednesdays we go back to the motel and he reads/naps while I futz around on the computer. But since we were coming home after class tonight that wasn’t an option so we went and had a leisurely lunch at the Panda Chinese buffet near the school. Then we went back to the campus and hung around there until it was time for class.

Today was the last time I saw my seminar students as a class and I wanted a good turnout for the evaluation forms and for exam review so I bribed them with pizza. No surprise there - it worked quite well :)

Now we are on our way home - still about an hour to go. Tomorrow Ross writes his exams and after that it will be time for me to knuckle down and knock off some essays

I’m looking forward to getting them DONE.

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4 responses so far

Jan 21 2009

Class dynamics

Published by flit under 1, Teaching Edit This

I teach 3 sections of the same course…. all students in the same semester of the same program.

You would think that the classes would be relatively similar…but they are SO not.

Part of it is due to class size, I think… both of my Monday classes are quite a bit bigger than the Tuesday group …. and attendance in the Tuesday group is abysmal compared to the other 2.

But some of it is just good ol’ dynamics - how many know (and like) each other, who the leaders are, and so on.

One of the biggest differences is the fact that the larger groups have more non-traditional/mature students. Those who are fully cognizant of how much it is costing to be there tend to take the whole experience a whole lot more seriously than do those whose families are paying - or even who are attending via student loans - they tend not to see it as “their” money until they have to pay it back. An awful lot of them that didn’t bother to do the reading I had assigned them … 4 whole pages that they had a whole week to read … I did a pop quiz re: the reading and people either did REALLY well, or really badly - hardly any in the middle.  Hopefully the next time I ask them to read something before class, they will be more likely to (yes, there will be another quiz) - but I’m not counting on it… few seemed at all concerned about their poor showing. *sigh*

Should be an interesting semester.

3 responses so far

Jan 16 2009

Benefits of Blogging

Published by flit under 1 Edit This

Complaints departmentWhen the topic of blogging first came up at the beginning of this school year, several people in my program made rather disparaging comments. Not about me, specifically - but about “bloggers“.

It is not something that is regarded highly - and really, considering that we are in a Public Texts program, the whole Internet thing doesn’t seem to be given much attention/respect overall - the focus is still very much paper & books for the most part. Which seems rather short-sighted to me, but anyway…. perhaps we’ll get more into it this term - some of the possible essay topics for one course do include Internet related topics.

ANYway - that’s not what I was going to write about - what I meant to write about are the benefits of blogging.

Being paid for it is nice, for starters. I make a lot more here than I ever am likely to on my only non-today blog, which has so far earned a whopping .01c :)

But aside from that - and from having met and made connections with some really cool fellow bloggers, and learned bunches about a wide variety of topics through Entrecard-dropping…

It is through blogging that I have been able to make contacts with a number of people that I otherwise would likely never interact with.

A while ago, for example, I got an email from someone at Inspiration.com asking if they could use some of what I’d written about their software on their site.

And today, I received an email from someone at Microsoft, who asked if we could set up a phone call to talk about teaching relational database to aviation management students.

Blogging also gives me a forum to express my frustration with certain companies that irk me, also … no idea if they actually ever find out about it  - but the fact that Microsoft and Inspiration both pay attention to blogs gives me hope that perhaps companies like Aviva and NorDon (or NCS) might someday pay attention also. Won’t hold my breath on that, but hey …. hope is good :)  

Now I shall have to make sure that I write really good blog posts detailing my experiences with both Aviva and NorDon, eh? Will do that later today, I think…. although probably post those over at flitting.org rather than here.

What has blogging done for you?

6 responses so far

Jan 10 2009

More about the high cost of textbooks

Published by flit under 1 Edit This

Textbooks are expensive!So… a couple of days ago I posted about the high costs of textbooks for university and college … and several people responded with ideas about mitigating those costs; thank you - I love it when people participate, and especially try to help others who are going back to school.

Today in our paper, the Toronto Star , there was a big article about one strategy that some students have been using to try to keep their costs down. Not a particularly good one though, I think …but I can certainly understand the temptation.

They are increasingly finding ways to get textbooks photocopied - for a whole lot less than it would cost them to buy the book. In at least one case, a shop actually has the books and sells photocopied and bound versions for a fraction of the cost of the text.

Not cool.

Of course it is not cool. But!

The article includes a bit from a publisher’s point of view, going on about how the additional resources that are provided to professors teaching from the textbook are part of the high costs of the book - sorry, but that struck me as a huge pile of malarky. Yes, there are a bunch of additional resources that are provided to me as an instructor - but honestly, they are pretty near useless to me. I have yet to teach using a textbook where the resources provided suited me in any way, really.

Even the solutions to the exercises in the textbooks I teach from are usually not helpful. The example syllabus they provide is invariably crap; the lecture notes are mere outlines that suit me not at all, and the online components that are offered to my students, while mildly useful and entertaining (we can do crossword puzzles, or play bastardized versions of popular tv game shows - hmmm… I wonder if they pay for that priviledge - or use flash cards to review concepts) - surely do not require - or justify - adding a huge mark up to the cost of each textbook.

