Taliessin through Logres

Ada Lovelace Day: Susan Kare and the Apple Mac

2011-10-08T02:25:00.000-07:00

Susan Kare's contributions to HCI (Human Computer Interaction) are immense. She is an artist and graphic designer who created many of the interface elements for the Apple Mac.

She started working for Apple in 1982 and created a number of user interface elements for the Mac, which set the standard for all graphical user interfaces. Some of her contributions are here:
http://kare.com/portfolio/03_apple_macicons.html

As well as the iconic "Happy Mac", she worked on the Chicago typeface, the Geneva typeface, and the original monospace Monaco typeface.

She left Apple to join NeXT (the company Steve Jobs set up after he left Apple in 1986) as the Creative Director. She currently works as an independent graphic designer working with all of the computer giants including Microsoft and IBM. Her work for Microsoft includes the card deck for Windows 3.0's solitaire game:

http://kare.com/
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Jamie's Dream School: Episode 3

2011-04-26T07:54:00.001-07:00

Jamie's Dream School: Episode 3

Headteacher
* John "Dabbs" D'Abbro

This week:
* Alastair Campbell, Politics Teacher
* Alvin Hall, Maths Teacher
* Jane Poynter, Science (Enviroment) Teacher

Alastair Campbell, Politics Teacher

Alastair Campbell is speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival (which Jamie Oliver on voice-over calls the Cheltenham LITERARY Festival), and he brings along two of his students - Harlem and Nana-Kwame. In one way this is a continuation of Campbell's previous classes where he sticks to what he is good at, but in another way it's just him off on a junket and he's taken some kids along to make it seem like it's part of the Dream School project.

Harlem is very pleased to be at the Festival and thinks Campbell is "a lovely man".

Campbell is on stage discussing cutting benefits to people without jobs, and introduces the students to the audience, and asks the students if they have any questions. Harlem says that if benefits are cut and there are no jobs, it will lead to a war between the rich and the poor, and the poor will rob from the rich, so what is he going to do about it?

An audience member thought that Harlem's directness was refreshing.

What worked:
Playing to his strengths as a teacher, taking students out of the classroom

What didn't work:
Not really much of a teaching and learning experience

Alvin Hall, Maths Teacher

Alvin Hall is a very interesting choice for Maths Teacher, he has a degree in English, and a Masters in American Literature, and lectured in literature before moving into finance. His ability to understand complex financial instruments, and explain them simply, led him to becoming the director of course development at a company selling training materials for Wall Street examinations. This in turn lead him write articles and books on financial matters. From these articles and books he became a media personality who has presented television and radio shows. Jamie selects lots of people for the school who are TV presenters, this is a good idea TV presenters know how to sell a concept, are quick-thinking on their feet, and know how to communicate.

Jamie meets Alvin before class and says that "the traditional academic classes" aren't succeeding for many students and "where the young people are given things to solve, they have been great". Alvin says that his view is that they "need to know the basics now".

First Lesson

Jamie says on voice-over that Maths is the subject that the students hate, and ten minutes into Alvin's class none of the students have shown up, Dabbs has to round them up, and get them into class. Twenty minutes into class and only half the kids have arrived.

Nana-Kwame has his laptop at a desk, but Jenny sits down at that chair facing that desk, so Nana-Kwame pulls the chair from under her and she pushes him into the wall. A group of students and Alvin have to step in and calm the situation down before it escalates into a very serious fight. Nana-Kwame calms down, Jenny runs out of class in tears.

Alvin then begins the lesson, there's a bit of chat, so Alvin says "Shhh, OK, class let's stop" and then "OK, let's get started". Some students are fiddling with their cameras from Rankin's class, so Alvin says "Put all cameras down on the desk...where I can see them". Some students obey, others don't so he says "If you don't put the camera down I'm going to have to get the principal to take it away from you". He reinforces this message with "And I will do it, don't think I won't". And finally he says "I don't like to have to tell you things twice".

Alvin has very little time for teaching because all the students were so late, and after the fight that occurred immediately after class started, the students were too giddy to do anything in that first class.

Second Lesson

In the voice-over to Alvin's next class Jamie says Alvin will use his "tough, deep south discipline" to get the students to behave.

Alvin makes the lesson personal by telling the students his family story, he says his mother worked as a maid in Florida for 25 dollars a day, 5 days a week, 51 weeks a year, and she had seven children. He says they were very poor going up, in fact so much he says "we weren't POOR, we were PO, we couldn't afford the O and R". This kind of humour is gentle, lighthearted and a nice way to get the students in a positive frame-of-mind.

Conor asks Alvin his name and wonders should they call him 'Alvin' or 'Mr. Hall', Alvin is very clear on this point: "Call me, Mr. Hall!" insisting that they respect his authority.

Alvin tells them that the thing that transformed his life was one phrase "Self-discipline" and that for him to be a success he "learned basic maths skills"

On voice-over Jamie says that Alvin is getting them to do "a shopping exercise to get them to Add and Subtract" - I know I shouldn't say this, but seriously, what sort of dopes are these students that they need help adding and subtracting, most of them are Leaving Cert. age for Heaven's sake, in Ireland they would have finished getting help adding and subtracting in primary school. Still tying the lesson into practical things like shopping is a great idea.

After class Jourdelle stays behind to learn more maths skills, he wants to be successful and rich, Alvin is very supportive and friendly, he tells Jourdelle that he has enough control and discipline to succeed.

Third Lesson

In Alvin's next class he has to teach fractions and percentages using only the board and a pen. Alvin spent all night worrying about how he was going to teach fractions to students who are afraid of Division. He called a couple of friends, a Child Development Psychologist, and a Mathematician, and based on their advice at 4:40am in the morning he figured out how to teach fractions and percentages. We have to applaud Alvin's dedication.

He teaches them fractions by using a pie chart, so he asks them "How many hours do you think I spend sleeping? (6 hours), and "How many hours do you think I spend working?" (11 hours). Then he says "I have one hour I spend on a dirty little secret" - a wonderful way of creating a bit of mystery and humour. It turns out Alvin's dirty secret is "either going to the gym or taking a nap". Alvin also spends 6 hours on personal time. He gets them to calculate the percentages that correspond to the amount of time he spends on each activity as a fraction of a 24 hour day.

Next he says "I want you to create a pie chart of your day" making the activity personal to them which they love.

He reinforces the idea the "if you can master the basics when the right opportunity comes knocking at your door, you can answer and grab it" appealing to their greed and ego, Alvin made it, so they can too.

When the students are leaving class one of them says "you make it fun, you make it enjoyable".

After class Nana-Kwame is shown working through the maths book on his own time, a clear sign that Alvin's approach is working.

Also after class Alvin says "I'm very skeptical when people say they are bright...bright isn't the word I would first use", it's interesting to hear an American perspective on things. Americans are usually more literal and honest about things, and typically when Americans talk about "bright children" they mean students who enjoy class and and interested and attentive; which is not something these students could be accused of. In contrast when Jamie is saying they are "bright children" that is code for "they aren't as thick as they seem". British people tend to be much less blunt about things, and tend to talk things up a little bit.

Jamie and Alvin

In voice-over Jamie says "Alvin seems to have a clear way of making maths relevant and he's really tuned into their kind of psyche, which is the clever bit".

Jamie meets Alvin after class, impressed by the interest that has been generated in Maths, he asks Alvin the secrets of his success, to which Alvin says that "given that the children are money-focused, and self-focused" he shows how his success story can be their story. Also he says that "immediate feedback" is the main goal of his teaching, that's why he set the classroom up in a U-shape to be able to reach all of the students as quickly as possible. 'Immediate feedback' is a brilliant goal, and we can't help but think of John Hattie in that context.

Jamie asks Alvin how would these students be treated in America, Alvin says that in America they would have to get Childhood Therapy to deal with their anger management issues.

Alvin is a brilliant teacher.

What worked:
Setting disciplinary boundaries and reinforcing them, making it personal by telling a story about his own history, appealing to the student's greed, appealing to the student's ego, using humour, "Call me, Mr. Hall!", tying the lesson into practical things like shopping and his daily timetable, being supportive and friendly, asking other people for advice, create a bit of mystery, being a role model that the students can replicate, giving immediate feedback.

What didn't work:
The students were very late - maybe he should have canceled class after 15 minutes. After the two students had gotten into a fight in the class he should have canceled class - it was obvious that the other students were too giddy after this incident

Dabbs and the Extraordinary Head Teachers Assembly

After speaking to Jenny about her altercation in Alvin's first class, Dabbs decides to hold an Extraordinary Head Teachers Assembly, getting all the students together and as many teachers as he has on hand. He feels discipline is slipping and he needs to draw a line.

Dabbs says "I've had enough", he is unhappy with their behaviour, he is dismayed that he has to ask them: "Have you had a drink before you came to school?". When Connor tries to interrupt him, he says "Not now please". He then says "You think because I'm reasonable, I'm soft, but I ain't" (shades of Simon Callow last week).

He asks for the students to raise their hands to comment, Connor raises his hand, so Dabbs says "Connor first" then one of the students, Harlem, says "I'm second" without raising her hand, this irks Dabbs, and he says he'll decide the order of comments. This sets Harlem off, first she just starts saying nice things about the other students, but then gets very angry and accuses Dabbs of thinking he is better than everyone else. Another student, Jenny, points out that Dabbs is the Headmaster and is above everyone else, which drives Harlem crazy, she threatens to batter Jenny, and makes aggressive moves towards her until some students step in between the pair and Harlem is asked to leave the room. Harlem's level of anger is way off the charts, she clearly has anger management and self-sabotage issues.

Shockingly it is David Starkey who makes a joke to diffuse the situation, he says that Harlem could be an opera singer, this lightens the mood a little.

Alvin is not impressed by Dabbs' behaviour, he feels that Dabbs drew a line but then let it expand.

In voice-over Jamie mentions that Dabbs himself was kicked out of school three times and has great sympathy for troubled students. Dabbs decides he needs to phone Harlem's mother, so he first writes out a script of what he wants to communicate to her, he tells her that he is thinking of expelling Harlem, but will sleep on and and talk to Jamie.

Jamie invites Harlem and her mother in to meet with him, he shows them a video of Harlem's behaviour, who is blaming everyone but herself. Her mother is plainly shocked and disappointed at Harlem's behaviour, and tries to reasons with Harlem, and explains to her that she needs to look at herself. This approach to parenting seems a bit weak to me.

Jamie says "that was ugly", he says "that sort of aggression will end up ... in blood". He paints a grim picture of Harlem's future, he says he would love to hire her in a year's time, but if she behaved like that, he would have to fire her immediately. It is interesting that Jamie frames the situation in terms of employment, when at the start of this episode Harlem expressed her concern about getting at job when at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. Jamie has the right approach, explain the problem in terms of things that matter to her.

What worked:
Dabbs setting disciplinary boundaries, Dabbs writing a script to speak to Harlem's mother, Dabbs sleeping on a decision, Jamie explaining the problem in terms of things that matter to the students.

What didn't work:
Dabbs going into the meeting angry.

Jane Poynter, Science (Enviroment) Teacher

Robert Winston, Science Teacher has selected four students (Conor, Henry, Danielle and Chole) who have shown a lot of interest in science to accompany Jane Poynter into an artificial biosphere for 3 days. Jamie says "I'll try anything" to get the students interested in science, another lame excuse on Jamie's behalf to explain away the highly unrealistic nature of this part of the School, there is no way a regular school could afford to build an artificial biosphere, so any outcome of this part of the process is unfair.

In voiceover Jamie calls Jane Poynter "a great scientist" which is an interesting assessment of her - between 1993 and 1995 Jane Poynter with seven other people stayed in a sealed environment "Biosphere 2" for two years. What is interesting about Jane Poynter is that it is very difficult to find out any information about her before that point, based on comments she has made in interviews and her conversations with the students it appears she comes from a very wealthy family, she didn't go to college but instead traveled the world trying to find a career that suited her, and decided to live in the "Biosphere 2" as a challenge. Since then she has written books about her experiences, and married Taber MacCallum, a fellow "Biosphere 2" crew member.

