Computers, creativity and learning

Made it!

I is senior lecturer! Which goes to show hellish interview and several months wait paid off after all.

You know you're old when... you realise students are not invisible in lectures

I am working on a theory that lecturers gain magical powers the longer they stick around in universities. There is a self confessed Gandalf in my department, for example, whose job is to defend the rest of the staff from the Balrog that is the central university. I would quite like to be a female equivalent when I get more grizzled, but unfortunately Tolkien wasn't big into writing female wizard characters. Maybe the White Witch in Narnia? <cackles>.

My reason for thinking I have magical powers is this: I see students in lectures! (Live ones, luckily, although it can be hard to tell). Yes - it's true! When I am standing up in front of the class I can actually see to the back of the class. I can see students in the back row snoozing. Or avidly reading Facebook on their laptops. Or chatting to each other. Once I even saw one read a newspaper. Astonishing, no? All this time students have been assuming their activities are invisible but now I have the power to see them. If only all my colleagues had the same power...

For the sake of my pride, I will point out that the more blatant of these activities tend to occur only in classes where I am taking a guest lecture. Students who take a module with me know I have the unfair habit of making them solve problems in class, or even discussing learning related topics with each other. Like my colleague Wizard Pooley, I even have been known to walk the aisles of the lecture theatre among the masses, looking at their solutions and trying to help. It's rotten of me, I know. It interferes with honest people's sleep and relaxation and destroys their invisibility illusion.

At a class recently I made an epic journey to the back row where I enountered some students staring at blank paper instead of writing code as I decreed. When I asked them about it, they said they were too tired to think. Said I "Perhaps you would be better catching up on your sleep at home if you're too tired to learn". "Oh no" said the student piously , "It's important to attend".

This is an echo of an argument I sometimes have with colleagues. They talk about wanting good attendance in classes. They want bums on seats. I have a naive longing for more than that. I want brains on seats! Attendance is half the battle, of course. But while just turning up in a lecture and expecting that you will understand more at the end of an hour might make you feel virtuos, it is not exactly effective. In my evil White Witch-in-training view of the world, it is not soley the responsibility of the lecturer to make sure that students learn something during a class. At least half of the effort should be going on inside studenty skulls.

My point today, apart from just liking to rant, is that we lecturers (in my dept) anyway have cocked up. We have set our expectations for student behaviour in lectures too low to the point that if you try to do something different to promote more effective learning,the students resent it. You have to have a gentle period of re-training until they arrive all bright eyed and busy tailed with sharp pencils, calling out for opportunities for active learning. My cute little first years are almost there, bless them. Older students continue to cast their cacoons of invisibility.

New student social space

Students and staff of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Heriot-Watt - we want your help! (If you are an ordinary reader of my blog, I will explain this stuff later. Feel free to comment anyway.) We are refurbishing the Earl Mountbatten crush area and we would like your opinions on:

· The crush area is a weird name. Can you think of something better? (It refers to the student social space in our department in case any non HW people are reading)

· Which of the layouts for furniture do you like? Patterns and colours of the fabric?

· What kind of floor covering do you want? Carpet tiles? Vinyl? What kind of colours and patterns?

· What general colour scheme would you favour (including paint)?

· What do you think of the lighting options (virtual skylights)

· What should we display on the plasma screens? What exhibitions might we have? (see also planned exhibition: video Goat lady video)

 

Please drop in to the crush area on Wed 28th October between 1.15 and 2,15  to see the plans and have a look at the fabric and carpet samples. If you can't make it to those sessions have a look at the display in the crush area and leave comments in the box. Or you can leave comments on this blog post.

More information

User comments 26/10/09 Download EMCrushSuggestions26Oct09

Planned exhibition: video Goat lady video

Plans for the crush area: Download CrushBrief

Requirements for crush area:  Download CrushRefurb

Are we teaching first year computer science all wrong?

[posted to the cacm blog this morning]

I was somewhat alarmed to read Mark Guzdial's excellent and thought provoking article which argues that the way we teach introductory computer science is wrong. His argument is that some of the educational pychology literature claims that minimally guided instruction techniques (such as discovery learning, constructivism, problem based learning etc) are less effective than strongly guided instruction techniques. As an extension to this: teaching programming through the practice of programming itself is not effective for novices. As a lecturer of a first year programming module myself, I spluttered into my cup of tea and hurried off to read the Kirshcner, Sweller and Clark  article Mark recommended.

Kirschner, Sweller and Clark have some strong words to say against minimally guided instruction approaches. For example "The goal of instruction is rarely simply to search for or discover information.The goal is to give learners explicit guidance about how to cognitively manipulate information in ways that are consistent with a learning goal and store the result in long term memory." (p77) But hang on: in higher education we generally regard it as important that students know how to search and discover information for themselves. They require skills in self directed learning. In the context of programming, for example, we may wish them to know how to look up documentation for themselves. We would also generally expect them to be able to search for information sources in the first stage of carrying out a research project. I suspect this is a question of the stage of cognitive and metacognitive development the learner is at in first year, and whether it is reasonable to expect more of them than manipulating information and storing it in long term memory.

