TechIntersect

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Originally uploaded by floflonemo

This photo was made by Florence Neymotin at the Wakonse conference. I am writing this from Flickr, to test the “blog this” functionality. I love how these Web 2.0 applications interact with one another.

The Wakonse conference was amazing. It was my second trip to Michigan, and it was wonderful to make new friends as well as reconnect with old ones. I feel re-energized and ready to go back to work doing some great classroom teaching.

The beauty of Camp Miniwanca is simply inspiring. We went for a nature hike through the woods on the last day. I took a small group to see a small, hidden meadow that few people know about or have the chance to visit.

Most importantly, the commitment to quality instruction in the classroom has been reaffirmed. I know that college professors around the country value this aspect of their careers and I need to continue working on my teaching skills.

Tags: web 2.0

I am at Wakonse writing this looking out upon the beautiful waters of Lake Michigan. It is day four of “Professor Camp” at Camp Miniwanca located in the State of Michigan.

“Wakonse” is a word that comes from Native American language meaning “to teach” or “to inspire.” The name is fitting, because while we are all college professors, we all share a strong common interest in classroom teaching.

I am physically exhausted but mentally and spiritually elated. I have had a chance to connect with peers from all across the United States. Perhaps even more meaningful to me, since this is my second Wakonse experience, I have re-connected with dear friends from my first time here two years ago.

For much of the summer, this place will be brimming with excitement as kids come here from around the country for their summer camp experience. But each “Memorial Day” weekend, professors from far and wide converge on this place for their own summer camp experience.

The structure of the conference is quite simple. We meet in a rustic summer camp setting to share thoughts and ideas. We are spit into a number of small dialog groups of no more than seven or eight. We share, we discuss, we debate, we entertain, and we have lots of fun! When we are not meeting with our groups, we can attend concurrent sessions on different teaching styles and methodologies or we can participate in different physical activities typical of the American summer camp experience, including hiking, fishing, canoeing, horesback riding and taking the “Polar Bear Plunge” into frigid Lake Michigan.

Last evening, I was fortunate to share some of the ideas that I have been writing down here. For those of you reading this post who attended that session, I thank you both for attending and for reading what I write. This morning I will be singing with the choir at the non-denominational church service and this evening there will be a talent contest including a variety of skits, songs and other demonstrations of skill. I also plan to sing in that event.

The time here goes by quickly. It is hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of Wakonse, and Tuesday we will be heading for home with tired bodies and renewed spirits.

I believe this event is important because it causes us to refocus our attention on the single-most important thing we do- teach students. The importance of teaching may seem obvious to some, however concept sometimes loses priority in the busy life on an academic involved in research and service activities.

We come together with our own styles and ideas, sharing with one another, striving for improvement, with the aim of becoming more effective in the classroom. I can think of no nobler way to spend a holiday weekend than allocating time for reflection upon improving your skills in your vocation.

We are tired and missing the comforts of home, but we await the next semester of teaching with enthusiasm and excitement. That in essence is what Wakonse is all about.

Tags: college, preparation, professional development, teaching

Have you ever come across a bit of information that works like magic in the classroom? Mine is the one-sentence intervention, explained in the Teaching With Love & Logic book by Jim Fay and David Funk. I highly recommend adding this book to your summer reading list if you’ve never read it before.

The authors suggest experimenting with your most uncooperative student. They suggest going to that student at least six times during the next three school weeks using a “one sentence intervention.” The intervention is simply you noticing something personal about that student. “I noticed that you are wearing blue sneakers.” “I noticed that you got a hair cut.” “I noticed that you like pro wrestling.” “I noticed that you really like to draw pictures.”

There should be no value judgments attached to these statements; no praise or evaluation of what you observed. Just a simple matter-of-fact statement about the student. If they say “Yeah, so what?” you say, “Well, I just noticed that about you.” According to the authors, if you offer praise or comment that you like what you noticed, students can feel manipulated, so simple observation is best.

What this does is work on the old adage that “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”.

After doing this for several weeks, you can test whether the student is becoming more cooperative by asking “Will you try that just for me?” or “Will you stop doing that just for me?” If your relationship building efforts are taking root, you may be surprised by the outcome of these simple requests.