Before going into the artificial biosphere Connor thanks Robert Winston for choosing him as one of the four participants, it means a lot to him.

When the students enter the artificial biosphere Poynter explains rules of the confinement, and explains to the students that they will have to monitor their oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, and that they will have to manually empty the toilets, which causes the students to complain loudly.

When the students complain they want to smoke, Poynter says that "everybody fails if anybody tries to leave", a rule which she doesn't stick to.

The next morning Poynter wakes the students up at 6:30am, and within a short few hours they are complaining about their inability to smoke. A few hours later a student from the outside burns a small hole in the plastic of the biosphere to give one of the students a drag of a cigarette inside. This strikes me as woefully bad behaviour, it's not simply damaging property that isn't theirs, I see it as an attack on the experiment, the point of which is that it is a sealed environment, so to puncture it is an attempt to destroy the whole experiment, a really selfish act. It could be the case the students on the outside were jealous of those who got picked to go in, but whatever the case the students really let themselves down.

In a few hours Chole makes a break for it and leaves the biosphere to get a smoke, and Conor and Henry soon follow. Thus breaking the one rule Poynter set. Danielle stays in, explaining that in her old school everyone else was messing so she couldn't pay attention, so eventually she just gave up and joined the messers, so she isn't going to make the same mistake twice. Danielle continues to monitor the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, and Poynter gets her to write up her experiences in the form of research questions.

After the three days are over the students and staff celebrate when Poynter and Danielle come out, Jamie asks "is everyone really proud of her?" to which everyone cheers. As a reward Jamie presents Danielle with a plane ticket to fly her to Arizona to go visit "Biosphere 2". This is definitely a good idea, rewarding good behaviour.

What worked:
Practical experiment, teaching about research questions, rewarding good behaviour

What didn't work:
Poynter doesn't stick to her rules, Jamie fails to punish the students who vandalized the biosphere.

David Starkey, History Teacher

David Starkey says "for me the thing that was transformative was one-to-one tutorials". He feels that "group teaching with people like this brings out the worst in them rather than the best in them" and that "those who want to learn are hindered by those who do not". He feels some of the students suffer from "emotional incontinence".

Starkey meets with Jordel, and asks with "Are you happy with reading and writing?".

Starkey meets with Jamal and challenges him by saying "You have to do a bit of thinking".

Starkey speaks to Danielle over video-chat to the biosphere and is very supportive, saying "I got the impression you were enjoying the class" and "you were saying sharp and sensible things"

What worked:
Teaching to his strengths (one-to-one tutorials), being positive and encouraging.

What didn't work:
Nothing

Free Computer Science courses

2011-04-23T02:50:00.000-07:00

There is so much good computer science material out there, it might be good for the students:

Free Computer Science books

2011-04-23T02:30:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about the Computer Science field is that many of the authors are big supporters of the idea of Open Education, as a consequence have lots of sites like these that provide free computer books:

Jamie's Dream School: Episode 2

2011-04-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

Jamie's Dream School: Episode 2

Headteacher
* John "Dabbs" D'Abbro

This week:
* Alastair Campbell, Politics Teacher
* Jazzie B, Music Teacher
* Simon Callow, English Teacher
* Rankin, Photography Teacher
* David Starkey, History Teacher

Jamie and Dabbs

Jamie feels that the teachers have to adjust and learn from the students, and he wonders how can the teachers can break the disruptive behaviour of the students.

Jamie and Dabbs continue with their Social-psychological intervention, getting students to explain why they are in Jamie's dream School. what was wrong with their old schools, and what are their hopes for the future.

Jamie also asks the students to stop texting and chatting in their classes.

What worked:
Social-psychological intervention

What didn't work:
Nothing

Alastair Campbell, Politics Teacher

Continuing on the trend from last week of having subjects that are not on the GCSE curriculum, but are more engaging and exciting, Jamie gets Alastair Campbell to teach a politics course. This seems to me to be a real cheat, if you can add any subjects in you want it's really easy, but not at all realistic.

Alastair Campbell started his career as a journalist rising to become Political Editor of the Daily Mirror. He was an advisor to Neil Kinnock, and became close friends with Tony Blair who appointed his Director of Communications. As such Campbell is a fantastic "spin doctor" and teaches his class in a manner that plays to his strengths - debating and arguing.

Campbell says he wants to focus on "Politics, Media and Campaigns", and he wants to show them that "they are probably a lot more political than they think". He suggests that his classes will be a lot less structured than other classes.

First Lesson

Campbell opens with the statement that there is only one rule in his class "one of us speaks at a time" but unfortunately doesn't manage to ensure that the students stick to this rule. He then asks each of them the question "What does politics say to you?" which gets them thinking about the themes of his class, and could be seen as an attempt at the Socratic method.

The key focus of the class will be to put together a campaign on a topic of the students choosing (topics that they suggest include abolish taxes, more social housing, and legalise pitbulls), this approach seems a lot like a Project-Based Learning approach.

At the end of the first class Campbell is happy how things went and says to Jamie "they're not bad kids on any level".

Second Lesson

In the next lesson Campbell wants to teach them how to argue so he starts off showing a video of his favorite person, himself, on a Sky News interview arguing with Adam Boulton. The video goes down very well with the class and then he asks them "Is it better to be passionate or laid back?" to which everyone agrees it is better to be passionate.

Next he gets them to role-play an interview where one of the students is arguing for gay-only youth groups. Unfortunately there is too much talking while the interview is going on, and most of the other students are unclear as to the exact nature of the topic. One of the students says she knows of know youth groups that explicitly forbid gays, which starts an argument between her and the interviewee, that continues on after class and lead to aggression in the playground. Dabbs bring them in to see him and says he's going to sleep on their punishment and take some advice.

What worked:
Playing to his strengths as a teacher (debating and arguing), allowing the students to choose their own topics to discuss, asking the students questions instead of telling them things, showing a video

What didn't work:
Not enforcing his "one of us speaks at a time" rule, not explaining that an argument is something that should not lead to an aggressive fight.

Jazzie B, Music Teacher

Jazzie B (Trevor Beresford Romeo) is a really excellent choice as Music teacher, he is a well-known performer, having founded "Soul II Soul" who had a number one hit with "Back to Life", he has produced and remixed records for many others, as well as founding an advocacy group - the Featured Artists Coalition. He also presents a radio show "Back 2 Life". He has a good mixture of technical skills and presenting skills.

Jamie describes Jazzie's teaching style as "tough bur fair". Jazzie is teaching them music using computers, getting them to do something practical immediately. Jazzie starts the class establishing the ground rules, before anyone is allowed to touch the computers he gets them to answer two questions: "Does anyone want to go to the bathroom?", and "Are your phones off?". This is a wonderful way of taking away any excuses for being disruptive.

He then says he wants it to be so quiet in the room that he can hear a pin drop, but the students are still chattering, so he says "I can't hear this pin drop", and when there is still chattering he says "Look guys, we're killing the lesson, we gotta have this little bit of discipline". This is a superb approach to show the class that he identifies with them while at the same time giving out to them, because it is "we" who are killing the lesson it includes all of us (very Ron Clark).

He then gets them to stand up, raise their hands in the air, and sing "Do Re Mi", this gets them energised, focused and ready for work. He then gets on with the teaching.

What worked:
Remove any excuses for distraction (mobile phones, bathroom breaks), identify with the students verbally ("we"), get the students standing up and doing exercise.

What didn't work:
Nothing

Simon Callow, English Teacher

This is the second week for Simon Callow, as their homework from last week the students had to look at Romeo and Juliet on DVD. Callow asks one of the students, Connor, to summarise the play for him, which the student does successfully and he is praised for it.

Last week Callow said his objective was to "turn them onto Shakespeare", this week he says he hopes to show them that "Shakespeare might be of some value to them in their lives" and to show them that "drama is a very engaging form of art".

The lesson starts off well but the students get more restless over time, Callow's comments start off mild and he gradually becomes more and more frustrated. He start off with gentle comments, "please listen", after getting a little more annoyed he says "Excuse me", but eventually he completely loses his temper and shouts: "SHUT UP ... ENOUGH ... Can you imagine what it is like for me to be here with this unending hubbub and buzz". Callow started off too nice so had to eventually set some boundaries. After the event he says he thinks it was a good thing he gave out to them, to show that he is "not a pussy cat" and they might pay more attention.

To help further their interest in Shakespeare he takes them to see his one-man play "Shakespeare: The Man from Stratford", some of the students don't recognise their teacher, and their behaviour is appaling throughout the performance, constantly chatting to each other and generally distracting the rest of the audience. After the performance many of their fellow patrons express their dismay at the students behaviour, which the students completely reject any responsibility for.

I will restate what I said previously that this is must more a Drama class than an English class.

What worked:
Asking the students to summarise the homework, finally setting boundaries, bringing the students out into the real world

What didn't work:
Losing his temper, allowing his students to interact with the public

Jamie Olver, Home Economics Teacher

Jamie Oliver is the Home Ecomonics teacher, but he is really only teaching Cooking, so the other parts of Home Economics syllabus are left out, e.g. interior design, sewing, child development, and managing money, which is another big cheat. Jamie seems like the type of teacher we would have all liked, he seems to speak the same language as the students and is friendly. The fact that he is dyslexic means that he knows how to struggle and overcome, excellent qualities in a teacher.

Jamie outlines his developing educational philosophy, he says "you want to love them and be their chum, but what I'm starting to learn is to have strictness". This is a key insight, if you don't set up the rules and boundaries, how will the know they are misbehaving? Jamie was a difficult student himself so can sympathise with them but he is trying to find a balance of love and discipline.

It is reported to him that some of the students were drinking alcohol that morning, so when Jamie starts class he asks the students if anyone was drinking this morning, no one admits it for a while, but he keeps asking the question until the two students in question admit to their behaviour. Jamie says that they can't use knifes today. He then passes around a mixing bowl and insists that all the students put their phones in the bowl to stop interruptions, setting down some ground rules.

Jamie explains the three important types of knife (a chef's knife, a pairing knife, and a bread knife) and their uses, then he gets then chopping, Jamie thinks doing stuff is good for the students.

What worked:
Sympathising with the students but setting boundaries, practical work, getting their mobile phones, not giving knives to drunken students.

What didn't work:
Nothing

Rankin, Photography Teacher

Rankin (John Rankin Waddell) is the Photography teacher, at this stage I'm getting sick of saying it, but this is yet another class that is not actually featured on the GCSEs, and therefore although it is a fun class to do, it has no direct correspondence to what would happen in a real school. Rankin is a highly successful photographer. It is interesting to note that he was studying accounting in college before he gave it up and transferred to photography, so he knows well about the frustrations of the academic life, and is therefore a very sympathetic teacher.

In the voiceover Jamie wonders if schools are neglecting the creativity of children to justify this additional course. My own view is that schools are definitely not neglecting creativity in their students, teachers do an unbelievable amount of voluntary after-school activities to foster creativity in students, so this is just a bogus excuse for a new subject.

First Lesson

Rankin says he will teach them about photography and lighting, and will get them to take pictures one at a time. He tells them their homework will be to take a picture of themselves and to add something to the picture: draw on it, tear them up, or change it somehow. He students loudly object, and start shouting they can't do it, but he shows them examples of previous images that celebrities have altered and they calm down. One of the students, Jenny, refuses to take a photo of herself, so Rankin gets her to take pictures of him instead.

Second Lesson

The students are thrilled with this exercise, so much so that before class on the day that they are meant to hand up their assignments, one of the students, Connor, wants to show Rankin his work. Rankin gives wonderfully positive feedback to this student and to all of the students, he is very kind, engaging, and positive about everyone's work, for example, "this is really good mate".

