Better teaching through techno..oh, boy
*headthunk*
Today was kind of an exercise in going oft awry. First of all, I am still a lecture behind in the basic survey course, which is only annoying because there's an exam on Friday, and I have to figure out whether I need to adjust anything to account for the fact that we're behind. I... don't believe that the students will necessarily pick up on things just from the reading, without any lecture or discussion; I still don't feel confident that I'm incorporating the books they're supposed to be reading into the lectures enough. I could have just powered through the lecture, but I also needed to take the time to do some exam prep (the better to forestall panic and give them some strategies). Wednesday will be more of the same, frankly; I'm hoping that it will result in better exams. OTOH, it's kind of hard to tell; the students at present have an excellent line in blank stares when asked questions about things they've had on the study guide for several weeks.
In the other course, the Silk Road course, today was the day we were scheduled to participate in a set of standardized tests that are needed as part of the school's voluntary compliance with accreditation-related reports and so on. Basically, they need 200 first-year students and 200 seniors to take this short standardized test so that they can demonstrate that students are, you know, actually learning stuff while they are here.
(volunteering my class to be part of this sounded a lot better back in December when I was not running behiiiiiiiind)
Of course, I kept forgetting that I had it scheduled, and as a result not only didn't mention it until last Wednesday, I also spent the weekend in a constant "And on Monday, I will talk about... ohwait..."
Anyway, after multiple e-mails and posting on the class news board and putting up an actual physical sign outside the classroom door, almost all of the students showed up. Which, ok, they were taking a test, I would have their information, they would be counted as present, and the students who were not there would get marked absent.
And then... the computers in the lab utterly failed to run the software.
*headdesk*
Well, three of the computers ran it. Only three. So, the poor woman in charge of wrangling everybody and the exams called tech, the students sat around and chatted (and, when asked how they felt the class was going, complained that there is too much reading, with an additional "and it's booooring" from the student who complains about everything).
The tech guys showed up, and started poking at things, and it was not looking hopeful-- so we had the three students who could start get going, and then once it was clear the problem would not get fixed today ("Yeah, it looks like it's a software problem, and the software guy went home already"), well, I sent everybody else home. One of the students gave me a sympathetic hug of "aww, sorry that the technology did not play nicely!" The woman in charge of coming up with 400 participants was NOT happy at losing 20, especially when it sounded like the lab might not be fixed in time for the next group either.
Note to self: must do something to reward the three students who were actually able to take the test and did so.
Today was kind of an exercise in going oft awry. First of all, I am still a lecture behind in the basic survey course, which is only annoying because there's an exam on Friday, and I have to figure out whether I need to adjust anything to account for the fact that we're behind. I... don't believe that the students will necessarily pick up on things just from the reading, without any lecture or discussion; I still don't feel confident that I'm incorporating the books they're supposed to be reading into the lectures enough. I could have just powered through the lecture, but I also needed to take the time to do some exam prep (the better to forestall panic and give them some strategies). Wednesday will be more of the same, frankly; I'm hoping that it will result in better exams. OTOH, it's kind of hard to tell; the students at present have an excellent line in blank stares when asked questions about things they've had on the study guide for several weeks.
In the other course, the Silk Road course, today was the day we were scheduled to participate in a set of standardized tests that are needed as part of the school's voluntary compliance with accreditation-related reports and so on. Basically, they need 200 first-year students and 200 seniors to take this short standardized test so that they can demonstrate that students are, you know, actually learning stuff while they are here.
(volunteering my class to be part of this sounded a lot better back in December when I was not running behiiiiiiiind)
Of course, I kept forgetting that I had it scheduled, and as a result not only didn't mention it until last Wednesday, I also spent the weekend in a constant "And on Monday, I will talk about... ohwait..."
Anyway, after multiple e-mails and posting on the class news board and putting up an actual physical sign outside the classroom door, almost all of the students showed up. Which, ok, they were taking a test, I would have their information, they would be counted as present, and the students who were not there would get marked absent.
And then... the computers in the lab utterly failed to run the software.
*headdesk*
Well, three of the computers ran it. Only three. So, the poor woman in charge of wrangling everybody and the exams called tech, the students sat around and chatted (and, when asked how they felt the class was going, complained that there is too much reading, with an additional "and it's booooring" from the student who complains about everything).
The tech guys showed up, and started poking at things, and it was not looking hopeful-- so we had the three students who could start get going, and then once it was clear the problem would not get fixed today ("Yeah, it looks like it's a software problem, and the software guy went home already"), well, I sent everybody else home. One of the students gave me a sympathetic hug of "aww, sorry that the technology did not play nicely!" The woman in charge of coming up with 400 participants was NOT happy at losing 20, especially when it sounded like the lab might not be fixed in time for the next group either.
Note to self: must do something to reward the three students who were actually able to take the test and did so.