The authors also write: "It may be a fundamental error to assume that the pedagogic content of the learning experience is identical to the methods and processes (i.e. the epistomology) of the discipline being studied and a mistake to assume that instruction should exclusively focus on methods and processes." p78. I don't think that introductory computer science teaching does focus only on methods and processes. In fact, it is a bit of a straw man to consider what goes on in first year computer science classes as pure minimally guided instruction anyway. Obviously there are a huge range of teaching approaches to novice programming across the world, but let's take the Barnes and Kolling "Objects First With Java" text book and Blue J environment . It's very popular (ranked as number 1 in three of the Amazon technical books categories for what it's worth) and used as an introductory text in many computer science departments. One of the features of this well designed textbook is that it aims to teach high level concepts as a priority over lower level language constructs. The BlueJ environment enables students to experiment with object orientation by calling methods on objects in a graphical environment. The text book encourages students to read code before they write it, and "wire in" small segments of their own code into a pre-written program. The lecture slides which come with the book give specific instruction and worked examples; students typically recieve this sort of instruction before working on small examples in the lab. In fact, working on small examples after a lecture on programming concepts is in my experience a fairly common pattern in first year instruction.

Kirschner, Sweller and Clark recommend the practices of a) providing worked examples for students to read and b) providing process worksheets which explain to students the processes they should go through when solving problems.These are both sensible suggestions but I wouldn't say they were unusual for computer science teaching. I would suggest that we tend to use a mixed bag of instructional techniques rather than basing our pedagogy on pure theory. And so therefore: we probably get our first year teaching right at least part of the time. Which is a bit of a comfort.

Thoughts on Interactive Systems version 2

I am teaching my first year Interactive Systems class for the second academic year. This is the one where the students work in Second Life and learn Linden Script. It is so much easier this year, and so much more satisfying from a teaching point of view.

There are several reasons for this. One is that I already have the lab exercises and lectures prepared so I can just improve them this year. (Phew!) Another is that we have 40 fewer students, and no 2nd year computer scientists. Last year we had 1st and 2nd year CS students, plus a sprinkling of 2nd year maths students. That was hell. The range of programming experience there made it almost impossible to get the pace right. This year we have mostly 1st year CS with some 2nd year maths students thrown in and they are similarly inexperienced programmers. We still have 100 students, but that is considerably more manageable than 140.

In lab classes, for example, I have a roomful of 20 students at a time. I know their names, I remember what they are working on, and I have time to check off that they have completed lab work step by step. So they get feedback and help pretty much when they need it. Last year I spent most teaching time running up and down stairs between labs rather than teaching.

I have been reading quite a bit over the summer, and I am trying some new techniques based on that. "What's the Point of School" by Guy Claxton has been v. useful, as well as provocative. Here are some things I am trying out:

• Explicitly modelling how to solve problems in class as well as showing the solution. Kind of like cognitive apprenticeship. I also have a checklist for steps to try when trouble shooting compiler problems as suggested by my pal Quentin Cutts at Glasgow.
• Discussing my experiences as a learner with the students (e.g. explaining problems I encounter when learning the language Ruby and relating those to LSL)
• Valueing the process of learning as well as the product. I still have "Creature of the Week" which shows off a work in progress which looks good, but I also include quotes from their learning logs which show interesting attitudes to learning, or people who overcame problems
• Making clear that it's OK - even useful - to make mistakes. I openly discuss mistakes I have made, and encourage the students to write in their logs about things they found hard or how they solved errors.
• Re-iterating that prior experience is not the same as intelligence. If a student says "I can't do that sort of thing", I say "...yet!". I am trying to reinforce the idea that effort leads to success
• Keeping the challenge level high and having high expectations, particularly for students who have already programmed before.

At each lecture (hate that term) I have the pattern: go over matters arising from lab work such as common conceptions, show good examples of student learning, tell them what concepts they ought to have mastered at this point, introduce new material through a demo or example, then ask them to solve a related problem with a partner while my colleague and I walk round helping. (Possibly repeating the new concept followed by problem solving a couple of times). Then at the lab, they can try out the solution they worked on in class to see whether it works and get individual feedback. We also mix academic/study skills topics with technical topics and take it turns it turns to present, so I would guess that it chunks into 10 minute mini sections of listening interspersed with solving problems on paper/laptop.

I'm not saying this is perfect, but I think it's going OK so far.  I may have freaked them out today with a too hard challenge in problem solving, but I can find out whether that is true in the labs.

I am always interested in hearing new ways of doing things if anyone wants to share a tip!