Another wonderful touch Rankin adds is to create an exhibition of their photographs, he puts them on display in a large classroom and gets all the teachers to come and view their work, and mix with the students, this is a powerfully positive experience for many students. Rankin is a super teacher.

What worked:
Creative assignment with a personal dimension, examples of previous assignments, really positive feedback, the exhibition

What didn't work:
Nothing

David Starkey, History Teacher

Last time we saw David Starkely he was refusing to take any more classes after a disaster of an initial class. An interesting coda to that class was to see the students reenacting the event, and they said the following: (playing Starkey) "You're fat", (playing Connor) "You're short", (playing Starkey) "...and you are all failures". It is amazing to note that the key message they got from Starkey's speech was that they are all failures in his eyes.

Before the lesson

Starkey met up with Jamie and Dabbs and insisted that the students are the problem, and Jamie has to make sure that the rules are understood and obeyed. He says when he looked at Connor he saw an "arrogant, self-satisfied, porcine boy". He also said that he did nothing that "every teacher in my school would have done". He feels that no one "has given them any structure". Jamie and Dabbs appeal to him and ask him to please come back and give it another try, that mistakes were made on both sides and the important thing is to learn from the event.

Starkey takes this advice to heart and arranges a meeting with Connor, the student he had the argument with, where they settle their differences, and Starkey even asks Connor: "Will you help me [to teach in a more suitable way]?" This is a major change in Starkey's attitude and it keeps on coming.

Starkey meets up with Jazzie B to ask for some teaching advice. Starkey opens up emotionally, telling Jazzie B that his parents made him take piano lessons as a child and he absolutely hated it, he felt trapped, and didn't enjoy it at all. Jazzie suggests he turn that around, and consider that maybe this is the way the students feel about their schooling experiences. Jazzie also tells Starkey that he shouldn't talk down to the students and to use his humour and laugh with them.

The lesson

When Starkey's class starts he opens by getting the students to put away their laptops and turning off their mobile phones. He then shows them a video of themselves taking part in the previous history class that he missed where they are being taught jousting. The students really enjoy this.

Starkey makes a big effort to relate what he is teaching to the student's lives, he says "Henry the VIII was the same age as you when he took the throne". He asks them to guess Henry's height and when a student guesses a height, Starkey says "it's a very good guess". He asks them how we know Henry VIII's height if we have never measured him, someone shouts "his suit of armour" to which Starkey says "GREAT!" very positively.

He is lighthearted and positive - a major improvement. Starkey comments on the class "we're sort of getting to know each other" and "there's a human and humane reaction going on", but he still feels there is a hardcore that is still disenchanted.

The students feel he did a good job and that he explained things in ways that suited them.

What worked:
Making peace with the students, looking for help from other teachers, using humour, being positive, explaining topics in a way that is relevant to the students, asking questions instead of just talking, showing a video, setting the rules on laptops and mobile phones.

What didn't work:
Focusing on the few students who aren't interested, there will always be a few who don't want to engage no matter how hard you try, that's their choice - you can lead a horse to water...

Jamie's Dream School: Episode 1

2011-04-21T07:25:00.000-07:00

Now that the education blogs are calming down a bit over "Jamie's Dream School" I'm going to write a review of each episode to see what we can learn about teaching from it.

Jamie's Dream School: Episode 1

Jamie sets up the premise well - he is taking twenty students "who hate rules and regulations" and is "ripping up the rulebook" by using "brilliant minds" and "inspirational experts" to enthuse them. The students have "flunked their GCSEs" and hate education, as they feel it has let them down,

Headteacher
* John "Dabbs" D'Abbro

This week:
* Simon Callow, English Teacher
* David Starkey, History Teacher
* Rolf Harris, Art Teacher
* Ellen MacArthur, Unspecified
* Robert Winston, Science Teacher

Jamie Oliver starts off very well telling them they are normal and brilliant, and is able to persuade them to wear uniforms in spite of their objections.

Simon Callow, English Teacher

The choice of Simon Callow as the English teacher is a very interesting one, as well as being a respected actor Callow is also a writer and biographer. Obviously being a teacher and being an actor are two different professions, but nonetheless they definitely require some of the same skills in terms of creating a performance, using your voice to command attention, getting the audience emotionally involved. Simon Callow also loves literature; Shakespeare, Wilde, Dickens, etc., so his enthusiasm is a real plus.

He says his objective is to "turn them onto Shakespeare", an excellent ambition, and one that he is uniquely equipped to achieve, but clearly that is not the whole of the English syllabus.

His classroom manner is friendly and kind, when students speak out of turn his reproaches are mild: "focus a bit, please", "O.K., guys, shush, shush", "quiet, please, OK, please, listen" and seems to manage the class well.

His exercise to get them to think about "anyone you would like to be like" proves to be effective in terms of getting them to identify role models and look at ways they can achieve their dreams, although at times the lesson does become more like a n Introductory Acting class as opposed to English. He then matches their role models to Shakespearean characters.

He does a very good job, but comments afterward that he feels the students are "unruly, not disciplined".

What worked:
Getting them to identify role models, treating them like equals, being very positive and enthusiastic

What didn't work:
Classroom discipline

David Starkey, History Teacher

David Starkey is a poor choice as History teacher, he was a university lecturer for 26 years and as such he would imagine he knew something about teaching, but the reality is that he would have no way to relate to students who hadn't chosen history as their specialism. Also he is famous for his abrasiveness and rudeness, his behaviour on this show should be no surprise to anyone who ever listened to his BBC Radio 4 show, The Moral Maze. He is famously provocative, in 2009 he suggested that female historians had "feminised" history by focusing on female historical subjects -- let's face it, he's a git.

It is interesting to note that before his class begins he wonders if the students have low self-esteem and that's why they are having difficulties.

The class begins well with Starkey bringing in historical artifacts to outline the history of Britain. Jamie Oliver comments that Starkey is teaching them the "origins of bling". Starkey also moves the class up to the front rows since he wants them to be able to see the artifacts.

All is going well until the students start speaking out of turn and then Starkey (who previously commented on their possible low self-esteem) says "quiet everyone, you are all here, I'm told, because you failed ... you didn't get the magic five GCSEs ... and one of the reasons it seems to me you failed is you were too busy talking and not listening enough". If this is an effort to build up their esteem it's a strange one!

Further to his self-esteem building measures, he picks out one student and says "Come on, you're so fat you couldn't really move" and "with Jamie's food there will be lots of dieting opportunities". This doesn't surprise me at all, I had a number of teachers in Secondary School who did exactly the same thing - pick on one student, and make all the other students co-conspirators in the harassment of the one student by getting everyone to laugh at the teacher's cruel comments. The problem in this show is that the students are sufficiently independently-minded to reject his bullying approach, and worse still the student he picked on has the temerity to give back as good as he got. Starkey is clearly in way over his head.

Starkey feels that since they will not listen to him "they are destroying what they could be" and "cutting off their noses to spite their faces", but sees nothing wrong with his own interactions with the class.

In the next history class Starkey stays at home and lets a jousting expert teach them the basics of jousting. Starkey is hurt by his experiences and feels that the school is leaderless and it needs rules and sanctions, and that these students have had "too much of the milk of human kindness".

Jamie feels that he and Dabbs can "help" Starkey become a better teacher.

What worked:
The use of props, telling history as a story

What didn't work:
Insulting students, getting into a fight, trying to be cool

Jamie and Dabbs

As the students are very unsettled after their History class Jamie and Dabbs undertake an intervention. They get the students to tell each other their stories and ask them about their ambitions. This is a brilliant social-psychological intervention that is very effective. As Alexander Astin points out: "The student’s peer group is the single most potent source of influence on the growth and development".

Jamie asks that students to respect each other and the teachers.

What worked:
Social-psychological intervention

What didn't work:
Nothing

Rolf Harris, Art Teacher

Rolf Harris is a great choice as Art teacher, he is not a teacher by profession but is a performer with decades of experience as a singer and presenting television shows. In the same way that Simon Callow is a good choice so is Rolf Harris, he knows how to engage an audience. He is also teaching what he knows about.

The class starts with Harris asking them if they know what impressionism is (his mentor was impressionist painter Hayward Veal) so he starts off with asking the question "Have you heard of a fella called Monet?" and proceeds to explain impressionism in a simple and clear way.

He gets them painting which they all enjoy, but still there are some students who don't pay attention and are texting, Rolf says "you're not phoning someone there, are you?" He does a good job teaching the class.

After the class is over Rolf is very upset, he feels that if he had half the number of students in his class he could have given everyone more attention, he says "Henry and Jake, they just gave up". Every teacher in the world can sympathize with Rolf, we all have too many students in the classroom.

One student, Henry enjoys creating graffiti, so Rolf gives him some canvases to paint on, but Henry is unhappy with his own work and smashes his canvases and throws his can across the room and leaves in frustration.

What worked:
Friendly manner, simple explanations, positive feedback

What didn't work:
Focusing on the interested students

Ellen MacArthur, Unspecified

Yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur takes four students yachting and teaches them how to sail. Jamie doesn't pretend this is part of the curriculum or that a regular school could afford to do this, what he says is that "getting out together can really broaden your horizons" (shades of Robert Baden-Powell).

What worked:
Team work, sharing a meal

What didn't work:
No specific learning objectives

Robert Winston, Science Teacher

Robert Winston is a great choice as the Science teacher, as well as being a scientist, medical doctor, television presenter, and a politician, he also teaches and lectures in secondary schools and universities championing the importance of science. Being a television presenter means that he is well able to engage audiences, and being a politician means that he is able to "give as good as he gets".

Winston decides to deliver a "hand's on" course, focusing on practical work without a lot of theory, and focusing on having fun. This is a good approach, obviously it is not an option for teachers since the students are going to be examined on theory as well as practice, but it is a great way to engage students.

Winston is a surgeon so he decides to get the students to dissect a rat, and smiles his way through the noise of the students chattering. Jamie notes that most schools don't do dissection any more for financial and Health-and-Safety reasons. Winston gets some of the students engaged in this process, but others less so.

Next he creates a bit of tension by wheeling in a trolley with a sheet covering it, the students are intrigued and are concerned that the trolley has a cadaver underneath it, this is a great way to build up a bit of excitement. Eventually he removes the sheet and reveals a pig corpse. He begins to do an autopsy which causes about ten students to leave the classroom in disgust. His class was generally successful.

What worked:
Practical work to inspire curiosity, building up a bit of excitement

What didn't work:
Grossing out the students with entrails, focusing on the interested students

Thank Heavens for Jamie's Dream School

2011-04-03T15:46:00.000-07:00

No greater love letter has been written to the art of teaching than the wonderful Channel 4 series "Jamie's Dream School". Hosted by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, the series shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the job of teaching, and as a consequence makes for great television, but is of sparse value for anyone attempting to learn anything about teaching. There are a few wonderful teachers in the bunch, but generally the series gives us incompetence of the highest order.

The fundamental error that the series makes is that someone who is an expert in a particular field is automatically a good teacher in that field. Part of the reason for this might be the foolish assumption that expertise makes you good at everything, whereas the opposite is true, expertise is, in fact, "spectacularly narrow" (W.G. Chase). Brilliant chess players are not automatically good at playing draughts, nor are they automatically good at playing a chess-like game with different rules ... and they certainly are not automatically better at teaching chess just because they are good at it themselves. And beyond this, someone who is naturally gifted at a particular endeavour might be a very, very poor teacher because have no idea of how to break down the endeavour into simple steps to explain it to novices, and they might be very impatient with someone who can't understand things as quickly as they themselves can.

Another utterly obvious point the the series fails to recognise is that peer-learning is "the single most potent source of influence on the growth and development" of students (Alexander Astin), so to populate the classroom full of students who are academically weak and are having trouble studying is completely pointless and painfully teacher-centred. Let's face it, it's the body of students in our classrooms that do the heavy-lifting - we create the environment and they do the work. To have a whole class full of students who are weak removes the "champions of the classroom" that inspire the others to work hard.

