Teaching Naked

It appears I didn't try enough different search terms a year ago to look into resources for my new way of teaching.  I stumbled on this July article from the Chronicle of Higher Ed thanks to a tip from my buddy Jim Bonilla.  He and I were in a meeting to address technology in teaching and after I shared how I taught Modern Physics last semester (and plan to teach two courses this coming spring) he mentioned the concept of "Teaching Naked".  The article he pointed me to was published back in 2006 and is a great read along with the Chronicle article (and video!).

It seems that Professor (Dean) Bowen has worked with former colleagues at the University of Miami of Ohio on the concept of using class time to enhance the educational experience rather than to provide content.  He's a music professor (which might explain how I didn't find him last year --- "screencast physics" was a common search term for me) and he gives lots of examples of how he's changed his teaching style to move in this direction.  One of the things that he talks about that resonates well with me is the comparison with fully online teaching.  There both content and interaction have to be done outside of the classroom but in "Teaching Naked" you provide content outside of the class and then, usually, run discussions in class.

One of the disappointing things about finding this is the negative response in the Chronicle comments.  It reminds me of some of the conversations I've had with my own colleagues.  But, on the bright side, it's great to find someone with such a similar philosophy to mine and who has been successful implementing it.

I'm now the proud owner of a Screencast.com Pro account.  Here's one way I use it:

Screencasting in Sound and Music

Next semester I'm teaching PHYS 1140 Physics of Sound and Music which is a course for non-science majors.  I plan to use the same organizational structure that I did in last year's Modern Physics course.  I'm a little nervous about being able to motivate the students to put in the time outside of class but I really think it'll pay off for them (and me) if I can make the class time useful for all of us.  I have two ideas for that.

First I'm going to try to do a demo in every class.  That's going to take some planning but luckily I have all of j-term free (with the exception of chairing the tenure and promotion committee) to do that so I think there's a chance I can pull it off.  Since the screencasts and the book will be taking care of the material I think it'll be fun to start each class (after the quiz, of course) with a demo and then have the students talk about the physics it represents.  I'm sure there will be some days when I'll be lazy and use a computer simulation instead but even those can be pedagogically useful (in fact I've recently read an article that makes the case that the cleaner simulations do a better job of teaching but that's another blog post).

Second I'm going to try to emulate Google's Moderator software with the questions students post.  That way the class can "crowdsource" the questions and rank the best ones.  That way it'll be ok if I don't get to every question from every student.  I've got some work ahead of me to pull that off but I've done something similar in the past so hopefully I can get it done in time.

leaf evidence

leaf update

It appears that one lawn bag holds between 40,000 and 50,000 leaves. The boys have renegotiated for $1/bag from now on. They're not dumb, those two. here's the description of the project

Leaf math

The leaves have definitely fallen and I'm going to have my kids do some counting for money. I figure $1 for every 100,000 leaves should do the trick. Of course, it only counts if they get the leaves in the bags!

So how do they do it? Powers of ten, that's how!

First I have them each make a pile of 100 leaves. Then I have them make a new pile that seems the same size. If that one ends up within 5% of 100, I approve it and then they make 10 piles of 100 leaves. Then they gather that together and take a good look at how big that is. Then they make 9 more such piles and look at what 10,000 leaves look like. Then they make 10 piles of those to see what one dollar looks like. My guess is that one of those paper garden leaf bags will hold somewhere around a dollar's worth. For my yard that'll mean no more than $10-$15 out of my pocket, a clean yard, and kids who can brag to their teachers that they counted to a million over the weekend.

