Jan 17, 2008
Books
So id say 150$ is becoming common for an average textbook in my classes now. Idealy, textbook content would be free, possibly by some program set up by a university. Standard textbooks are way too pretty, and have way too many problems in them. An ideal textbook would be thin, possibly even paperback made from newspaper quality paper, and have content mostly online in a wiki format. It once again fits into the idea that proffesors shouldn't be teaching but facilitating learning by removing obstacles.
Jan 15, 2008
Intercession
I didn't want anyone to be there who didn't want to be there, but that's highschool I suppose. Theory of computer science might have been a bad choice for a couple of reasons.
- They didn't sign up for a week of it knowing what they were really getting into
- I don't think many of them were high enough on the Maslow heirachy of needs to really care. I would rather have had students eat well, sleep, and develop meaningful social ties. Theres no point in teaching to a class without these. ( I can only claim to do the first two )
- Many saw the jump into higher mathematics as merely overly specialized knowledge rather than a profound overveiw of basic philosophical thingys. The only thing i wanted them to see the entire class was the chomsky heirarchy and vaugely understand my proof about the existance of unsolvable problems.
- Many students complained about not learning anything, when in fact it was amazing how much they had learned in such a short amount of time. If there had been hands on things, it would have been easier to demonstrate that they had learned something. I think maybe they expect pain as a sign of learning, a certain sense that math/cs is a field of no pain no gain.
Frankly I did it because i believe theoretical computer science is probably the most important /beautiful thing Ive learned in college and im sad I didn't know about it earlier. It might be the fact that breaks are stressfull for me, being cut off from everyone, but i remember saying to everyone "cs273 taught me not to fear death" as a joke. It certainly affects how i see the world more than i think it was meant to.
- They didn't sign up for a week of it knowing what they were really getting into
- I don't think many of them were high enough on the Maslow heirachy of needs to really care. I would rather have had students eat well, sleep, and develop meaningful social ties. Theres no point in teaching to a class without these. ( I can only claim to do the first two )
- Many saw the jump into higher mathematics as merely overly specialized knowledge rather than a profound overveiw of basic philosophical thingys. The only thing i wanted them to see the entire class was the chomsky heirarchy and vaugely understand my proof about the existance of unsolvable problems.
- Many students complained about not learning anything, when in fact it was amazing how much they had learned in such a short amount of time. If there had been hands on things, it would have been easier to demonstrate that they had learned something. I think maybe they expect pain as a sign of learning, a certain sense that math/cs is a field of no pain no gain.
Frankly I did it because i believe theoretical computer science is probably the most important /beautiful thing Ive learned in college and im sad I didn't know about it earlier. It might be the fact that breaks are stressfull for me, being cut off from everyone, but i remember saying to everyone "cs273 taught me not to fear death" as a joke. It certainly affects how i see the world more than i think it was meant to.
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