Nonetheless, I reiterate my initial point, this show is a love-letter to teaching, it shows that the job isn't just a matter of turning up and knowing the subject, there are all kinds of classroom management, motivation, psychology, and trust issues involved as well, thanks Jamie.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/jamies-dream-school

Happy Ada Lovelace Day 2010

2010-03-24T11:02:00.000-07:00

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, a day to blog about female computer scientists we admire. Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace (10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852) is credited with authoring the first computer algorithm (which concerned a method for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers) in 1843 for use on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine.

This year I'm going to write a posting on MIT professor Barbara Liskov who won the 2008 ACM Turning Award for 'foundational innovations' in programming language design. Barbara Liskov has worked at MIT AI lab since 1972, and one of her most significant contributions to the field of computer science is her work on championing the idea of Data Abstraction (which seperates the implementation from the use of complex data types). She also designed CLU, an object-oriented programming language incorporating clusters to provide coherent, systematic handling of abstract data types. Following this she developed Argus, a distributed programming language whose novel features led to further developments in distributed system design that could scale to systems connected by a network.

Without her work we would not have programming languages like C++ and Java, without her work we wouldn't have distribtued databases and innovations in real-time systems, without her work we wouldn't have Cloud Computing, thank you Barbara Liskov.

This is a video of Barbara Liskov discussing Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance from December 3, 2001, Running Time: 00:55:32
http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/43

The Irish Times: Reeling in the hackers

2010-02-18T18:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0219/1224264787078.html

A new study reveals that the popular film portrayal of computer hackers is actually quite accurate, writes KARLIN LILLINGTON

IF YOU don’t like the idea of a scholarly paper on the trail of hackers in films, then take it up with Damian Gordon’s parents. “I have to blame my parents – the only films we were ever taken to were science fiction and futuristic kinds of films,” says Gordon, a lecturer in computer science at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Gordon has just published his paper, Forty Years of Movie Hacking: Considering the Potential Implications of the Popular Media Representation of Computer Hackers from 1968 to 2008, in the current issue of the International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions.

A self-confessed film buff, he likes to show students clips from such films as a teaching tool because he feels they bring an abstract subject to life and help initiate lively discussions.

“With computer science you’re always trying to explain complex ideas in a clear way. Clips from films can be very useful for that. Any time I can, I try to slip in a film clip.”

In trying to teach his students about security issues, he realised many had misguided notions about what the typical computer hacker is like and where security threats come from.

That set him thinking that perhaps the misperceptions came from the upper trails of hackers in popular culture.

So Gordon set out to compile a list of as many films that featured hacking as he could and came up with 50 – which he realises is not comprehensive and excludes foreign films, but does pick up most Hollywood films since the late 1960s that fit within his criteria outlined in the 29-page paper. He excluded animated films and documentaries, for example.

He included films from as early as 1968 through to 2008, across several genres from science fiction to crime films.

His paper observes a curious dearth of films in the 1970s, just as computing was coming into popular visibility. His theory is that a lifting of censorship rules caused films to focus more on violence and sex.

“Hacking computers was probably too passive and boring,” he laughs.

The aim of his paper “was really to investigate why there is a general public perception that hackers all seem to be teenagers in bedrooms. Lots of books on hacking talk about this, but it is so wrong. Most hackers are around 30 and are computer professionals.

“Being a hacker is really not about sitting alone in a dark bedroom. It has a lot more to do with your interpersonal skills.”

His film findings surprised Gordon just as much as they might surprise others. Far from having public perceptions of hackers shaped by films, he found that the celluloid portrayal of hackers was actually quite accurate – setting aside the unlikelihood of your average female hacker looking like Sandra Bullock or Angelina Jolie.

“It’s devastating to realise that most movies do portray hackers correctly,” he jokes.

First off, he found that the average age of the majority of film hackers was over 25, with only a quarter younger than that. Some 65 per cent were aged between 25 and 50, and only 3 per cent were older than 50, which he thinks is fairly accurate.

As for profession, 32 per cent were portrayed as working in the computer industry, 28 per cent were full-time hackers, 20 per cent were students and 20 per cent worked in other professions.

Gordon notes that this actually meshes fairly closely with reality – one study cited in his paper notes that the average hacker is 27 and either a computer professional or full-time hacker.

Gordon also found that, in the films, about 10 per cent of the hackers were women, which also approximates real-world statistics.

He notes that for some reason there are far more female hackers portrayed on television compared to film. “I’m presuming that’s because men tend to do the action bits on television,” he says.

Two areas in which film deviated from real-world hacking are the number of attacks depicted as coming from outside an organisation rather than being instigated from those inside an organisation, and the portrayal of the intentions of hackers.

In film, only 20 per cent of the attacks are internal, but industry studies suggest the ratio may be closer to 50-50, Gordon notes in his paper.

Also, the vast majority of hackers in films are actually portrayed as the good guys – a huge 73 per cent, with 10 per cent being somewhere in between, and 17 per cent portrayed as bad guys. “I was definitely surprised at the number of films showing hackers in a positive light,” he says.

However, he rather likes this himself, given that the term “hacker” started out as a positive one, referring to people who were highly adept at tinkering with electronics and writing or modifying computer programs. Only much later did the public start to use the term hacker to mean someone with malicious intent.

“I’d like to reclaim the title as a positive one,” says Gordon.

Damian's top five

Top Millions (1968) Peter Ustinov as Marcus Pendleton, a con-man just out of prison. “Really a great movie.”

Tron (1982) Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a former employee of fictional computer company ENCOM. “I adored Tron, and you can never go wrong with Jeff Bridges.”

Superman III (1983) Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) discovers that he has an extraordinary talent for computer programming. “A great salami-slicing attack.”

WarGames (1983) David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) as a high school student who is highly unmotivated at school but is an enthusiastic computer hacker at home. “Fixed in people’s minds the archetype of the young hacker operating from his bedroom.”

Sneakers (1992, Heist) College students Martin Brice (Gary Hershberger) and his friend Cosmo (Jo Marr) use a college computer to hack into banking systems to transfer funds. “Fantastic film”

Star Trek to blame for lack of female Computer Scientists ???

2009-12-28T20:03:00.001-08:00

How very interesting, two topics that are very dear to my heart...Star Trek and gender balance in Computer Science...a study has been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggesting that stereotypical images of computer science (including Star Trek, videogames, junk food, and comic books) create barriers to females from joining the fold, as the decor broadcasts a kind of masculinity. The paper entitled "Ambient belonging: How stereotypical cues impact gender participation in computer science" suggests that these stereotypical images can either create/prevent a sense of (ambient) belonging, and for females they serve as barriers to joining.

I love the debate that this opens; I think it is a very interesting and a very important issue to discuss. I think it is vital we have gender balance in computer science, it is a necessity as fundamental as gravity.

The study in this paper is a good beginning, but that's about it, in it the authors presented students with two computer rooms, one which contained comic books, video-game boxes and junk food, the other room contained nature posters, healthy snacks and general interest books -- given the choice, 82 percent of the women picked the nonstereotypical workroom. In follow-up tests, a total of 215 students were asked to imagine they were joining either a geekily decorated or a neutrally decorated company after graduation. For every possible scenario, women preferred the non-geeky space.

Lead author Sapna Cheryan of the University of Washington suggests that non-stereotypical depictions of computer science, in the media and in classrooms, could help update the field’s image. Now this it seems to me is very, very obvious, and over simplified -- the findings suggest that environment can influence people's comfort level. I accept this, but I think there are a number of larger issues here, such as the way computer education is treated in secondary school as a result of secondary school teachers attitudes to women in science. I think blaming the media is a bit trite, I have previously looked at the representation of computer users in TV and it is clear to me that female computer users are well represented in the media.

I think to make this type of study more useful, the experimental approach needs to be expanded.

First what we need are more longitudinal studies on this issue, the study undertaken in this paper appears to be a very short-term experiment.

And second let's see which of the geeky elements are the problem. Do they work in combination or is there any one element that is key? My view is "let's not eliminate these things (where possible) let's modify them to be more inviting to everyone", So;

If Star Trek is a parameter, what if the images are of positive female role models in Star Trek, e.g. Captain Janeway or B'Elanna Torres the engineer, would this change things?
If video games are a parameter, let's try ones with more positive female role models in them.
If the issue is junk food let's just get rid of junk food out of computer labs, it's bad for your brain.
If the issue is comic books, can we find comics with positive female role models? like Halo Jones or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Still this is a great paper to start the debate.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091214143728.htm

http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2009-22579-003&CFID=26947242&CFTOKEN=68584354

Harvard study: Computers don't save hospitals money

2009-12-01T14:20:00.000-08:00

An interesting article on the benefits (or lack thereof)
of computers for hospitals. It would be interesting to
see a similar study in schools.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9141428/Harvard_study_Computers_don_t_save_hospitals_money?taxonomyName=Hardware&taxonomyId=12

Computer Science Related Articles

2009-11-22T16:22:00.001-08:00

I've started a new blog;

http://joiningwiththetech.blogspot.com/

in which I will post links to interresting
computer science related articles.

Picasso's Guernica in 3D by Lena Gieseke

2009-09-25T16:57:00.000-07:00

Picasso's Guernica is a painting that means a great deal to me,
I have just found a wonderful site that has created a 3D rendering
of Guernica and has movies that focuses in on the individual parts
of the painting, to let you see it in a whole new way, wow !

http://guernica.lena-gieseke.com/

British Government Gives Official Apology to Alan Turing for Homophobia

2009-09-11T11:38:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday 9th of September 2009, Gordon Brown issued an apology for Alan Turing's "horrific" treatment.

http://io9.com/5357059/british-government-gives-official-apology-to-alan-turing-for-homophobia

Things I do on my summer holidays

2009-07-17T03:59:00.001-07:00

Here are a few work-related things I do over the summer holidays;

Development of new courses and subjects,
Research,
Recruitment which can be meeting and interviewing potential students and production of promotional materials,
Liasing with Industry and government bodies,
Writing research papers,
Dealing with student appeals and cases of unfair practice,
Supervising postgraduate students,
Applying for research funding,
Helping organise conferences,
Reviewing journal papers and drafts of student dissertations,
Helping students revise for repeat exams,
Teaching in partner insititutes,
Development of teaching and assessment materials for next year (so I typically teach 4 courses in Semester 1 and 4 in Semester 2, and rarely get the same courses two years in a row. It typically takes me 2-3 hours to prepare an hour of lecturing for an undergraduate course, and 5-6 hours for a Masters course (you can't exactly make this stuff up on the spot), and as it happens for next year I am going to be teaching subjects on four different Masters courses, so I'm going to have to be working at least 9-5 for a lot of the summer).

Ada Lovelace Day

2009-03-24T15:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Ada Lovelace Day,

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. For my contribution I'm including a list of female hackers from various television shows:

* Abigail "Abby" Sciuto (Pauley Perrette) in "NCIS"

* Angela Bennett (Brooke Langton) in "The Net"

* Barbara Gordon/Oracle (Dina Meyer) in "Birds of Prey"

* Bonnie Barstow (Patricia McPherson) in "Knight Rider"

* Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) in "24"

* Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) in "Smallville"

* Cindy "Mac" Mackenzie (Tina Majorino) in "Veronica Mars"

* Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) in "Criminal Minds"

* Theora Jones (Amanda Pays) in "Max Headroom"

* Rachel Gibson (Rachel Nichols) in "Alias"

* Sydney Bloom (Lori Singer) in "VR.5"

* Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

Shamanic Teaching Spaces

2009-02-08T07:50:00.001-08:00

When I first got a job as a lecturer in the Dublin Institute of Technology I was required to undertake a few courses to qualify me for the position. An interesting incident occurred at one of those courses that significantly clarified my views on teaching.