The thing I like about Love and Logic is although the target audience is parents and teachers of K-12 age kids, it still works with older students as well. I have successfully used this technique on building relationships with college aged students. My problem is that I get so involved, I sometimes forget my techniques. I’m posting this in my blog not only to share with you, but to remind myself about this in the future.

My memory was jogged about this simple intervention by Paul Bogush’s post on his blog. Thank you Paul.

Tags: , difficult kids, teaching

I am always fascinated by stories that tell of people operating at the junction of two different fields of thought, particularly those of the fields of art and science. Somehow, we have a notion that the thinking of artists and scientists is completely different, rarely if ever overlapping. I love stories that demonstrate the falsity of this notion.

For example, on NPR recently I enjoyed the story of Brian May, rock musician and astrophysicist. Dr. May was a physics student when the band he played in “Queen” became a smash hit and his studies were interrupted. He recently completed his Ph.D. in astrophysics after being away from school for 30 years. He epitomizes what I am talking about. Scientists can and many do have an appreciation for the arts.

I was watching CBS news this morning which showed a story of ant biologist Walter Tschinkel. Dr. Tschinkel makes molds of ant colonies by pouring plaster or liquid aluminum down ant hills. After the liquid hardens, he unearths some of the natural world’s most beautiful sculptures.  Tschinkel appreciates the beauty of the ant colonies, suggesting that there is more art in science and nature than people realize.

I want my students to see these connections and to realize that working on one of these fields does not mean excluding out work in the other. Stories like these help to reinforce my point.

Tags: art, science

Well, the end of semester crunch has caught up with a couple of students in one of the classes I teach. A major research project that has been ongoing throughout the semester was a favorite learning experience for many, but a stumbling block for a few. The assignment was called “The Dead Artist Project” and the task was to research a famous person in the arts who died before they were born.

Most of the students selected someone they were interested in but knew little about, making the research meaningful and worthwhile. Two in the class decided to short-circuit the learning experience by cutting and pasting a hodge-podge of information found on websites on the internet. Because it was a final project, I had the unpleasant task of dealing with this duo right when I should be celebrating the conclusion of another great semester

But I keep reminding myself that I do no favors by rescuing or excusing this behavior. These are college students, one step away from being in the “real world.” As Charles Fay of the Love and Logic Institute puts it, the price tag for poor decision making is low when kids are small, but it goes up as they get older. In college, we are talking significant costs in terms of time and money.

I am thankful that at K-State we have an “Honor System” which provides a meaningful learning experience for students who do not understand the importance of integrity. The focus is on education, not punishment. All K-State students take the honor pledge which states they have not received unauthorized aid. When students violate this pledge, there are a number of things that can occur. My students will have to take a Development and Integrity course to help them understand the error of their ways. This course will cost them both time and money. Unless they take the D & I course, they will fail my course and a “XF” grade indicating a failure due to honor violation will remain on their transcripts.

I discussed the situation with each student privately and neither would directly admit to any wrong-doing. However they had plenty of excuses for the behavior such as pressures with work and family. When I told one student that the English faculty would call this “plagiarism” the student actually replied, “I would never write like that in their classes.” Wow, you didn’t do anything wrong, but you know not to do it that way in an English class. What’s wrong with this picture?

As a rookie teacher, chances are good I would have looked for ways to rescue these students, letting the excuses sway me from allowing the natural consequences to happen. But lately, I have really been working on doing not what is easy or feels good, but instead on doing what is best for students. Unfortunately for these students, they have been allowed to go through life without experiencing enough consequences of bad decision making; and the price tag has gone up.

Tags: , academic integrity, cheating, honor system, responsibility

There was a man called Gordon Parks, who was born and raised in Kansas. Although he came from humble beginnings, he went on to achieve greatness. While he was famous around the world, I am ashamed to admit that somehow I managed to live most of my life in Kansas and never become aware of Gordon Parks and his achievements until very recently.

The more I learn about Gordon Parks, the more I hope to be like him. Mr. Parks could do it all. Professionally, he started out as a fashion photographer and later moved into photojournalism documenting the civil rights movement. His work frequently graced the cover of Vogue and Life magazines.

He wrote an autobiography of his boyhood in Kansas and also directed a major motion picture telling that same story. It is called “The Learning Tree“. The book was widely promoted by the Kansas Library System last year.