You know you're old when...it bothers you that students don't buy textbooks

I have a class of recalcitrant 3rd years who simply won't buy a textbook for my module. What's that about? In my young day, us students spent our grants on hugely expensive technical books (£40+ was a lot then) for our degrees without blinking. Arrr, go without crusts of bread for books, I would. And now? I ask them to buy "Bad Science" which costs £4 on Amazon and they tell me it's too expensive. What better text book could you have for a module on critical thinking? It's great! It's easy to read, and makes you think and it's funny. But yet, one student tells me he needs his money for petrol and another says she hasn't persuaded her dad to buy it yet(!) The others just shrug and goggle at me.

And I'm not falling for the "poor students in massive debt" thing. Loads of my students have jobs. Or else they're lying about their homework excuses ("My boss made me work extra shifts"). £4? Garrr. They could walk to uni four times and save it from bus fares like wot we did. (Ok, I admit I did not study at a campus 10 miles out of town. But also, there wasn't an obesity crisis in them days. It would be good for the blighters :-) ).

There is a serious point to my old age rant here, and it is as follows. We recommended this book because it is a coherently argued book which makes points which unfold over several chapters. We believe that reading books is a valuable intellectual exercise in its own right. It has a clear explanation of basic statistical concepts and common misconceptions which people fall prey to when trying to interpret them. We believe that a 3rd year student should be mature enough to read such a text and follow the argument without being spoonfed it chapter by chapter. In addition, we supply other reading materials on different topics week by week as well as a mix of video and audio materials. The students seem to read the photocopied articles as we ask them (well mostly). So what is different about buying a book? Do they think they shouldn't have to spend their money on learning materials? Do they feel they shouldn't have to read a whole book? Do they think it's not important because we are not setting reading week by week? Do they think the book can't be any good as it is only £4 and a paperback?

Dear readers: what do you do in this situation? Do  you:

a) Tell the library to buy a copy for every student instead of one for the class? There is no e-version.

b) Ignore photocopy laws and scan the lot

c) Give up

d) Set a chapter plus quiz every week and hold their hands

e) Set the exam in such a way that they can't pass without knowing the book material. Thus giving them a summer to save up for the book before the resits.

f) Hang one student as an example

Currently I favour e).

Judy.children[0]

Meet Judy.children[0];

The expression Judy.children[0] == Dominic.children[0] evaluates to true.

Currently in alpha release, final version expected in April.

Known to non-computer scientists as Mini-me.

Glowing bracelet/ cat wear

Here is an LED bracelet I made. As you can see, it doubles asa cat fashion accessory although Yin and Yang need convincing. The bracelet currently has no information content, but just you wait for Bracelet 2.0.
I learned how to sew circuits, make a battery holder in elastic, and make bead designs with thread. Oddly, all much easier than the felt puppets (Borg and co). I think it's just much easier to work with satin and fine conductive thread.

Persausive Plants

Ladies and Gentleman! Meet Ghengis, the tweeting geranium!

 You can read his wise words on the feed to the right of my blog. Ghengis is the cybernetic fusion of a Botanicalls electronic kit containing a moisture sensor with my thirsty office plant. When the soil gets dry, the moisture probe sends a message to twitter via an xport on the circuit. I made it this weekend - my first ever electronics project. I can solder and everything! If you want to follow Ghengis on twitter (and why would you not?) his user name is Botanicalls0179.

This is only the beginning of my plans for cybernetically enhanced plants... Mwahahah!

Atonement

Text from my CACM blog on the Alan Turing petition:

Have you ever wondered how the field of computer science would be different if Alan Turing was still alive? Would we know whether P=NP?  What other advances might we have made?

Sadly, we will never know because Alan Turing committed suicide at the age of 41. He was gay, and had the misfortune to live in a time in Britain where this was illegal. After being prosecuted for gross indecency in 1952, he chose to take an experimental hormone treatment instead of emprisonment. He fell into despair and poisoned himself in 1954. Britain's greatest computer scientist, code-breaking war hero, and recipient of an OBE, was reduced to desperation by the very counry he served so well.

There is some controvery at the moment in the UK about an e-petition which has been lodged with the prime minster's office about the prosecution of Alan Turing. The author of the petition John Cumming, writes "The British Government should apologize to Alan Turing for his treatment and recognize that his work created much of the world we live in and saved us from Nazi Germany. And an apology would recognize the tragic consequences of prejudice that ended this man's life and career."  The controversy relates to some people's perception that this is part of a "gay agenda" or political-correctness-gone-mad. John Cumming says this is not his intention, and while he recognises that it unlikey that an apology will be made, he wanted to have Turing's contribution honoured. He suggests that an appropriate way to do this would be for the government to contribute to the upkeep of Bletchly Park and the Nation Musuem of Computing, both of which are amazing, important places which currently have no government support.

Only British citizens can sign the petition, which you can find here.  If you feel strongly about it but are not British you could always send a letter of support to 10 Downing Street. At the time of writing, 4609 people have signed up.