If only

School Answering Machine — Seen here.

Two short observations

• So You Want to Buy an American Car? Well, buying American is complicated. Here’s my proposed rule: Any sufficiently complex product is made everywhere.
• Changing the summit of math education? It’s a good idea. Instead of trying to teach everyone calculus, let’s try to teach everyone statistics. The traditional math sequence has come to be more about filtering than teaching. It’s a good system for identifying and training engineers, not so good at producing educated citizens.

It’s not my fault

Report: Increasing Number Of Educators Found To Be Suffering From Teaching Disabilities

They’re on to me

Speaking in public has always been easy for me, partly because my standards are so low; partly because of a lifelong commitment to hard cardio workouts. But now some changes may be necessary.

“There is one style that always stands out, no matter what. I like to call it the “Scatter-Drone.” That is the presentation that has 50 bullet points scattered on every slide with a long-winded drone of a voice wavering in the air saying something, but nobody really knows what because catatonia has already taken over.” — Doing a 15 Minute Presentation in 10 Easy Steps

That’s just how I do it, except without the PowerPoint.

See, if the audience says “that was boring,” I can dismiss it as uninformed opinion. If they knew anything about the subject, they’d be giving the talk. But now that they have a word for it – “another one of his scatter-drones” – I’ll have to shape up.

Math class

We thought those top-flight investigative journalists were busy writing promotional material, but not so. Recent investigative reporting reveals the shocking truth about math class. (h/t)

Fluid mechanics is where it all began to go wrong for me. The last thing I remember is the Professor saying something about Pasha Pasha Tea.

Scheduling

A reasonable start

Some community colleges, to save money, have been considering a four-day week. This can work over the summer, but it would be unwise to do it all year. The savings are immediate, while the costs become apparent in the long term.

We could save money in the short term by closing the facility entirely. But the college is here because it meets, or can meet, people’s needs. Fundamentally, we want more people at the college, not fewer. Rather than have the place standing empty three days a week, offer more classes and events to draw people in. This spreads the costs and the benefits over more people, and builds the constituency of voters who support the college because they use it. That’s what I think, anyway.

In The four-day work week, Geeky Mom argues otherwise. She thinks the four-day work week is a good idea badly implemented. I think the fundamental badness of the idea is masked by the hard work and creative implementation of smart, dedicated people.

Ranting begins

There are no points awarded for observing a good idea badly implemented. There are just too many examples. Apollo, coming in to breakfast with the other gods, says “Hey guys, check it out; the humans are at it again.” Mercury says, “Oh? Radical Monotheism again?” “No, communism. Everybody is going to work hard and share, or else.” So, there are ways for a college to have a four-day week that are worse than others, but it’s still a bad idea.

The best way to learn elementary math is one day at a time. Questions on the homework, a short lecture, some example problems, a short homework assignment; that night at home read the book and do the assignment; the next day, ask questions, etc. As the students advance, the material requires more thought and creativity and less of the kind of facility that requires daily practice. Advanced classes work better with a day in between for some sustained thought.

It’s suboptimal to shoehorn elementary algebra into two nights a week, though it can be done if the students and teacher work hard at it, and sometimes it’s that schedule or nothing.

Losing touch with reality

I wonder if we could offer algebra in one continuous block of sixty-four hours. Nine am Monday to one am Thursday. We could rotate staff, lecturing and grading in relays. If we could get other departments to cooperate we could offer concurrent enrollment in history. Students adept at multitasking would listen to the history lecture while doing their algepra problem sets, and take their history tests while listening to the algebra lecture. Students who had difficulty sitting through all that could be evaluated by a physician and given a suitable prescription.

File management?

George at Decrpit Old Fool asks, “How do YOU explain file management?” It’s a good question, and maybe deeper than it sounds like. Having read his post and thought about it, I don’t know a good answer. If anyone has a useful explanatory metaphor, please go share it with him.

Links

• “I think we all love the hairy-nosed wombat.” It seems an Australian government official is taking a few weeks off to care for some endangered wombats. Some of his political opponents object, but I applaud his choice. If more politicians would take time off from their legislative duties to interact with wildlife the world would be a better place. I would hope in the interests of diversity they would not limit themselves to wombats, but would proactively seek out the tarantulas, polar bears, and giant squids, just to make sure they’re happy and well-fed.
• Like the man says, “I love the use of the phrase ‘the situation became confusing’, just after the dead guy starts moving again.”
• Sneaking Equations into Gmail could be useful, though in most cases putting up a web page and sending a link might be as easy.
• Here’s a useful and insightful review of WALL-E.

Grading tests

Grading tests

The same sign, the minus sign, does two things: it indicates the operation of subtraction; and it refers to the additive inverse of a number. This causes students some confusion, and I can sympathize with that up to a point. Beyond that point, they have to distinguish the program from the data, so to speak. If they substitute correctly but get the sign wrong, they may get partial credit.

I have no sympathy for the idea that a^n+b^n = (a+b)^n. That’s just a lie, and trying a couple of values will show anyone. There is no doubt in my mind that people live happy lives, grow old, and die believing a^2+b^2 = (a+b)^2, but they will get no partial credit from me.

Mathematical expectation

Moebius Stripper says, “I don’t have to worry that there will be a classroom of students who overlook Option D en masse because duh, everyone knows that (x+y)^2 does not equal x^2+y^2.”