Bad Experience of Using Google Video for Teaching

Yesterday I was trying to show a google video about Linux and OpenDoc in class. It took me forever to connect to the server. I felt so bad about that experience that I stay in front of the classroom waiting for the video. Standing there, I was so angry about myself because I remebered I thought about this and said I will be there earlier to download the video to my cache. Something came up and I just didn’t do it. Well, the lesson is, never trust the Internet Resources. Download them or prepare your own backup talk.

 

Dutch or Chinese?

Today, I was doing research on the auctions, which I think is fun to my students.

I have learnt a lot about Auction in Graduation school. There are English and Dutch ones. Seal-bid one which wins William Vickery the Nobel price (and his heart attack). I research from the web in hoping to bring more background stories to students. Here is the amuzing one: the Dutch auction as it was called in the United States, is actually called Chinese auction in Netherland. (Proof needed though. You may not believe everything from Wikipedia.)  It seems that this Auction mechanism isn’t that good so that the Dutch people wouldn’t want to take the credit.

However, if you search “Chinese Auction” from Wiki, you get a total different story, which is a variation of all-pay auction.  Which one is created by our intelligent Chinese people? Maybe both? :p Anywho, I have heard neither when I was in China.

 

New Video Game Player

http://media.wii.ign.com/articles/735/735335/vids_1.html

One of my students presented this new video game player in the class. As an extremely unqalified game player, I was still intrigued as the rest of my class. The motion controled player handle is really cool. It largely extendes the gaming experience a customer could gain.

 

Showoff My New Tablet PC

I got this cute stuff two weeks ago. Still cannot believe it. It was given by our IITS. How good it was to be a professor.

However, we are told that we are supposed to use it in teaching. Well, yeah. It would be so much easier now to teach statistics. I can just draw equations without using equation editor. (I thought)

I have played with this new toy for a while, however, I felt it wasn’t as nice as I felt. I understand I shouldn’t be too critical on new technologies. However, the drawing wasn’t very nicely readable. In addition, most of my students are not familiar with equations. If I use sketched drawing in the notes, that wouldn’t be good. However, it is a good toy for me to write comments on my PDF papers. Anyway, there are already a lot of comments, and it is always good to have a free stuff, right?

Here are the photos.

 

 

 

Summer Teaching is Over

Summer school was quite intense. Teaching consecutively the whole afternoon from 1:00pm to 5:30pm for three days per week. That’s a big challenge to both your phisical and mental health. Some days I got so physically tired that I had to drag my legs to bed without having dinner, and some days I got mentally tired that I almost fail to stop at the stop sign. Extremely dangerous!

The good thing of summer teaching tough is it is short. Mine is finished already. In addition, due to the tight schedule, my students are much more focused. It made my teaching so much easier… Prof. O had already told me that the students are generally better. He is right. However, I don’t think it is fair to draw the conclusion that the students in the summer are smart. They are just better prepared and less distracted. However, I am worried that they may not be able to actually consume all the materials. After all, I think we shouldn’t use the exam scores to indicate our teaching effect. As the goal of education is to teach students a way of thinking, and to train them with the up-to-date techniques for their future career. Hence, another measurement should be how well a student could remember the material in a certain period. In the case of statistics, I believe that students should be trained to think statistically in their daily problems. This is no easy task. But that should be my achievement.

All in all, my summer teaching is over and I got to take a break for about a month. It’s time to get back to my research. Work hard, dude…

 

I setup a team blog site for my students to Learn MIS

Though I will be teaching Business Statistics from next Monday for two and a half weeks, what I am really concerned about is the class next Fall. This would be the first time I teach students things far beyond my beloved mathematics. My goal is to let students understand and are able to analyze new technologies and innovations from a Business point of view. I want my students to communicate with each other timely and freely. Hence, I decide to use webblog. Not only me, I want them to talk online and share opinions. I am really hoping they will enjoy it.

I have set up a web blog site on “blogger”. Not that I don’t like wordpress, I just think this site may require too much technical skills which could frustate some. I have established the blog site under my blogger account. I was delighted to find out that the only thing I need to do to add students to post is to send them an email. Once they receive my e-invitation, they can follow the link to create an account, which was pretty simple. How great was that! I am now anxious  to see my students posts even though they won’t be here until the end of August.

 

Summer Teaching Starts Next Monday

After a long break (from May 5th – July9th, appr.), I will start teaching soon. Now it’s time for me to sit down retrospecting lessons from the past two semesters.

I will be teaching the first half of Business Statistics this summer, which I have taught for two consecutive semesters already. According to my friends and former supervisor, this should be a piece of cake then. However, I know that I cannot think this way. No matter how easy the thing looks to you, you still need to be fully prepared. Otherwise, this is when you start to make mistake.

In addition, I have to think about the difficulties such as how to let my students learn in such a tight schedule. They may not have enough time to finish an in-class project which I believe is crucial in their learning process. I am going to think about it in the following days. I do want my students to learn…

Recently, I got an email from technical support that the tablet PCs finally arrives and we are going to have a brownbag to learn how we can use it in the classroom. Am I going to get one? (Daydreaming? ) I do appreciate the excellent technical support provided by our university. However, I need to think about how to manage the in-class technology too. It seems not true that fancy technology always helps. hem… think…

 

Blog and Plagiarism: Internet Copyright !?

News (Link): Blogger resigned due to charge of plagiarism.

As a blogger myself, I couldn't help but wonder, "What is the boundary?"

The growth of Internet satisfies people's desire of talk about whatever they like. However, how many people are really talking about something created by their own brain? Lots of my friends posting funny jokes and articles from other website. Cute pictures are downloaded and re-uploaded to their own website. Are those plagiarism? What is the fine line?

The answer should lie in the definition of blog. If a person writes a whole paragraph of other's article into his own diary, there wouldn't be such an issue. But as an online diary, it does not only serve a purpose of diary, it is open for everyone to read. However, it is supposed to be informal. How serious should you treat a blog? Some very serious and some not. Most blogs are provided by amateurs like me, who just want to talk. But some people are now writing blog for a living. Those people are paid to write things from their own creative mind. However, regular readers cannot tell.

A better regulation mechanism should be provided for my personal opinion. (1) website ratings (analogic to academic journals) to help readers understand the reliability of the source. (2) definition of online plagiarism (how should you refer to the source you are using). However, too strong regulation may restrain creativity.

Online blogging could, and has the strong potential to, evolve to the publication source of next generation. Maintaing its vitality relies on the balance between rigorous and relevance.