During the class the trainer showed a video which she characterised as "a bit of fun" that included some pejorative remarks about a recognisable group within society. After the class was over I approached the trainer and expressed my objections to what was shown on the video. At first she tried to brush me off "Oh, come on, I think you are being a bit too politically correct", when that didn't work she then tried to excuse it with "well, there wasn't anyone [from that particular minority] in the room", but when that didn't work she tried to justify it with "Look, it's very hard to get lecturers interested in this subject, and I have to include some light-hearted material in my classes." Eventually we agreed that if I wanted to I could leave when these videos were being shown, and so it was for the rest of the course I was required to do the 'walk of shame', walking out in front of everyone and coming back later, embarrassing, but necessary.

It took this incident for me to realise something that I'm sure is obvious to everyone else, the lecturer creates a teaching space with their students, and the lecturer decides what is and isn't allowed into that space. In this situation the trainer allowed things to occur in her teaching space that I would never allow in my own teaching space. This is not to say that she is wrong and I am right, but rather that different people have different ideas of what goes on in their teaching, so the lecturer has to be very active in their control over the teaching space and has to carefully review any materials that they present to students, and if someone makes remarks that the lecturer thinks are out of order, the lecturer must express their disapproval immediately. This is not to say that my classes are very serious and solemn, on the contrary, I think comedy and humour are vital in helping students learn. I will do almost anything to make my classes fun and enjoyable, other than making fun of individuals or groups.

The point of looking at the teaching and learning process as occurring in a teaching space is that it acknowledges that this process usually occurs in a somewhat ritualised manner. Everyone knows why they are there, everyone is indoctrinated into the education process, and all have one or two decades practice in how it works. The lecturer begins the class, usually recapping a little on what was discussed in the previous class, then introduces the main topic being discussed today, the lecturer goes into detail on the topic, quoting examples, and opening it up for discussion, and then the class usually finishes off with a summary of what was discussed. The students will undergo this hourlong ritual several times a day.

In a sense the lecturer acts as a mediator between the students and body of knowledge being communicated, this body of knowledge has no real-life existence, it can be expressed as formulae, theories, definitions and examples in the real world, but in reality it only exists in a Platonic Idea Space (of Ideal Forms) to which the lecturer intercedes on the students' behalf. This relationship is very much like the shaman who acts as mediator between his/her tribe and the spirit world. Of course the term "shaman" come from "one who knows" and the job of the shaman is to educate the tribe about the beliefs of their culture, very much like a lecturer. Also if one considers the manner in which the lecturer communicates to the students, not just their notes and what they say, but how they say it, the emphasis, the motions, and the gestures, it has a clear parallel with the shamanic ethnohermeneutic approach.

So in summary, teaching must be done thoughtfully, carefully, and with the recognition that sometimes the students are in a trance because of, rather than in spite of, your teaching ;-)

The Great Knuth Read

2008-11-10T17:02:00.000-08:00

http://thegreatknuthread.blogspot.com/

I've started a companion blog called "The Great Knuth Read". It concerns a multi-part monograph written by Donald Knuth entitled The Art of Computer Programming which describes a range of computer algorithms. It is considered the most important collection of books in the field of computer sceince, and the most comprehensive treatment of algorithms. The blog will document my reading of these mongraphs, and what points I think are most important.

Plagiarism talk 2008

2008-11-09T16:07:00.001-08:00

As Final Year Project Co-ordinator for one of the School of Computing's undergraduate degrees - DT228, BSc in Computer Science, I am constantly trying to send the message to the students that plagiarism is wrong and will not benefit them at all. This week I gave the students a PowerPoint presentation followed by clips from a Father Ted episode.

In the PowerPoint presentation I included actual responses people have given me as to why they copied their entire projects, including;

They said it so much better. Shouldn't I use their words?
I meant to include citations, but I forgot/ran out of time.
I showed this work to my supervisor before I submitted it and s/he didn't comment on it.
We were doing a group project.
I didn't realise I was doing it.

I didn't think I would get caught.

After each of these suggestions I discussed reasons why they don't work, and that the main person responsible for the project is the student themselves. It is their chance to show off their skills, and do something they really enjoy, why waste it?

Also, based on the success last year's screening of clips of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip concerning plagiarism, this year I decided to show them clips from the Father Ted episode A Song for Europe. It concerns the main characters attempt to enter the Eurovision Song Contest, and when they fail to write any music, they copy the music from a little known Norwegian Eurosong entry from the 1970s.

The episode had three scenes in it that I think are particularly significant to the topic at hand;

In one scene when Ted and Dougal first think about copying the music, they both know it is wrong, but Ted slowly convinces Dougal it's alright to copy (I was hoping the students would look at that and see how easy it is to convince yourself it's alright to copy, if you let youself, so you have to resist temptation).
In another scene just before Ted and Dougal are about to perform the copied song, they realise it is much more well-known than they thought, Ted is in sheer panic "WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO? WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?" (I looked around as this scene was being played and am fairly convinced that the students were picturing themselves in that situation, if they had copied and were about to do the final demo of their projects, and realising that they would be caught, it would be utterly terrifying, and thus worth avoiding).
The closing credits of the episode shows that people who copy get no reward. Nil Point!

I'm hoping that this will have the desired outcome, mixing a comedy with a serious point to remind them not to steal.

Bletchley Park saved, whew !

2008-11-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

Bletchley Park (aka Station X), which was the single most important code-breaking site during the Second World War, has been saved, thankfully. It was in a state of serious disrepair, and in danger of falling down, but thankfully English Heritage has stepped into the breach and has committed £330,000 to repairing the buildings, and are in talks to donate another £600,000 to get the rest of the repairs done over the next three years.

Bletchley Park is the birthplace of modern computer science, not only is it where Alan Turing developed the Turing-Welchman bombe, and the banburismus and turingismus algorithms in Hut 8, but it is also the home of Colossus - the world's first programmable digital electronic computer, which included the first use of shift registers and systolic arrays.

This intervention may have been partially in response to the fact that in July approximately 100 of the UK's top computer scientists wrote a letter to The Times identifying that Bletchley Park is of extraordinary historical significance and "in a terrible state of disrepair". Just look at the list of names below, these are some of the real giants of Computing.

Sir, The work undertaken at Bletchley Park during the Second World War in breaking German wartime codes played a significant part in winning that war and securing our future. The work included the decryption of messages enciphered on the German Enigma machines and the breaking of the German “Fish” High Command teleprinter ciphers. Bletchley Park also played a significant role 65 years ago in the design and development of Colossus, one of the world’s first programmable electronic computers. It is therefore fitting that the world’s first purpose-built computer centre should be home to the National Museum of Computing.

Over the years, Bletchley Park has survived building redevelopment (1938), an air raid (1940), the destruction of sensitive material and information (post-1945) and more recently (1991), a second attempt at demolition and redevelopment. That Bletchley Park has survived to the present day is due to the foresight of Milton Keynes Borough Council, which declared the park a conservation area in February 1992, and the formation of the Bletchley Park Trust just three days later.

The trust currently runs this gem charitably, receiving no external funding. Although there has recently been some progress in generating income, without fundamental support Bletchley Park is still under threat, this time from the ravages of age and a lack of investment. Many of the huts where the codebreaking occurred are in a terrible state of disrepair.

As a nation, we cannot allow this crucial and unique piece of both British and world heritage to be neglected in this way. The future of the site, buildings, resources and equipment at Bletchley Park must be preserved for future generations by providing secure long-term financial backing. Is it too much to ask that Bletchley Park be provided with the same financial stability as some of our other great museums such as the Imperial War Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum?

Professor Keith van Rijsbergen
Chair, 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, Computer Science & Informatics sub-panel
Professor Bill Roscoe
Director of Oxford University Computing Laboratory
Professor Jean Bacon
University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory
Professor Lawrence Paulson
University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory
Professor Ian Sommerville
Professor of Software Engineering, University of St Andrews
Professor Robert Churchouse
Emeritus Professor, Cardiff University, formerly at GCHQ 1952-1963
Tom Anderson
Richard Anthony
Jim Austin
Liz Bacon
John Barnden
Peter Barnes
David Barron
Sue Black
Cornelia Boldyreff
Richard Bornat
Roger D. Boyle
David Brailsford
Stephen Brewster
Rodney Brunt
Antony Bryant
Alan Bundy
Edmund Burke
David W. Bustard
Muffy Calder
Paul Chung
John A. Clark
Dave Cliff
Bernie Cohen
Tony Cohn
David Corne
Peter Cowling
Stephen Cox
Susan Craw
James Davenport
Alice Diggory
Alan Dix
Martin Escardo
John ffitch
Nick Fiddian
Frederic Fol Leymarie
John Glauert
Christopher Grey
Vic Grout
Martin Henson
Jill Hewitt
Jane Hillston
Patrik O'Brian Holt
Roland Ibbett
Tim Ibell
Mike Jackson
Anne James
Peter Jimack
Richard Jones
Steve King
Ann Latham
Bev Littlewood
Wayne Luk
Rob Macredie
Olenka Marczyk
Chris Mellish
Majdid Merabti
John L. Nealon
Julian Newman
Bashar Nuseibeh
Yakup Paker
Mike Pitteway
Lynette Pye
Awais Rashid
Bernard Richards
Geoffrey Sampson
N. Stan Scott
Alex Shafarenko
John Shawe-Taylor
Jawed Siddiqi
Peer-Olaf Siebers
Derek Sleeman
Alan Slomson
Nigel Smart
Peter Smith
Linda Spencer
Susan Stepney
Andrew Sturdy
Tony Sudbery
Austin Tate
Simon Thompson
John Tucker
John Turner
Tony Valsamidis
Vito Veneziano
Steve Vickers
Tom Vickers
Peter Welch
Geraint A. Wiggins
Philip Willis
Jeremy Wyatt

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article4385384.ece

ex-Lecturer wins US elections

2008-11-05T03:59:00.000-08:00

University of Chicago Law School on Barack Obama;

"From 1992 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Barack Obama served as a professor in the Law School. He was a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996. He was a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004, during which time he taught three courses per year."
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/media/index.html

I have to say, I'll thrilled that an Academic-American has won the elections, being a lecturer opens your mind to alternative views and alternative solutions, it's got to be a good thing for the world.

Stephen Fry blogs on Cloud Computing

2008-10-04T10:09:00.000-07:00

Stephen Fry, the writer, actor, novelist, filmmaker and successor to Peter Ustinov as the World's Greatest Raconteur, is also a huge fan of technology, and his blog is full of wonderful insights about the marvels of computers. His most recent blog posting explains the ideas of Cloud Computing in a wonderfully clear way;

http://stephenfry.com/blog/?p=57

Hackers Clone Elvis

2008-10-02T03:51:00.000-07:00

OK, not quite, but still, a group of computer security experts, The Hacker's Choice, created a fake RFID-backed passport under the name "Elvis Aaron Presley" with a picture of Elvis, brilliant. They have released a video showing the cloned passport being approved by a security scanner at a Dutch airport.

Of course this is not the first time that RFID passports has been cloned, in 2006 researchers at the Black Hat conference demonstrated RFID chip cloning. Also, incredibly last year it was revealed that RFID chips only have a two year warranty, despite being issued in documents designed to last for ten years !!?!!

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/227754/hackers-clone-elvis-passport.html
http://blog.thc.org/index.php?/archives/4-The-Risk-of-ePassports-and-RFID.html
http://freeworld.thc.org/thc-epassport/

Knowledge Visualization of Wikipedia

2008-08-22T04:36:00.000-07:00

One is the Master's students is doing some very interesting research into Knowledge Visualisation of Wikipedia articles. His website for this work is;

http://www.comp.dit.ie/dt217/jwang/jw.html

Here are some videos;

The Problem of Plagiarism (Reprise)

2008-08-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

In a previous posting I mentioned the fact that I am Final Year Project Co-ordinator for one of the School of Computing's undergraduate degrees - DT228, BSc in Computer Science. And part of my duties is to ensure that no plagiarism is committed in the projects. Usually there is at least one one student who commits some form of plagiarism, but I am very, very pleased to say that this year there were no cases of plagiarism.