They provide PowerPoints that are essentially crap - boring and, from one who also teaches PowerPoint, poorly done. And Blackboard cartridges that contain ~stuff~ like those PowerPoints that, if one makes the mistake of uploading them to  an active course, take HOURS to fix and adjust to hide those components that you don’t want, and move things to where you want them, etc.   I generally do upload them - to an inactive course shell - and then just move what I want from there to my active shells - but honestly, I rarely find anything much I want.

And the tests they provide! ACK! I teach computers - relational database, right now. The test banks they provide me with, at least right now, SUCK. I can not imagine a situation in which I would ever use them. You can not, in my opinion, test computer knowledge in any meaningful way, using multiple choice tests. And I refuse to waste my students’ time having to teach them 47 ways to do the same thing because in order to pass the multiple choice tests they need to know all 47 ways. As far as I’m concerned, hands  on testing is the only reasonable way to evaluate their abilities - and even though it takes a heck of a lot more time and energy to develop and mark good hands on tests that relate directly to their particular field,  it is worth it. My students either know their stuff when they do their tests - or they learn that they don’t know it and are motivated to fix that through those tests.

I could care less if they have memorized 47 ways to do a task. I want them to be able to sit down at a computer and solve their (or their employer’s) problem. With the help files, with their texts in front of them, and yes, even with Google.

Apparently, my particular publisher’s company is working on providing a way to do hands on testing in an online lab environment. I missed the preview session we were offered, as I was busy at Trent. But honestly, I very much doubt that it is going to work for my guys, as the likelihood that they are going to offer testing situations targeted to any particular field is slim to none. And if they do, they will use that to justify higher prices? I don’t think so. I consider test development and marking my job. Is that not why student’s pay tuition? So that they have teachers who can adjust the course to their field of study - and to each particular class if needed?

And sorry - but in addition to my role as a teacher and student, I have also done a whole lot of programming and web development - give me a BREAK!  None of that stuff needs to cost the kind of money the article suggests it does - and if they are paying that much, they are SO getting ripped. Seriously.

Anyway - for students to take matters into their own hands and go photocopy the book rather than buying it is wrong …but when they can do that for under $50 as opposed to paying $300 or more for a text, can you really blame them?

What do you think? 

9 responses so far

Jan 09 2009

TGIF

Published by flit under 1 Edit This

TGIF bookwormWell - it’s nowhere near as entertaining as Wordless Wednesday , Thieving Thursday , or Stephanie’s Ask ___ series (this week its Ask the DRAGON ) …but I figure that for those of us who are students, TGIF seems like a reasonable regular feature to have.

And if it’s not for you, it SO is for me, and I expect it will remain so throughout this semester - since Friday is when I get to come HOME and stay home for 3/4 days!!!! With my high-speed Internet…and my dog …and my own bed and books and mess and TV and …and… and…

So - what are we THANKFUL for this Friday?

You may well have guessed that I am particularly thankful to be HOME …with my high-speed Internet and my … oh … yeah …I mentioned that already, huh? Sorry …but I am :)   And I forgot to mention my bathtub, too.

The motel’s bathtub is grotty. It is a little wee thing that doesn’t have any bubbles or any bars to help gimpy people with 2 buggered wrists get up and out of it.  I love my bathtub at home… and am very much looking forward to taking up residence in there shortly… after Judge Judy, of course. Priorities, y’know :)

I am also thankful that so far this semester’s courses look to be both very interesting and also managable … that will change I’m sure …. as the reading/marking/assignments pile up … but so far so good. One good thing about having hubby drive is that I can get a lot of reading done in transit.

And I am thankful that at least some of my books showed up in the mail today. Not all of them …but at least one of the three orders came in.

So …. now you ….  what are you thankful for on this fine Friday? 

2 responses so far

Dec 10 2008

I Think I Can…

Published by flit under 1 Edit This

What this essay is doing to my poor headActually, right now, I’m closer to thinking I can’t… that trying to make sense of any more of the references I am using to write my fiction/nonfiction paper is clearly going to cause my head to explode.

But I have written a whole lot of essays over the course of my English degree - and even before that, really - and I have almost always done very well. As in all but a very few have wound up with solid A’s…and those that didn’t get A’s came very close. So - even if I don’t really think I can, I should think I can and keep going and going and …oh look…there goes my head, exploding again. What this essay is doing to my poor head

Anyone got a mop?

3 responses so far

Nov 30 2008

Back To Schoolers

Published by flit under 1 Edit This

Back to school crayons

 

So … have y’all noticed the list of Back to Schoolers over there in my BlogRoll?

So far, I’ve got

 

Who are we missing? If you are a mature, nontraditional, returning, adult, whatever-you-want-to-call-it student, please do drop me a comment and let me know so that I can add you to the blogroll.

And why not, while you are at it, tell us what you’re taking, what you hope to be when you grow up, and anything else you’d like to tell us about your back to school adventure(s)?

Enquiring minds want to know :)

5 responses so far

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