My evaluations for this course

VALUE Why did you take this course? (Check the most important one). NUM
1 Required course within my major/minor/program/certificate 4
2 Elective course counting toward my major/minor/program/certificate 0
3 Hamline Plan designation 0
4 General Elective course 0
AVG: 1 STD: 0 MIN: 1 MAX: 1 4
VALUE The instructor effectively communicates his/her knowledge of the subject. NUM
1 Strongly Disagree 0
2 Disagree 0
3 Moderately Disagree 0
4 Neither Agree nor Disagree 0
5 Moderately Agree 0
6 Agree 2
7 Strongly Agree 2
AVG: 6.5 STD: .58 MIN: 6 MAX: 7 4
VALUE The instructor presents this course in an organized fashion. NUM
1 Strongly Disagree 0
2 Disagree 0
3 Moderately Disagree 0
4 Neither Agree nor Disagree 0
5 Moderately Agree 0
6 Agree 1
7 Strongly Agree 3
AVG: 6.75 STD: .5 MIN: 6 MAX: 7 4
We had a topic outline at the beginning of the semester and we made it through just everything with some minor changes at the end of the semester.
VALUE The instructor creates an environment conducive to learning for all students. NUM
1 Strongly Disagree 0
2 Disagree 0
3 Moderately Disagree 0
4 Neither Agree nor Disagree 0
5 Moderately Agree 1
6 Agree 1
7 Strongly Agree 2
AVG: 6.25 STD: .96 MIN: 5 MAX: 7 4
The online screencasts were helpful to me but some students may not learn as well as having a regular lecture style course.
VALUE The instructor's teaching method encourages me to learn actively. NUM
1 Strongly Disagree 0
2 Disagree 0
3 Moderately Disagree 0
4 Neither Agree nor Disagree 0
5 Moderately Agree 0
6 Agree 0
7 Strongly Agree 4
AVG: 7 STD: 0 MIN: 7 MAX: 7 4
We had to read the sections before hand, have a summary typed up, and have at least one question to ask on the material before class. He also asked questions frequently during the class period.
VALUE The instructor challenges students to meet high academic standards. NUM
1 Strongly Disagree 0
2 Disagree 0
3 Moderately Disagree 0
4 Neither Agree nor Disagree 0
5 Moderately Agree 0
6 Agree 1
7 Strongly Agree 3
AVG: 6.75 STD: .5 MIN: 6 MAX: 7 4
This course was very time consuming outside the classroom.
VALUE The instructor provides feedback that enhances my learning. NUM
1 Strongly Disagree 0
2 Disagree 0
3 Moderately Disagree 0
4 Neither Agree nor Disagree 0
5 Moderately Agree 0
6 Agree 1
7 Strongly Agree 3
AVG: 6.75 STD: .5 MIN: 6 MAX: 7 4
We get feedback everyday on our questions in class and our labs have a lot of comments on them.
VALUE The instructor willingly provides assistance to students. NUM
1 Strongly Disagree 0
2 Disagree 0
3 Moderately Disagree 0
4 Neither Agree nor Disagree 0
5 Moderately Agree 0
6 Agree 0
7 Strongly Agree 4
AVG: 7 STD: 0 MIN: 7 MAX: 7 4
He was always willing to help with homework or conceptual problems.
VALUE The instructor clearly explains how my learning will be evaluated. NUM
1 Strongly Disagree 0
2 Disagree 0
3 Moderately Disagree 0
4 Neither Agree nor Disagree 0
5 Moderately Agree 0
6 Agree 2
7 Strongly Agree 2
AVG: 6.5 STD: .58 MIN: 6 MAX: 7 4
VALUE The instructor is an effective teacher. NUM
1 Strongly Disagree 0
2 Disagree 0
3 Moderately Disagree 0
4 Neither Agree nor Disagree 0
5 Moderately Agree 0
6 Agree 1
7 Strongly Agree 3
AVG: 6.75 STD: .5 MIN: 6 MAX: 7 4
VALUE This course provides a valuable learning experience. NUM
1 Strongly Disagree 0
2 Disagree 0
3 Moderately Disagree 0
4 Neither Agree nor Disagree 0
5 Moderately Agree 0
6 Agree 0
7 Strongly Agree 4
AVG: 7 STD: 0 MIN: 7 MAX: 7 4
Group Summary for questions of type "Strongly Dis/Strongly Agree":
AVG: 6.73 STD: 0.51 MIN: 5 MAX: 7 40
Group Summary for questions of type "Why did you take the course?":
Please make additional comments to be read by the Faculty Personnel Committee and the Dean of the College.
Comments:
The new way of teaching that this professor has provided forces students to try learning on their own by reading the book. But the teacher is also willing to provide personal assistance for when we struggle and can't learn certain things in the book by ourselves. The online resources that the teacher provides for us would be even more efficient for the student and professor in a crowded class. The class teaches the student to learn how to study modern physics on their own and gives assistance for when we struggle to do that. I could also apply this to any other class which is nice.