This is really excellent, particularly because one element of this role that I really hated was dealing with students who have copied. The Dublin Institute of Technology has a formal set of procedures that are undertaken when a student is suspected of unfair practice, which involves a panel of enquiry which can be incredible stressful and difficult for both the student involved and the staff.

This year during my weekly meetings with students I emphasised that the School has a "zero tolerance" policy on plagiarism, and gave them several presentations on what plagiarism is and what it is not. Additionally I created handouts for the students on plagiarism and we undertook creativity exercises on the topic. Finally, and I think this may have been the thing that most resonated with some students, I showed them part of an episode of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" entitled "The West Coast Delay" which concerns a live comedy show broadcast on the East Coast of America that inadvertently plagiarises another comedian's material during a sketch, which results in the production team scrambling to break into the taped West Coast feed to correct their error. The panic and problems that this causes is played out dramatically in the episode, which I think may have stuck in the students' minds.

Bottom Line: Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

Hackers and Hollywood: Best Presentation Award

2008-06-26T14:44:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a previous posting, I had a paper at the 3rd International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transactions whose title is "Hackers and Hollywood: Considering Filmic Cyberthreats in Security Risk Analysis". It was well received by the international audience of Computer Security researchers, and was presented with the Best Presentation Award at the conference dinner yesterday. This was a totally unexpected surprise for me, I authored the paper to discuss a small issue in the process of undertaking risk analysis in computer security policies, and definitely didn't imagine it was going win an award.

I guess the fact that the paper was about movies helped in its appeal a lot, everyone in the audience had familiarity with some of the movies mentioned and the issues being discussed were relatively straightforward, that said, to have a group of lecturers present you with an award for giving the best lecture of the conference is a real honour and makes me think that I must be doing something right. The presentation (without video clips) is available below;
Hackers and Hollywood

Web 2.0: Tag Clouds

2008-06-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

Just looking at tag clouds (or weighted lists) to see if they could be useful as a teaching tool. A tag cloud is set of related tags with the size of each tag corresponding to its frequency. Typical tag clouds have between 50-100 tags. Also, sometimes tag clouds can be interactive, the tags can be hyperlinks allowing the user to drill down on the data.

I am working on creating tag clouds from my lecture notes to see what the most commonly used words in my lectures are, and compare them to my idea of what I think I am emphasising in my lectures, to see if there is any kind of conceptual drift.

Some interesting examples of tag clouds include;

http://www.makecloud.com/
http://www.tagcloud-generator.com/
http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/page/Tag_Cloud.html
http://tagcloud.oclc.org/tagcloud/TagCloudDemo
http://www.artviper.net/texttagcloud/
http://wordle.net/

Oideachas 2.0

2008-05-23T13:44:00.000-07:00

I attended EdTech 2008 which was on yesterday and today in Dundalk Institute of Technology. A former Masters student of mine, Ronan Carty, presented a paper based on his dissertation entitled "Oideachas 2.0" concerning the use of Web 2.0 by Irish computer science lecturers, and future directions of Web 2.0. Ronan researched a range of learning and teaching theories, and surveyed over 100 lecturers on their views and usage of Web 2.0. Following this he developed a prototype learning environment that incorporates Web 2.0 Tools.

Ronan's presentation was really splendid, he took the audience through his research, discussing in detail some of the responses that the lecturers had given, he did this with great insight, critial thinking, and humour. After that he showed them his prototype learning environment which clearly wowed them. His system is built in AJAX and allows both teachers and students to configure their learning environment dynamically, excellent stuff! His disseration can be found here;
http://www.comp.dit.ie/dgordon/Research/research8.html

There were other excellent papers presented at EdTech 2008, including; Crystal Fulton's paper on blogging as a facilitator in the learning process, Namgyal Damdul's paper on developing an eXtreme Programming (XP) game, and Seamus Fox's paper on the measurement of the quality and efficiency of online teaching.

Conferences are also an opportunity to catch up with old friends, it was my great pleasure to meet up with Tim Savage who is in the Department of Computer Science in Trinity. I knew Tim as a lecturer on Trinity's Masters in IT in Education which I also taught on for a while, plus we both worked on a report commissioned by the Information Society Commission entitled "Innovation in Learning in the Information Society: A Comparative International Study". Tim is doing some really interesting research into Blended learning, and his work on Immersive Virtual Worlds looks very great.

Hackers and Hollywood

2008-05-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

I submitted a paper to the 3rd International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transactions and I'm pleased to say I just got word back that the paper has been excepted. The paper, whose title is "Hackers and Hollywood: Considering Filmic Cyberthreats in Security Risk Analysis", looks at the way computer hackers (really "crackers") are portrayed in movies to determine if that influnces the security policies of organisations.

Defining what exactly constitutes a hacker movie was the first step. To do this a large number of potential candidates movies were reviewed to determine whether or not they were truly hacker movies, and using Grounded Theory a series of guidelines were developed to explain why some movies were added and others rejected.

GUIDELINE 1: A hacker movie must feature a hacker in it, it is insufficient to have an act of hacking in the movie, the hacker must appear in the movie as being either the main protagonist or antagonist, or at least be a well-developed character with their hacking being integral to the plot.
GUIDELINE 2: Not all cyberpunk movies can automatically be considered as hacker movies.
GUIDELINE 3: Only Science Fiction movies that feature recognisable hacker scenarios should be included.
GUIDELINE 4: No animated movies will be considered.
GUIDELINE 5: No movies will be considered whose sole focus is cryptography.
GUIDELINE 6: No hacker documentaries will be considered, only movies.

Following this a list of 50 movies featuring a total of 60 hackers were compiled from the 1960s to the 2000s. And from here a general list of characteristics that hackers are most commonly portrayed with in movies was complied which was then compared with the reailty of hacking.

More detail here;
http://thetech.pbwiki.com/HackersandHollywood

The Search for Creativity

2008-04-30T02:43:00.000-07:00

Creativity is something I am very interested in; What is it? How does it work? Is it different from Innovation? Can we teach it? Are some people better than others at it? How does it relate to programming and design?

I have been investigating concepts related to creativity and have been looking for sources of creativity. Part of this research has been working on projects with Edward de Bono to look at models of supporting creativity, e.g. The Six Thinking Hats, the CoRT techniques and Po. Some of the other models of creativity I have investigated, experimented and published research additionally with the following techniques; MindMaps, BrainStorming, Analogies, and Freewriting.

But models are not enough, to help identify sources of creativity I am looking at a range of people in a range of fields to determine if there is any commonality. I'm looking at inventors and their approaches. I'm looking at how literature is created, and how different authors have created their works. I am also looking at comics to see if their writing differs significantly from books. By looking at Television writing I am hoping to see if writing for a medium that is not only visually-based, but action-based, is significantly different. Finally I am looking at RPGs to see if they can aid creativity.

http://www.comp.dit.ie/dgordon/Research/research11.html

A Vision of Students Today

2008-03-20T05:58:00.000-07:00

A short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.

Wow !

IBTS and the Missing Laptop - Part III

2008-03-03T15:16:00.000-08:00

I e-mailed the IBTS regarding this decrypt-recrypt thing, here's what I got;

from "Corrigan, Arthur"
to Damian Gordon
cc "Bowler, Patrick"
date 3 Mar 2008 08:20
subject Missing laptop
mailed-by ibts.ie

Dear Damian

Thank you for your recent email in relation to the stolen laptop in New York. The reason the information on the laptop was re-encrypted because the IBTS had provided the New York Blood Centre the data on an 256 bit encrypted CD and in order to load this information on to laptop they had to decrypt it and then re-encrypt it again as it was being loaded on to the laptop.
I hope this answers your query.

Regards,

Arthur Corrigan

IT Manager
Irish Blood Transfusion Service

This really didn't make a lot of sense to me, so I sent this;

from Damian Gordon
to "Corrigan, Arthur"
date 3 Mar 2008 16:18
subject Re: Missing laptop
mailed-by gmail.com

Hi,

I'm not trying to be difficult about this but I really don't understand what you mean, in your original email you said "The reason the information on the laptop was re-encrypted because the IBTS had provided the New York Blood Centre the data on an 256 bit encrypted CD and in order to load this information on to laptop they had to decrypt it and then re-encrypt it again as it was being loaded on to the laptop."

I don't get this, why couldn't they upload encrypted data onto the laptop from the CD, that shouldn't be an issue. You can copy encrypted data from a CD to a laptop without having to do this.

My main problem is this, if the CD was decrypted and re-encrypted "on the fly" or whatever, the reality is that as it was being decryped the results of that information had to be stored somewhere, to allow that data to be again re-encrypted, and chances are that it was on the virtual memory of the laptop. So even if there was never a file created on the laptop with the decrypted data, the decryption process had to happen somewhere, and if it was on the virtual memory of the laptop, then it could be possible to restore that data.

I would be very grateful if you could check for me exactly why the data had to be de-crypted and re-encrypted, and is it possible that it occured in the virtual memory of the laptop,

many thanks,

Damian

Looking forward to their response.

IBTS and the Missing Laptop - Part II

2008-02-29T07:13:00.001-08:00

Just got a call from the IBTS to clarify the situation for me, here are the highlights;

1. Yes, the IBTS knew that employees of the NYBC would be transporting confidential data around on their laptops and bringing it home because they would have to be working late hours on this project, so the IBTS gave them permission to do this.

2. Regarding the statement in the letter that the data was "encrypted with a 256-bit encryption. Those records were transferred to a laptop and re-encrypted with a 256-bit encryption", the person I spoke to said that he didn't really know what that actually meant, maybe the data was unencrypted at some stage and maybe it wasn't, but was happy to confirm that, yes, the laptop mentioned here was the laptop that was stolen.

3. I queried the statement "To our knowledge there has never been a report of a successful attack against a 256-bit encryption key.", he said that this was what he had been told by the NYBC and they took care of all of the encryption stuff.

IBTS and the Missing Laptop - Part I

2008-02-29T05:24:00.000-08:00

Yipee, it's like winning the lottery, I just got a letter today from the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) telling me some great news, my donor records were one of the 171,324 records that were on a laptop that was stolen in New York on 7th February.

I have been dreading this since the news broke on the Irish news over a week ago. In summary, the IBTS 'loaned' this data to the New York Blood Centre (NYBC) because they need a new data extraction tool that it seems no one in Ireland is capable of developing. An employee of the NYBC had a copy of the data on his laptop and lost the laptop when he was mugged outside of his home. I find it very disturbing that anyone was allowed to bring this type of data outside of a secure centre.

According to the letter I recieved the data was "encrypted with a 256-bit encryption. Those records were transfered to a laptop and re-encrypted with a 256-bit encryption", what does this mean? Why did it have to be re-encrypted, does this mean at some point the data was unencrypted? If it was, and this is the same laptop that was stolen, that is bad news.

But it's OK because according to the CEO of the IBTS Andrew Kelly the chances of decrypting this information is "extremely remote", and, "To our knowledge there has never been a report of a successful attack against a 256-bit encryption key." He should read the 2005 paper "Cache Attacks and Countermeasures: the Case of AES" by Dag Arne Osvik, Adi Shamir and Eran Tromer who in one attack managed to obtain an entire 256-bit AES key after 65 milliseconds.

The Data Protection Commissioner undertook an investigation of the entire event and according to their conclusions the IBTS seems to have done everything correctly, well that's alright so.

The Dangers of Teaching

2008-02-05T15:39:00.000-08:00

I have just finished teaching a module on the D.I.T.'s MSc in Applied eLearning, which I really enjoyed doing. I always approach the idea of teaching other teachers or lecturers with a bit of trepidation since I never know what sort of interaction I’m going to get. It is one of the problems of being a lecturer or teacher that in your job you become used of coming into a room and everyone becoming silent and taking notes on everything you say. This can sometimes lead teachers to conclude that even in non-work situations they always have something significant or important to say. Round Table journal comparing Eamon de Valera to a teacher said ”He can lecture but cannot negotiate, and his enthusiasm for abstract propositions prevents him from facing realities”. I definitely feel there are times when this sort of characterization applies to all of us, so it’s always a bit of a worry teaching teachers, will they ruin the flow of the lecture by always trying to score points or will they be open to the process.

