Wired Mag on Remembering Stuff

The May issue (16.05) of Wired Magazine has an awesome article about memory. Good stuff for both the teacher and student in me.

Here’s the I’m-too-busy-to-read-the-article summary: if you review stuff you’ve learned, you’ll remember it better. If you review too soon, you’ll waste your time. If you wait too long, you’ll have forgotten. The trick, it seems, is to pinpoint the exact right time to study.

Piotr Wozniak, the focus of the article, created software called SuperMemo that figures out just when you’re going to forget something and presents review material then. How does it work? Does it work?

I found the historical background of memory fascinating. Somewhere near the end of the nineteenth century, a German psychologist named Hermann Ebinghaus described something called the “spacing effect”:

Ebbinghaus showed that it’s possible to dramatically improve learning by correctly spacing practice sessions. On one level, this finding is trivial; all students have been warned not to cram. But the efficiencies created by precise spacing are so large, and the improvement in performance so predictable, that from nearly the moment Ebbinghaus described the spacing effect, psychologists have been urging educators to use it to accelerate human progress.

In the spacing effect, I found excellent food-for-thought for teaching. It occurs to me that I don’t give the review component of my class enough attention. What good is knowledge gained if it’s going to be forgotten very shortly?

If you care about remembering things (or teaching others to remember things), read this article!

The Kids are Talking About You

A) I haven’t blogged in over three weeks. B) I miss the blog-reading-and-writing cycle. C) My Masters program at Georgia State got in the way. Because of A, B, and C, I decided to share this story.

The Kids are Talking About You. Are You?

[The following story is something I thought long about before posting. I share it because it was so meaningful to me.]

A very powerful experience happened recently between a middle school student and me.

While supervising another teacher’s PE class, one student asked to speak with me privately about something other students were saying. He wanted to know if it was true or not because he likes me as a teacher. I knew just where this was going. And a lump was forming at the back of my throat.

Then he said it: “the other kids are saying you’re a L-E-Z-B-O. Is it true?”

This is always the moment that makes me profoundly nervous but not for the reason some might think. I’ve always been out at work. Being out to the administration and (as appropriate) to students was a condition I put on taking the job. With the support of my administration, I’ve even been lucky enough to work directly with several gay high school students in the past few years.

But it rarely comes up with the younger students at my school. And when it does, I fear backlash from parents, fear saying the wrong thing, fear being a bad role model.

So I swallowed the lump in my throat and confirmed that I am, in fact, a lesbian. He said that he “didn’t think I would do that,” at which point he fell all over his words and apologized for saying the wrong thing. I was saddened by his words — and that he felt the need to take them back.

I went into teaching for so many reasons, but providing a positive role model of the GLBT communities to students was a huge motivator. All that is wonderful about my being gay was knocked down a rung when this kid said he didn’t think I “would do that”.

That. My identity is reduced to “that” in this kid’s eyes. Clearly he thinks being a L-E-Z-B-O is gross. As if I just plucked some ABC gum off a desk and started chewing it — “ewww, I can’t believe you did that.”

When the student said he was surprised, I took the chance to tell him that gay people don’t look or act a certain way. That you can’t tell by looking at someone. The conversation wound down and he walked off.

I couldn’t help but feel, though, that if only I were better at this I could have said something more meaningful to this kid. Words don’t come easily to me (if only you knew how many edits this short blog took me!) nor do most interpersonal skills.

My doubts aside, I’m pretty proud of the conversation. I know I’m making a difference. And that’s pretty cool.

———————–

I’m taking a history of education course (EPSF 7120) and will be presenting a related topic: GLBT Issues in Schools. It’s nerve-wracking to get up in front of this group and talk about gay folk in the schools — mostly because I’ll be coming out to them — but my conversation above, motivates me to share. Wish me luck!

Amateurs and Experts: Netflix Challenge

Andrew Keen’s slim volume, The Cult of the Amateur, was an interesting* read. One question he asked came to mind as I read this month’s Wired (16.03): “Can a social worker in Des Moines really be considered credible in arguing with a trained physicist over string theory?”