This was a new way of teaching that I learned to like a lot. It forced me to prepare for class ahead of time.
Comments made by the student in this section will be read by the instructor only.
What features of this course most effectively helped you to learn?
The learning provided online.
The ability to get nearly unlimited help on assignments, and not having to turn those assignments in. Also, the oral exams were a very effective method of evaluation and forced us to study material more.
Summaries
What changes, if any, would you recommend to improve this course?
Rarely the online resources were not explicit enough. The supplementary material sometimes had miscalculations.
The class is very time-consuming, when factoring in the time needed for reading, studying for quizzes, screencasts, and lab projects; it makes it very difficult to balance other classes. If there were some way to merge any of those things together to ease the time requirement, that would be very helpful.
More lectures in class
The following questions were added by the instructor, and pertain to this course only. They will be read by the instructor only.
Which aspects of the course did you like the most?
The requirement of typing up a summary and asking questions outside of class helped me to be more prepared. The use of mathematica was also very helpful to learn this material. I also enjoyed the subject matter covered in this course.
The reading became more interesting as we went along.
The lecture format, not having to turn in homework, and the oral tests.
I liked how the summaries forced me to read and how the screencasts could be paused.
Which aspects of this class did you like the least?
The amount of time needed to be committed outside this course was a little too much. To watch the screencasts, read the book, and do the summaries along with other classes is something that I feel not a lot of students can handle.
The class quizzes.
The time commitment. I had several very difficult classes this semester, and time management was extraordinarily difficult. This class, while not overly difficult, was still incredibly time-consuming.
This way of doing class takes up a lot of time. We are basically attending a class and a half because of the screencasts.
VALUE Doing the summaries and questions enhanced my learning. NUM
1 Strongly Agree 3
2 Agree 1
3 Neutral 0
4 Disagree 0
5 Strongly Disagree 0
0 Not Applicable 0
AVG: 1.25 STD: .5 MIN: 1 MAX: 2 4
The summaries were moderately helpful, as they had us review the big concepts in readings. The questions were even better though, as they let us get help on just the things we did not understand.
This requirement of the course helped me to be more prepared for class
I've experianced not reading and reading and when you don't read in this class you will be lost in the lectures. If one doesn't have time to read, they should at least watch the screencast, that helps a lot too.
Please comment on the use of screencasts and only answering questions in class.
I really liked the use of screencasts for this course because we can go back and hear a mini lecture anytime on blackboard. However, I felt like I would have grasped the material even better if we had an in class lecture as well because we can actually interact with you but not the screencasts.
It was an effective way of filling the holes in the reading
Effective; I personally learn better from books than lectures, and it was useful to supplement that with specific questions to the instructor.
I wish there were a few lectures in class on the basic overview of the topic. Sometimes it helps when you see it firsthand on the board.
Please comment on doing homework quizzes daily instead of turning homework in.
Having the quizzes daily forced me to try and fully understand the problems rather than simply looking up equations in the book. I feel like some of the time I did gamble with not doing one of them since it was a one if four chance though.
Perhaps it would be more fun to do class quizzes sometimes and homework other times. The professor would let us know which in the beginning of each class.
Preferable to set homework assignments, since we can receive mroe assistance on them.
I enjoyed the daily quizzes more than homework. Being quizzed on the material meant you actually had to know how to do it instead of knowing how to copy a formula from your book as most people do when they turn in homework.