I am also up in the air about TED talks, just want to share with everyone this amazing spoof by a comedian from back home. We have a TV channel in the UK called Dave, hence Dave talks.
Sublime from start to finish:
Author: brooks92
Comment on I have dots to connect before I sleep by brooks92
I do recall in my undergraduate days, I did seem to get the best grades (and have the most fun) when I ignored instruction and just wrote about whatever interested me. However at school (in the UK at least), that kind of behavior did me no service. That’s why it seems so important to me to stop defining success by other people’s criteria. I am glad Teddy seems to agree. Disobedience can be a nerve-racking prospect to the uninitiated though, the risks are far higher. I think most importantly, we have to do a better job of championing failure. Let stoicism be our byword. As Kipling wrote:
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.
Comment on Meet you at the Crossroad by brooks92
Don’t get me wrong, I agree, but I fear polymaths may reflect exceptional human beings that are few and far between, ie. ~ one every 2500 years if we are still looking for the next Aristotle. Most attempts I have made to delve into fields outside my area of study have left me feeling like a ‘jack of all trades’ rather than a luminary from antiquity. I fear they won’t be making busts of me anytime soon. I guess I could branch out into sculpture and make my own…
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Comment on Like Deer in Headlights by brooks92
Great post!
From experience, I think a workable solution needs to alleviate the sheer terror that a lot of undergraduates experience during lectures at the idea of of missing key pieces of information.
I would champion the use of dictaphones, ie. have minimal note taking in class, but provide a recording of the lecture so that additional notes can be made at a later date. I favor a recording over making slides available, because again from experience, students are likely to just use the slides as their notes which defeats the whole object.
Comment on The What and the How of Critical Pedagogy by brooks92
I’m glad you highlighted the ‘humanizing’ aspect of CP. Reading last week about the ability of educational institutions to suppress the masses gave plenty of 1984 flashbacks: –
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
We must acknowledge the power we have as educators. Further, we should relinquish some of that power, as the CP approach advocates, to avoid any Distopian-style futures.
Comment on Jigsaw-Zigsaw: An Adventure for Every GEDI by brooks92
It is so bizarre to hear from multiple engineering students that there is not a strong experiential bent to teaching styles. As a spectator, engineering seems like the most hands-on, problem-solving based discipline of any! I would love to be an engineer (if I had the time or ability); you actually make things! I can’t think of anything more rewarding. Well maybe Paediatrician, but there is not many.
I used to live with a couple of engineers (in the UK mind) who were constantly working on assigned projects, building drones, pipes, bridges, etc. I had just assumed that this was the norm because it makes such intuitive sense, but evidently not. What is the engineers justification for ever deviating from such an approach?
Comment on Critical Pedagogy by brooks92
Interesting, I grew up with a slightly different version. “Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Give a Man a Fishing Rod, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime”.
I like your’s better, because it involves more active participation and communication between teacher and student. The emphasis is on acquired knowledge rather than material possessions. My version runs the risk of ignoring the identities of your students, and resulting in the age old joke: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Give a man a fishing rod, and he’ll break it up for firewood… or swap it for a fish”.
Comment on Does inclusive teaching affect students’ ability to excel? by brooks92
Great post!
I actually disagree with yourself and Diana regarding how much time is spent on good vs struggling students.
In my experience, the bottom 10% of students soak up an inordinate amount of the instructors time, typically to the detriment of the rest of the class. No instructor wants any of their students to fail, and thus priority is given to those who are on the verge of doing so. At the other end, the rationale would be something along the lines of: ‘if the student is going to get an A even without my help, what incentive do I have?’ Obviously this is abhorrent, but I think all too common.
Comment on The unnoticed assumption by brooks92
Really excited to hear that music was your gateway to other cultures. I am constantly telling anyone that will listen that music is the universal language. It allows us to communicate with people all over the world, and at a really deep and intimate level what’s more.
Aside from great literature and the foundations of western music, I’d like to mention a couple more things we have Arabic culture to thank for: coffee, algebra, and hospitals.
It’s already a “can’t live without” list!
Comment on Suppressing Heuristics by brooks92
Halal, is it me you’re looking for..
No.
The mistaken waiter is clearly a grade A goon, however it was well-intentioned goonery at least (they were trying their very hardest to be accommodating). Another nice example I think, of how far we have come, and how far we have yet to travel.
Also another unlikely doctor: Brian May from Queen has a PhD in astrophysics. Go figure.