He directed the original 1970’s version of the movie “Shaft” starring Richard Roundtree. The film received an Oscar for Isaac Hayes’ theme music, and is occasionally aired on Turner Classic Movies. It was groundbreaking because it featured a black hero detective and it sparked a new genre of films dubbed “blaxploitation.” Even on into the 1980’s and 1990’s, most directors wanting to cast a black hero character often would cast a white actor as a partner just to play it safe, but Parks was a pioneer.

Gordon Parks wrote music, he wrote poetry, he wrote books, he made photographs, he could do it all and do it well. I first learned of Parks when I happened across his final book of poetry and photographs “Eyes with Winged Thoughts” in the K-State at Salina library in early 2006. I was immediately drawn to his work, and I especially recall a poem he wrote about the bag of seed wheat his father planted in the field. The little seeds were his “friends” that he watched grow from tiny green sprouts into proud golden stalks of grain until his uncaring farmer father came along and cruelly slashed their little heads off!

Parks grew up in Fort Scott, Kansas in the 1920’s when people of color were not treated equally. He attributed his success in life to his mother who challenged him not to let those who discriminated against him to stop him from reaching his goals. She believed that anything white boys could do, Gordon could do too and he lived his life proving her right. In spite of ongoing adversity, Gordon Parks beat the odds stacked against him time and again. He was also a fantastic example of how people can remain useful and productive throughout their entire lives, working right up to his death at age 93.

Take some time and learn more about one of Kansas’ greatest treasures: Gordon Parks. You will be inspired.

I was waiting for this day. My little map thingy that shows where all of the visitors to this blog are from finally has a red dot from Africa. That was the last of the continents to be represented by visitors, so whomever dropped by from Africa, thank you for completing the list.

This summer I will be doing a presentation for Upward Bound students about cultures in other countries. Basically, I plan to show scenes from all of the countries and far away places I have visited around the world. As I get those scenes gathered and prepared, I will share with you here.

If you are from Hawaii, Mexico, Japan, Thailand, Korea,  Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Australia, or Bahrain, I have visited your country. Those were the most fascinating days of my life, when I had the chance to see other places first hand. I was out of the USA for 2 years and I can tell you it felt very nice to return home after being away so long.

I believe it gave me a perspective on the world that people who have not traveled cannot have. It makes me appreciate very much the abundance we have in the US, and also I am very appreciative of other ways of life that are very different our own. I think many Americans simply have no clue about anything other than the American way of life.

Blogging has been an exciting venue for connecting with folks from outside of the US, with similar interests but entirely different perspectives. Thanks to all who have helped make this a worthwhile experience.

Tags: continents, culture, foreign, geography, travel

One fun project I like to have students do from time to time helps them to understand both how a digital camera captures pixels of color to create digital photographs, and also how that technology relates to Pointillism paintings from over 100 years ago. If you look at a Seurat painting close up (go ahead and click on the example, I’ll wait…)

Georges Seurat - The Side Show - 1888

Source: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/S/seurat/paradetl.jpg.html

… Ok, you’re back… (That was pretty cool, wasn’t it?) you will see thousands of little distinct colored dots of paint. That is Pointillism. Painting with dots. Working with the example of the Impressionists who did not completely mix colors on their canvas either, Seurat knew that the viewer would mix the discrete colors optically when viewing from a distance. The same thing happens today with our digital displays. The computer monitor you are viewing this on uses discrete dots of color called “pixels” in order to present an optical illusion of color. Check out the zoomed in version of the above image. (Go ahead, click it to enlarge it too.)

Digital images are actually a combination of three colors, Red, Green and Blue. Just as we mixed paint or crayon colors together in elementary school, we mix dots of red, blue and green light together to achieve millions of possible color combinations. The pixel is the smallest graphical unit that can be recorded or displayed, and each will be a variant of red, green or blue. A digital camera sensor records the pixels, and later we can view them on a computer display device or print them on paper.

To simplify things for my lesson, I like to eliminate color information altogether and simply have students record different values of light & dark pixels. I have done this exercise with computers and also using only paper and pencil. I create a pixel puzzle in which each student will recreate a portion of the final picture. The end result looks something like these two examples. (Click to zoom)

How to make the puzzle

Simply take your source image you want to base your puzzle on into Photoshop. On PS CS2 I use Filter->Pixelate->Mosaic, then adjust the square sizes so they are large enough to create pixels, yet small enough the image is still recognizable. Then I print this pixelated version and cut it into numbered squares. It helps to print a key, with corresponding numbers so you know how to reconstruct the image from the puzzle pieces.

