Shamanic Teaching Spaces

When I first got a job as a lecturer in a particular educational institute 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

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

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 !

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

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

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

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/