I think one of the few things keeping teachers from going totally over-the-top is the students, invariably there will be students who keep you modest either from their knowledge of the subject, or their genuine curiosity, or their remarkable humanity. This brings me back to what I started this posting about, which was teaching the D.I.T. lecturers, I was blessed with a group of colleagues who came to learn and share, there was no one-upmanship or showing off, so to them and to all students who are willing to participate in the process I offer you my sincerest thanks, in the words of Albert Schweitzer;

“Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light.”

“Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” by Dr. Randy Pausch

2008-01-20T15:14:00.000-08:00

Dr. Randy Pausch is a highly respected and honored professor of Computer Science and co-founder of the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. In September Dr. Pausch gave a lecture titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” which was part of what is called “The Last Lecture” series. The series is designed for top lecturers around the country to impart what they feel are their most important life lessons, as if it were their last. What made Dr. Paush’s lecture special was that it really was his last. A year before his lecture Dr. Paush was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. But to see Professor Pausch’s humor-filled talk one would never know that he has been told that he only has months to live. The inspirational lecture was given to just 400 students, but it quickly went ‘viral’ on the Internet.

When Students Attack

2007-12-16T13:47:00.001-08:00

I was further reflecting on the nature of lecturing and the madness of going into a room, standing at the front, and having 20-150 people take notes on your random thoughts. It’s a strange business, and can be a very stressful one. Jerry Seinfeld remarked that most of us fear public speaking almost as much or maybe more than death, if we are at a funeral, most of us would prefer to be in the casket rather than delivering the eulogy. While this may be a bit extreme, there is an element of truth to it.

After thousands of years of evolution when we are in stressful situations our bodies are geared to either 'fight or flight', when we have to speak in public, epinephrine (or adrenaline) and norepinephrine (or noradrenaline) goes coursing through our bodies - way more than we need, but we can neither run away or fight, so instead we have to somehow harness all that energy into our performance. This is often difficult to do, I know some lecturers whose hands sweat and their mouth goes dry before a lecture, others get shaking knees and their voices begin to quaver. This is because their hearts are racing and they are preparing for a fight.

In this heightened state there is a natural fear of attack, and that fear will manifest itself in many ways; in terms of the fear of making mistakes in your lecture or losing your place, or that the students won't like you or they won't 'get' what you're trying to say. There is also the fear of physical attack, irrational but always present; at best the attack may be something tame like a pee shooter attack (like in the Marx Brothers film "Horse Feathers"), or at worst it could be a fatal attack as was the case for Cassian of Imola. He was a teacher whose students bound him to a stake and tortured him to death by stabbing him with their pointed iron styli. There are in fact many such historical cases of students killing their teachers, and no doubt somewhere in our collective unconsciousness every lecturer remembers such events just before they are about to begin to speak.

So the next time you are sitting in a lecture, have a bit of sympathy for your poor lecturer, they are fighting thousands of years of evolution to get their point across to you :-)

The Teacher's Toolkit

2007-12-14T10:03:00.000-08:00

Following on from the previous post regarding the nature of teaching, I thought I'd follow it up with a post on a few tools that I think it is important for every teacher/lecturer to have to help them do their job.

A Reflective Journal

I think it is vital that a lecturer reflects on their lecturing. I have an A4 hardback notebook divided up into sections for my seperate courses. Each section contains printouts of slides for each lecture, as well as attendance sheets, handouts, labs, etc. associated with that lecture. Afer each lecture I spend five minutes writing down the key points of lecture, also I note any errors in slides and handouts. I sometimes take note of tricky issues that I need to rethink the way that I've taught and finally if a student proposes a good example or view it is usually worth noting.

If you really want to get into this you can include the following questions after each lecture

What did I do best?

What should I avoid?

What surprised me?

What were the good student questions?

What couldn’t the students answer?

Stopwatch and Hotel Reception Bell

I like to do timed exercises, they can be a lot of fun, and help breaks the class up into sections for the students and gives them time to reflect, e.g. after twenty minutes in the class say "Spend two minutes reflecting on what you think would be important to know for exams in this subject". To help get the students' attention back after such an exercise I have a reception bell that I give a few rings.

Sometimes when I ask students a question I use my reception bell to signal a correct or wrong answer, I do "ding-dong" for a wrong answer, and "ding-ding-ding-ding-dong" for a correct answer. I think it's better than having to say "No, no, no" all the time.

A Book of Short Stories

I always bring a collection of short stories into my classes, sometimes if the mood takes me I begin class by reading out a short story - this has a number of benefits; it gives me the chance to warm up my voice, it gives the students time to get tuned to my voice, also it gets them relaxed and ready to learn. I usually have some O. Henry's stories with me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._Henry

Markers

Even if you have all of your presentations in powerpoint and you don't have any need for markers, it is worth your while having a few (of different colours) just in case you want to elobrate on a point or sketch something out.

A Large Deck of Cards

Since I am a computer science lecturer, I use a large deck of cards when teaching topics such as Sorting, Seaching, Linked Lists, and Statistics.

Why Lecture?

2007-12-05T11:02:00.000-08:00

Since a lot of my research is related to education, I often find myself presenting or teaching to fellow lecturers, and I often reflect on the real benefit of lecturing. Lecturing is a fairly difficult task, public-speaking is said to be one of the most stressful things you can do, and a lecturer or teacher has to do that every day, so what are the benefits to lecturing?

I've put together a list of possible reasons as to why we lecture and some suggestions to help these work more effectively.

1. To enthuse students
One very effective way to do this is when a lecturer puts themselves in the student's shoes, and considers what it is like to encounter the teaching material for the first time (although it may be the hundredth time for the lecturer) and is open to new suggestions and approaches by the students.

2. To give students the information that they need
It is important to remember that handouts can give 10 times more material than just direct chalk-and-talk, but so a mixed approach works best (but make sure handouts have lots of free space for note taking).

3. To cover the syllabus
To cover it in a meaningful manner give the students time to reflect and revise. So stop teaching for the last couple of weeks and get students to reflect and revise.

4. To give the student group a sense of identity
By getting the students to do group work and group assessments, they will form teams and groups.

5. Because it’s cost-effective to teach large groups
And this can still work for the teacher, so instead of throwing out questions to students (as some may be intimidated) ask students to spend the next 3 minutes writing down the three most important ideas we’ve been talking about, and spend a minute comparing their answers to their neighbours and look for 5 volunteers. Also rather than getting the students to ask questions; at end of class get the students to write down their questions on slips of paper and answer these at start of next class or on-line using a discussion board.

6. To help map curriculum
The lecturer must signpost the course. Show the students the syllabus, including the learning outcomes. Number the topics instead of bulletpointing them.

7. To see how the students are doing
This is the easiest and most fun part, look at their faces, see if they are learning. Also handout your slides, with the first slide having questions about the previous lecture - spend 5 minutes of lecture getting the students to answer.

8. To change student beliefs
By sharing your experience, and adding in expert views with existing theories and other students' ideas you can change their beliefs. Also make the student’s learning active, when students apply their ideas, it becomes their knowledge.

9. To help students learn
For a few minutes ask the students to reflect on HOW they are learning. Share with others their approaches, their triumphs and disasters. Also stop the class for a few minutes and discuss their note-making techniques. Or ask the students to write down 3 things they don’t yet know about a topic and want to learn, and amalgamate these lists and hand to the lecturer.

10. To help students figure out what the lecturer is going to ask in the exam
Students need to be more strategic about assessment, it is an intelligent response to their situation. But you just need to help them figure out your culture of assessment, but not every little facet of it.

http://www.e4project.ie/content/

The E4 DVD (in 5 parts)

2007-11-14T01:05:00.001-08:00

One of the deliverables of the E4 project was the development of a DVD which outlined the main teaching methodologies employed in the project. This DVD is a wonderful 12 minute piece and has interviews with some of the main people involved in the teaching part of the E4 project. Below is that DVD in five parts.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5 The Computer Scientist's Library

2007-11-12T14:29:00.001-08:00

Computer scientists are strange group of people, the job has all the drawbacks of a scientific job combined with all the drawbacks of an artistic job, in particular I am thinking of those of us who have to program for a living, writing computer programs is a complex business, it requires a mathematical precision and remarkable creativity. So it's like your job is being asked to create a masterwork painting every day, they have to be very artist and yet require an exact structure and form as well. And if you make an error it might be months later when it is discovered, just before the CDs are being pressed. It is a very dificult profession to sustain over a long period of time.

So what are the things that that make computer scientists a group? Shared views, shared interests, shared vocabulary and shared knowledge. One of the ways this happens is in the books that we read, so I've been trying to put together a short list of books that I think every computer scientist should read. After many starts and stops, this is my list of the top ten books in no particular order;

The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth
O.K. I know I said that the list is in no particular order, but the Knuth books MUST be the top of any computer scientist's reading list. Knuth is a brilliant writer, exciting, a master of his subject, he puts the science into computer science.

The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage by Clifford Stoll
Clifford Stoll's true life story of tracing a cracker who was using his computer as a bridge to access top secret information is definitely one of the most incredible computer books, inspiring and very well-written, and you learn a lot about Unix.

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy
The definitive story of the Hacker movement; Greenblatt, Gosper, Stallman, names that are legendary in programming mythos, their early adventures in the MIT AI lab are documented here, and the beginings of the Open Source movement can be traced from here.

The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier by Bruce Sterling
This brilliant book outlines the key events in the evolution of hackers (really "crackers"). The exciting events that shaped the face of Hackerdom like Operation Sundevil and the trial of "Knight Lightning"

The Tao of Programming by Geoffrey James
This is a book that spoofs the Tao Te Ching and consists of several chapters with interesting software development anecdotes, entitled - The Silent Void, The Ancient Masters, Design, Coding, Maintenance, Management, Corporate Wisdom, Hardware and Software, and the Epilogue.

The Elements of Programming Style by Brian Kernighan and P. J. Plauger
The title of this book pays homage to The Elements of Style by Strunk & White, an excellent book in the study of programming style, advocating the approach that computer programs should be written not only to satisfy the compiler, but also with human readers in mind.

The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
This excellent book looks at the main elements of programming in the modren IT industry. It covers topics ranging from personal responsibility and career development to architectural techniques for keeping your code flexible, easy to adapt, and reuse.

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Fred Brooks
One of the best books ever written about the complexities of software development, the biggest lesson of this book is that the rules of common sense definitely do not apply when working on large software projects with teams of people.

The Secret Guide to Computers by Russ Walter
This book is considered a real cult book because of the author's distinctive, hilarious writing and the author's extreme devotion to his readers. The Guide covers everything relating to computers, from their hardware to their software to their history.

The C Programming Language by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie
More commonly called "Kernighan and Ritchie" this book is without a doubt one every programmer should read, written in a style that could almost be considered new wave, you have to be sitting at a computer with a C compiler to really enjoy this book.

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O.K., that's good and well, but what about some books that are not computer science books, but computer scientists should read, here are five;

Discrete Mathematics: An Introduction for Software Engineers by Mike Piff
A really well-written book on discrete mathematics, topics covered include mathematical logic, set theory, finite and infinite relations and mapping, graphs, graphical algorithms and axiom systems, all good stuff for every computer scientist. Best of all it includes implementations of many of the algorithms in Modula-2.

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter
One is the most interesting books ever written, described by the author as "a metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll". The book examines the lives of logician Kurt Gödel, artist M. C. Escher and composer Johann Sebastian Bach, discussing common themes in their work and lives. At a deeper level, the book is a detailed and subtle exposition of concepts fundamental to mathematics, symmetry, and intelligence.

