The First Week of Class
I started teaching this week. I taught my first "real" class on Wednesday (with due apologies to my former students whom I "only" taught lab and discussion section – I know you all thought it was real, but it was not quite "real" real for me.) I am teaching an introductory Physics class for non-science majors at DePauw University. The class is called "Physics for Poets", as perhaps a way of making a sciency class more palatable to those who would have otherwise had severe anxieties about it.
It is very exciting to be able to teach people something new and help them learn it. I am a big fan of technology, and I am trying to make a great use of it as a learning tool, both in classroom and outside of it. A few years ago I attended a lecture at UIUC by Carl Wieman. A Nobel Prize winner, he is still very passionate about undergraduate teaching. His lecture was about the best techniques to transmit the knowledge in a classroom setting, and ensure the maximum retention of the information by listeners. What impressed me the most at the time was the demonstration of the use of "clickers" by students during the class. These simple devices allow students to instantaneously take polls during the class on concepts that have just been taught. The advantage over raising hands is that, since submissions are anonymous and there is no penalty for a wrong answer, students are much more likely to answer questions and be active participants in the class. An instant feedback on projection screen is another advantage that lets students understand how their answers compare to the others in the class.
I was hooked. Ever since seeing that lecture, I dreamt about the day when I will be able to use something similar in my own classes. So when I was hired to teach at DePauw, I started to brainstorm about possible ways of implementing this dream of mine. Fortunately for me, Dave Berque, a CS professor at DePauw, developed and implemented a dynamic teaching platform called DyKnow. In its fully implemented mode DyKnow is a clicker on steroids. During the class students are given tablet PCs, which makes many more possible forms of interaction than just simple polls. Students are able to work on the problems from their seats and have them projected at the main screen. So far, students seem to like being able to interact this way, although I am not sure how thrilled they are when called to present their work in front of the class.
Another teaching tool I am using is Moodle. It's an online environment that lets me post timed quizzes and polls. I am using it to get students to submit a brief preflight quiz before the class. This forces them to open the textbook and read a bit about the material that will be covered in class that day. I am also using Moodle as a general class website to post notes, homework problems and solutions.
As an extra credit, I also allow students to write a poem about concepts that they just learned in class. It is, after all, a Physics for Poets. So far I have not had any takers on that assignment. I will keep hope up though.