If I’m using the paper & pencil method, I also like to print pages with square outlines in which my students can shade in the different values with a pencil. Have them squint at the puzzle piece to get an accurate reading on how dark or light the individual squares are. Then have them shade in the corresponding squares. If students reproduce their puzzle piece fairly accurately, you can reassemble a compelling and recognizable image of the original.

I am always surprised at how even though students can use a different stroke or shading style, yet the image manages to come together quite nicely.

If I’m using the computer graphics method, I still print the puzzle pieces for them, but instead of a pencil, I let them use Adobe Illustrator to draw the different value squares, then print their work out on a laser printer. Same idea, but less mess and usually less time to complete.

Hope you like this idea… my classes seem to enjoy the activity and they appreciate learning a bit of art history and it’s relevance to modern technology.

Tags: art, Art History, digital camera, drawing, education, Impressionism, Pointillism, technology, value study

Music has always been a big part of my life. I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember. I was the kid who always sang the loudest at the school concerts, so just about every year I wound up singing solos.

There is plenty of research evidence that indicates music can enhance learning. Brain based education researcher Eric Jensen frequently mentions the value of music in his various books and articles. An example is here.

Back when I was a kid, everyone knew all of the songs from “Schoolhouse Rock”. My favorite is “I’m just a Bill.” Somehow, the music and the learning work together like magic. You learn without realizing it.
One young lady, Nicole Campbell studying at Berkeley, has figured this out. She writes songs about mathematics. They are clever and very well done. You should check them out.

With this in mind, I wrote a song for my networking class this semester about subnet masks. My students were pretty surprised when I broke out the guitar right in the middle of a technical discussion on subnetting, and sang them this little ditty: (Sing to the tune of the Day-O Banana Boat Song)

Come Mr. Subnet Mask subnet me network
Zeros where the host bits go
Come Mr. Subnet Mask subnet me network
Ones where the network goes

Day-O me say day-o
Zeros where the host bits go
Day-O me say day-o
Ones where the network goes

Two five five, zero, zero, zero
That’s a class A subnet mask
Two five five, Two five five, zero, zero
That’s a class B subnet mask
Two five five, Two five five, Two five five, zero
That’s a class C subnet mask
AND IP’s to the subnet mask
Gives us the network we gonna route to

Day-O me say day-o
Zeros where the host bits go
Day-O me say day-o
Ones where the network goes

Anyway, that’s my little song. You can listen if you like, but I’ll warn you I’ve only been playing guitar for a few months.

About a year ago I received a new newspaper in my mailbox called the “Clifton Clyde Tribune”. Dan Thalmann, publisher of another small town newspaper was setting up shop with a new paper in my hometown, and sent out free copies to everyone. I was immediately struck by the quality of writing, the crisp layout, and the excellent photography. What was even more exciting was the fact that Dan was seeking column writers so I jumped on the chance and I’ve been writing columns for the Tribune since last summer.

It was really my first foray into writing, and I have to say it’s been great. Dan has given me a platform to write about whatever I find of interest and relevance to the people of my community. I have also had the chance to become acquainted with Dan through e-mail and a couple of face to face interactions and I really admire him because he has figured out what Seth Godin writes today in All the News That Fits (do what you’re great at). Seth Godin, writing about the NY Times, suggests that instead of trying to be the source of all news for everybody, it should instead focus on excellence printing only what is true and important.

Of course true means well researched and with credible sources, and important means relevant to the readers. My friend Dan Thalmann employs both of these ideas in his small town newspapers, and I believe most small town papers can continue to survive and thrive if they figure this out. Small town papers fill a niche that no one else can because they write about what is relevant and important to a unique group of people; small-town folks. In fact, I believe that small town papers may actually outlast counterparts in larger communities that are still trying to be the primary source of all news. These larger papers would do better to downsize and stop trying to cover every story of national interest. Instead, they should become very focused on stories of local interest, and write from the local perspective about the national interest stories if they hope to retain readers and survive.

Seth Godin’s sage advice applies not only to newspapers but to everyone. Focus on what you are good at and quit trying to be all things to all people and you will become more successful.