How to Solve It by George Pólya
Pólya's book is a really excellent guide to problem-solving. Unlike other books of this type, Pólya does not recommend any specific set of techniques by rather a more general heuristic approach to solving problems.

Numerical Recipes by William Press, Saul Teukolsky, William Vetterling and Brian Flannery
These are a collection of books by the above authors that contain an enormous amount of material on computational methods, the scope is supposed to be "everything up to, but not including, partial differential equations", although the second edition does include a chapter on PDEs that discusses the important concepts in the field and cites the most important papers.

The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose
Roger Penrose's book is a remarkable exploration of the nature of human consciousness, his view is that consciousness is non-algorithmic, and thus cannot be modeled by a conventional Turing machine. He suggests that quantum mechanics plays an essential role in human consciousness. The collapse of the quantum wavefunction is seen as relating to the brain function.

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And just for fun here are five fiction books that mention programming or are about computers in small or large ways. I always dip into one of these if I need a bit of inspiration.

Tron by Brian Daley
Based on the movie of the same name "Tron" the novel is really excellent, it adds a lot of characterisation and depth that was lacking in the movie, it also includes a lot of fun computer in-jokes that a programmer will enjoy. But most importantly the underlying philosophy of Tron is something that I very much believe in, that EVERY computer program you write contains a little bit of your spirit in it (no other programmer would write a program exactly the same way that you do, so each of your programs are unique to you).

Spock's World by Diane Duane
Not really about computer programming, but there is just one paragraph that makes this a magical book for programmers, near the end of the book Spock's father, Sarek who is a programmer on the planet Vulcan comes to Earth to work with human programmers, and in one paragraph Sarek reflects on the nature of human computer programmers, it's excellent.

The Prisoner's Dilemma by Jonathan Blum and Rupert Booth
Based on the TV show "The Prisoner" and using the game theory problem of the prisoner's dilemma as its central premise, this is a really fascinating book, and features a computer expert codenamed "Number 101" who seems very much like Alan Turing to me.

The Discworld Novels by Terry Pratchett
In particular the character of Ponder Stibbons embodies a lot of what a really good computer programmer should be like, plus "Anthill Inside", brilliant.

The Passing of the Techno-Mages: Books 1-3 by Jeanne Cavelos
These books are set in the future and tell the story of a group who use very advanced technology to simulate the effects of magic. The novels centre around the mystery of where this technology came from in the first place and how the lead character Galen treats this technology like a computer programmer.

In Principio erat Verbum

2007-11-09T11:58:00.001-08:00

My favorite word when giving training to lecturers on new approaches to teaching is “TECH” (or “the Tech”), as I mentioned in a previous post this term represents the blending of TECHnology and teaching TECHniques to form the TECH. It is worth considering the meaning of the two words that help combine to create the TECH.

Technology is made up of “Techne-” and “–ology”. “Techne-” derives from the Greek and means an art, craft, tool or the way something is gained, and “–ology” derives from the Greek word Logos meaning to speak about something or to write something. Thus “Technology” is speaking or writing about how things are gained. So technology is not the computer you are using to read this posting, it’s when you speak about it that it becomes technology. In other words it is creation through speaking, the same way magicians have cast spells for thousands of years through invocations. Of course the computer scientists reading this will know all about creation through writing (and will be familiar with the terms “casting” and “invocations” in a different context also).

In modern times the word “technology” has changed its meaning, now it has become synonymous with “high technology” (or hi-tech), the antonym of which is “low technology” (or lo-tech) which can be defined as crafts or tools whose inception predates the Industrial Revolution. If this is the definition we accept then one of the oldest technologies that exists must be written language. Writing is a tool that allows communication whose inception long predates the Industrial Revolution. The entirety of written language consists of a mere twenty-six symbols or tools that capture the whole of human knowledge and the most profound of human thought.

One of the reasons for this pondering is that this week I obtained a PDA (Dell Axim x51v) which consists of amongst other things a tablet (or writing surface) and a stylus (or pen). It is a wonderful piece of technology, but each time I use it I am reminded that one of the earliest known literary works, the Epic of Gilgamesh (which concerns the adventures of a great hero Gilgamesh and his wild-man friend Enkidu) was written in Mesopotamia around 3000BC in cuneiform, using a stylus and tablets.

Turning now to the word Technique we discover that it originates from the French word technique which itself is from the Greek word technikos which in turn has the same root as “Techne-” which we will recall means an art, craft, tool or the way something is gained.

In a sense technology is speaking about a skill, and technique is the actual skill, which reminds me a lot of the relationship between teaching and learning, one view of which is that teaching is speaking about developing a skill and learning is about developing the actual skill.

When the TECH works well together it can be a joy, but it requires careful planning. What TECHnologies work well to help students learn? It depends on the topic being taught, the students and the teacher. What teaching TECHniques work well to help students learn? It also depends on the topic being taught, the students and the teacher.

The Closing of the E4 Project

2007-11-06T23:19:00.000-08:00

Today is the closing conference of the E4 project after two and a half years of really excellent research. One of the benefits of being an academic is the opportunity to get involved in research projects regularly. Ernest Boyer in "Scholarship Reconsidered" suggests that the four functions of scholarship are; Discovery, Integration, Application and Teaching. Discovery is the search for new information, Integration is about considering the cross-disciplinary context, Application considers how knowledge can serve the community, and Teaching is about informing, inspiring and learning from others. The best of research projects combine all four of these elements.

The E4 (Education for Employment) project set out to develop pathways to third-level education for disadvantaged students. In particular by working with post-Leaving Cert Schools on teaching techniques and technologies that aid learning, the students are able to develop new ways of understanding and comprehension. My role in the project was to explore which techniques and technologies best suited particular groups of students, and to train teachers in their use. I like to use the phrase "the Tech" to incorporate both the TECHniques and TECHnologies in one conception. By identifying correct combinations of the tech students were able to learn well.

I loved the training element of the project; visiting various educational institutes, meeting with the teachers/lecturers, and exploring the reasons why we teach and ways to do it better. There were often very strong disagreements as to the nature of our jobs, and in particular the role of assessment in teaching, but it is only through these types of discussions, where views are exchanged frankly, and teachers become unafraid to "show their scars", that we can all learn to be better teachers. As a result of these conversations one of the outcomes of the project that I am most pleased with is development of a handbook for "Teaching and Learning in Further and Higher Education" which I believe should be given to every lecturer and teacher interested in improving their teaching skills. I have included a link to an online version of this handbook below (it's a large PDF so it might be better to right-click and "Save As...").

The other really interesting element of this project was working on a number of creativity techniques. It was clear from the start that the techniques developed by Dr. Edward de Bono were the most powerful approaches available, and part of my research in the project was to extend some of these techniques to match our requirements. As a result of my work Dr. de Bono was kind enough to visit on a few occasions to see what we were doing and give some really useful feedback and very kind comments. Pictured below is one of Dr. de Bono's visits where he sat in on a class I was giving (he's the leftmost person in the picture) where I was teaching using one of his techniques, the Six Thinking Hats.

The lead partner on the project was the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) who I have worked with on a number of occasions on other projects, and they are a group of people I love to work with because through their work they are making the world a better place in a clear and discernable way. That is why today the closing ceremony of the E4 project is being held in Clontarf Castle, near the CRC. Such ceremonies are always bittersweet affairs, we celebrate the things that went well, the successes and triumphs, and we hopefully learn from the things that didn't work out. As with all of these projects, some people started off strong and disappeared in the middle of the project, whereas others shone brightly when the occasion demanded it of them. It's all part of the process.

For me personally, not only do these projects allow me to keep up-to-date with various kinds of research (which in turn informs my teaching), but more importantly they forge long-lasting friendships.

The Problem of Plagiarism

2007-11-04T06:24:00.000-08:00

I am a lecturer in the School of Computing, Dublin Institute of Technology. One of my duties is as Final Year Project Co-ordinator for one of our undergraduate degrees - DT228, BSc in Computer Science. This means I help organise the process of students undertaking final year projects. I usually give the students a number of talks over the year on their projects - software methodologies, creativity and critical thinking, plagiarism, technical writing, etc.

Also I monitor all of the projects to ensure that no plagiarism is committed, and unfortunately each year at least one, but usually two (out of 50+) students commit some form of plagiarism.

These violations occur in a range of ways, for example;
* Copying text from online sources without correctly attributing
* Copying software from the web without correctly attributing
* Copying results from other people without crediting
* Buying projects online

What is so sad is that the copying students normally cut-and-paste without any changes at all, I suppose they are afraid that if they change anything none of it will make sense. Unfortunately this means that locating copied materials is very easy to find, which I do so every year. Students who copy projects for the web often keep the same project title, which is just silly, it becomes a trivial matter to locate the source of work. As a computer scientist I have been using the World Wide Web since 1993, that is 14 years of searching and locating materials on the web. When I started in 1993 Google hadn't even been created, other search engines existed before Google; WebCrawler, HotBot, AltaVista, etc. So just because a student copies and tries to rewrite in such a way that it can't be located on Google, that doesn't mean it can't be found.

More disturbingly is that recently there are many reports in Ireland of students buying projects online, this is a source of great sadness to me. I really think it is better to do a really crappy project yourself and just manage a pass, rather than cheat and get a good result. In both cases you'll get a degree, but in one case you learn absolutely nothing about software engineering (but a little about online financial transactions), whereas in the other case, you struggle hard for 5-6 months, you learn to design, develop and test a large software system, and expand your skillset. Honestly, getting a good result in your degree is not at all of value compared to having good skills for your longterm career.

Sadly in the past few years I have had to register as a developer on a number of sites that sell software, for example; elance.com, getafreelancer.com, etc. to see if I can spot projects that sound like our proposals. Not much spotted so far, but I am dreading the day when I see one of the proposals on one of these sites. The real problem is that if I don't spot it early on, I will definitely discover it later, what students don't seem to know is that these sites usually put some (hidden) markers in the code and/or in images to indicate the providence of software, these are easy to find when you know where to look, as I do.

BOTTOM LINE: Copying is for losers.

Taliessin through Logres

2007-11-04T06:12:00.000-08:00

"Taliessin through Logres" is the title of a collection of poems by Charles Williams, concerning the Arthurian saga as seen through the eyes of the court poet Taliessin. It is my favorite collection of poetry, and in my opinion Charles Williams was an incredible writer and poet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Williams_(UK_writer)

here's an extract;

The seas were left behind;
in a harbour of Logres
lightly I came to land
under a roaring wind
Strained were the golden sails,
the masts of the galley creaked
as it rode for the Golden Horn
and I for the hills of Wales

In a train of golden cars
the Emperor went above,
for over me in my riding
shot seven golden stars,
as if while the great oaks stood,
straining, creaking around,
seven times the golden sickle
flashed in the Druid wood.

Covered on my back,
untouched, my harp had hung;
its notes sprang to sound
as I took the blindfold track,
the road that runs from tales,
through the darkness where Circe’s son
sings to the truants of towns
in a forest of nightingales.

The beast ran in the wood
that had lost the man’s mind;
on a path harder than death
spectral shapes stood
propped against trees;
they gazed as I rode by;
fast after me poured
the light of flooding seas.

But I was Druid-sprung;
I cast my heart in the way;
all the Mercy I called
to give courage to my tongue.
As I came by Broceliande
a diagram played in the night,
where either the golden sickle
flashed, or a signalling hand.

Away on the southern seas
was the creaking of the mast;
beyond the Roman road
was the creaking of the trees.
Beyond the farms and the fallows
the sickle of a golden arm
that gathered fate in the forest
in a stretched palm caught the hallows

At the falling of the first
chaos behind me checked;
at the falling of the second the wood showed the worst;
at the falling of the third
I had come to the king’s camp;
the harp on my back
syllabled the signal word.

I saw a Druid light
burn through the Druid hills,
as the hooves of King Arthur’s horse
rounded me in the night.
I heard the running of flame
faster than fast through Logres
into the camp by the hazels I Taliessin came.