What’s an amateur? I originally considered the guy from the Wired article an amateur: “This Psychologist Might Outsmart the Math Brains Competing for the Netflix Prize”.

Here’s my executive summary of the Wired article:

• Netflix is offering a $1M prize to the individual or team that can improve their recommendation engine by 10% or more.
• Heavy hitters in the math world, including a team from AT&T and Princeton alums, are competing.
• So is “Just a guy in a garage”.
• Gavin Potter, a 48 year-old psychologist in London is currently in 6th place (that was as of press time, he’s down to 8th currently).

I don’t think Gavin Potter is an amateur, though on the surface he may appear to be one. Certainly, he’s no programmer or mathematician. The other teams approaching the prize are heavy on professional numbers people. Potter, on the other hand, has asked his daughter to solve calculus for his Netflix Prize work.

The Des Moines social worker may have something to contribute to something outside his/her obvious expertise. The trick is in figuring out how to apply existing knowledge in other fields of study.
* “interesting” in the Chinese proverb/curse way: “May you live in interesting times.”

Why is Keyboarding Working?

The 12 students I teach at the end of every day have just returned from PE, sweaty and ready to go home. I have the pleasure of teaching them touch typing at just those moments. In my 4 years of teaching, this is universally the students’ least favorite class.

Forget the bad timing, that’s not why they generally hate this class. It turns out that overcoming several years of hunt-and-peck technique is incredibly difficult.

The black keyboards were my first experiment. I had a bunch of spare keyboards that I painted black to permanently cover the letters. Every day, I plug in the blanked-out keyboards before the students arrive.

Usually, the students balked, then attempted their old ways, then started guessing at the letters. In the past, they’ve not gotten very far towards learning the positions of the keys without looking.

This class is different. I try not to jinx it by asking a bunch of questions, but here are my suspicions of why it’s working:

• Don’t drag it out. My schedule covers the entire touch typing course in Typing Master in about 5 weeks. I’m fortunate to get a different batch of students every 6 weeks (we’ve implemented a mini-mester elective program where students rotate regularly).
• Constantly roam the room to correct technique. If a student reaches for the “r” with the wrong finger more than a few times, it’ll become ingrained incorrectly. Correct those mistakes early!
• Build in friendly competition to inject a little fun. The picture above is from a weekly head-to-head competition where students cheer each other on. However, I’ve discovered that, like in golf, I need to apply a handicapping system so that every student has a chance of winning.
• Play techno music. The thumpa-thumpa beat adds a rhythm to the keying. My students now ask for the music! I use an iTunes radio station from either the Dance or Electronic category.

If you’re inclined to, keep your fingers crossed for me that I continue having success with the young keyboarders in my charge!

Meme: Passion Quilt

Ask “what if?” and experiment to find out

Dana Huff tagged me for the Passion Quilt meme.

The rules:

• Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative
  Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most
  passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short
  title.
• Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
• Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

My 5 tags are:

• Alfred Thompson
• Janice Friesen, the Texas Malahini
• Lucie deLaBruere
• Julie at The School ofBlog
• Chris Harbeck, Making it Interesting

Technorati Tags: meme, passionquilt, passion, quilt, danahuff, alfredthompson, janicefriesen, luciedelabruere, chrisharbeck

Crayon Physics Simulates Real World

Where Real=”looking as if it were drawn by a small child with a fat Crayola” AND Real=”behaving according to the Newtonian physics we all adore”

Crayon Physics Deluxe, currently in development for the PC.

I had the honor of teaching a physics class last year and think it was a Top 5 course in my teaching career. Don’t get me wrong, computer technology and math offer their own excitements. But, is there any other course where you try to sink a clay boat with pennies, study the physics of superheroes, and talk all dv/dt on people? I didn’t think so.

Until the day I return to a physics classroom, I’ll remain content signing up to be notified when Crayon Physics Deluxe is released.

(thanks to information aesthetics)
Technorati Tags: k12, highschool, physics, games, crayonphysics

iPod Shuffle $49

I just got wonderful news from Apple: that the iPod Shuffle (2nd gen) is now $49. I’ve owned a Shuffle for just over a year and love it!

Several students have asked why I don’t want a “better” iPod. The Shuffle is perfect for me, for several reasons:

• The clip is handy for wearing the Shuffle while I listen.
• I love listening to my songs on shuffle. For podcasts, I usually load them on as the first several tracks then use the triple-play-press to go to the first track.
• Huge song capacity is meaningless to me because I’m never far from my laptop.
• I want to listen to music, not play movies.
• The battery lasts more than 10 hours, the time it takes me to drive from Atlanta to my hometown, Melbourne, Florida.

My original Shuffle was stolen off my desk at school about a week ago, a frustrating happening, to be sure. This price drop, therefore, came as welcome news.

To avoid being that person, I’m going to shut up now about how much I love this gadget. Go buy a Shuffle, if you want.

You Suck at Math

From xkcd, my favorite geeky webcomic:

And speaking of sucking in math, I dropped one math class (Modern Algebra) in my Masters program. Turns out I didn’t have a prerequisite. My remaining math, Modern Geometry, is fascinating! (Did I just say that…about a math class?!) But, here’s why: the class is small — about 15 students — and the teacher adjusts pace to our understanding.

For the record, the class is mostly women who DON’T suck at math.

Engineering Challenges of the 21st Century

Next week is National Engineer’s Week. I’ve always played with engineering in my classes during E-Week (cf Bridges). But this year should be extra-nice:

The Grand Engineering Challenges of the 21st Century will be posted on Friday, Feb. 15.

Committee members include engineering world superstars who aren’t household names plus well-known innovators like Google co-founder Larry Page, Segway guy Dean Kamen, and OCR inventor Raymond Kurzweil.

(Thanks to Vint Cerf’s post on the Google Blog)

Technorati Tags: engineering, nae, eweek, vintcerf, google

Studying Design Whole-Mind Style

Last week, my students and I studied design as part of studying Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind. We completed 3 portfolio items: Participate in the third industrial revolution, Visit a design museum, and Channel your annoyance. Here’s a quick summary of each:

Participate in the Third Industrial Revolution

Designing your own products is a hot trend among shoe manufacturers. I structured this portfolio exercise so that the students could choose what they designed (from soccer cleats to diamond rings) then critique the experience.

We completed this exercise in one class period, the students enjoyed it, but I’m not sure exactly what they learned about design from the experience.

Visit a Design Museum

Our biggest item of the week, we took a day long field trip to the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA). Their current exhibit fit our needs perfectly: they were showing the furniture of Eero Saarinen.

We had the chance to examine up close and even sit in a number of Saarinen designs. The mid-century modern style is a lot of fun to show kids because it’s got a Jetsons feel.

This exhibit was awesome because we got to sit in the chairs. Going to a museum to stand at a distance from the furniture would’ve been little better than looking at pictures on the web.

Several students commented that the museum was smaller than they expected.

When we returned, we investigated several terms our guide mentioned: the Bauhaus, Ray and Charles Eames, as well as Eero Saarinen. This was a very useful exercise. Check out what they chose to summarize on our Wikispace discussion.

Saarinen furniture photo courtesy of idogcow’s Photostream on flickr.

Channel Your Annoyance

The portfolio entry under this title said to choose a household item, go to a cafe with pen and paper, and design an improved model. My students and I drove to the local Starbucks and wrote about all sorts of improvements.

One senior wrote about his annoying personal fan. Apparently it’s got a rattle he’s not fond of. So he designed a way to quiet it. He’s also not happy with the placement of the controls (on the back).

Another described problems with getting the shower temperature just right. He came up with an easy mechanical pre-set method.

We enjoyed the change of venue, to be sure. Several students really got into the exercise and had great ideas. Others needed lots of help getting started. Choosing the correct scope was important on this one. Some kids thought too big to be doing any design work in the coffee shop.