Classroom technology

Students arrive for class with laptops and tablets, with the readings and their class notes documents open. It all feels quite normal, now. I do remember when laptops first started appearing the classroom, brought in by the random, slightly more resourced and more techie students. These students tended to slouch down, almost hiding behind the fully upright screen. Their gaze was never at me, always at the screen. That hasn't changed much over the years.  But, I have. I used to feel exasperated, wanting nothing between me and the student. I was at a loss for what to say. Now I say, politely but pointedly, "look at me" when I want their engaged attention.

As tools for organizing thoughts, keeping printing and textbook costs down, and being prepared for class, laptops and tablets now make a lot of sense. In addition, so many textbooks are electronic, with no hard copies, which makes computers a student necessity. I have learned to incorporate their computers into some discussions. Sometimes when I mention something slightly historical, like President Johnson or the start of day care centers, their quizzical look tells me that they have no clear sense of the historical reference. I can use that as a learning moment because the entire campus has wifi so internet access is easy. I'll pause and say "look it up."  Students readily slip into a subtle competition for the best google find.

In contrast, the phone remains mostly an annoying distraction. Partly, because of the wifi availability. At best, the phone is silenced and tucked away until break or the end of class. At worst, it makes noises and the bright white of the small screen feeds the addiction with trivial updates that somehow have deep meaning to the reader. Well, okay, networking can be fun, but not during a lecture or a discussion that is intended to broaden the horizons for the student.

Faculty have come to accept that technology we use and that our students use is still evolving. That constant change contributes to the slight burdensomeness of modifying assignments and interactions, but also the challenge of keeping our teaching fresh and alive with the vast resources now literally at our fingertips. 

Learnig Curves

As the semester progresses, the weaker spots in my teaching and in student comprehensive become visible. The class discussion this morning revealed the steepness of our learning curves. While I have come to a comfortable acceptance of the discomfort associated with learning curves, students tend to fear those curves as possible barriers to getting good grades. This creates an interesting tension.

I have a teaching philosophy which has only become stronger over the years, particularly as it relates to doctoral student education. The philosophy centers on challenging ourselves to think about things (phenomena, problems, solutions, theories) from different perspectives and using different lens for the purpose of finding new questions and alternative ways to frame the problems we wish to solve. In challenging ourselves to become more conceptually nibble, uncertainty enters the picture. Learning to  live with uncertainty includes not having a handy, bubble sheet "right" answer. My responsibility as a teacher includes fostering independent thinking and supporting the students through the uncertainty of that.

Curves becomes an appropriate analogy, especially curvy roads and mountains. Being on a mountain road involves the hidden faith that the road continues around the curve, that the going up and the going down have a purposes, and that the curves cumulatively take you from place A to place B. I prefer this interpretation of learning curves, rather than the x/y plot showing a steep slope. For me learning curves are more about distance, angles, and perseverance. Doctoral students have a path that involves distance between what was formerly assumed and what have since been learned and questioned. The path involves angles, an acquired ability to view life from almost 360 degrees, and to appreciate the views from that width. The path definitely involves perseverance, as in determination to do finish the grey cell exercises and and to go beyond the comfort of long straight roads.

As the professor, I am on that path with the students. Experiencing their questioning faith. Getting sore feet walking the distance. Getting a sore neck from looking over my shoulder for that new angle. Getting worn out grey cells from the impromptu examples and answers to their wonderfully challenging questions. My teaching philosophy is that the teacher and the student, for a short while, share the same path and get stronger together.  

Realities of the Semester Start

Each semester begins with a mix of ease and stumbles. The stumble this semester originated in the bookstore.

One of my students sent an email the week before the first class asking whether it was okay to use the book on the bookstore shelves, despite it not being the same as the one on the course syllabus.  Needless to say, I was perplexed. After a few email exchanges with the bookstore, I learned that they had substituted a newer book for the text that I had ordered which was no longer in print.  The stumble was that the bookstore never notified me of this. An obvious communication failure.

Not so many years ago, this mix up would have only had one resolution-buy what was on the bookstore shelf. Now, students can get old books from a variety of online sources.  While having that option is wonderful, it also left me with no way to know how many students had gone online for the older book versus how many had purchased the newer textbook at the bookstore. In short, I was stumped by the technology, the ready access to a host of resources and no means to anticipate. 

What are the possible lessons?   

    1)  Don’t assume that a textbook stays in print.

    2)  Don’t assume that the bookstore is prefect in its functioning.

    3)  At least one student will point out the failings and problems.

    4)  Being flexible remains a good approach.

During the first class, I addressed the problem and hopefully calmed fears that both would work, albeit slightly differently.  I did not hear any complaining. I think they were mostly glad that not to have to buy a different book.

Summer Plans

It may seem odd to reconnect to this blog, the work related blog, just as summer is getting started. The reality is that summer does not mean three months of vacation with nothing to do. Au contre! 

It works like this. I have summer salary included in the budget for two of my grants. Therefore, I need to work on those grants during the summer months to justify the summer salary.  Continuing to work on them during the summer had been written into the grant activities plan. Amazingly, I was in the ball park with what will need to be done over the summer months. In addition to the grants activities, I still have Editorship work to do and preparation for class in fall. That's the shortened list.

Fall class preparation actually began while teaching the course last fall. I made notes on what might need to be updated or improved. Over the next month or two, I'll make those changes, and get the Blackboard updated for the students. Interestingly, some students who have signed up for the fall class are already asking for the course syllabus and textbook list. I have a mixed reaction that is equal parts "why are you bugging me so far in advance" and "these must be ambitious students who deserve encouragement." Yes, faculty to do have their moments of ambivalence.

I have reconciled to the need to switch to MS Outlook. Not a conversion that is appealing, but increasingly necessary given the extent to which it is used by my collaborators. If I can get this done before the beginning of August, that would be good. Yes, I realize that this is not technologically difficult. It's more that staying current with the ever-evolving options takes some degree of energy and attention. At least I no longer wish for the DOS days.

Bonding with students

Some students become intellectual children and stay close to home.  Every once in a while, some chemistry happens between a student and a faculty that somehow bonds the two. It's a good feeling, that has overtones of successes and pride and optimism.

Lisa, Michelle, Erica and Jamie are good examples. It's more than us being Facebook friends or connected through LinkedIn. We went through the tough times of working out the research, plugging through the details of writing and data analysis. We shared some sweat and tears. By the time we had reached the graduation side of the mountain, we were friends who had shared a rite of passage in life.

Rite of passage. Graduate education has that potential to be more than getting a degree. It's about becoming someone new, with eyes open, sleeves rolled up, and enthusiasm in approaching the next challenge. This doesn't make either me or the student smarter, but it does make us each more than we were before. And, for that I am as grateful as for the new friendships.

Week 15

15 is the magic and highly stressful number in a semester. It's the last week of classes, which means finals and final papers happen next week.Students look sleep deprived and slightly more grungy than usual. Faculty increase their scurrying around to get the last of the committee work done before the University closes for the holiday season. And, the central heat becomes functional and very necessary.

I like Week 15 because I can breathe. The students who are going to "get it" have gotten it. I don't need to prepare a lecture because students do presentations of their papers this week. I do have a slight anxiety about the upcoming stack of papers that I'll have for grading next weekend. But, that's not so bad.

Week 15 is also when the invitations go out to faculty for this Department or that School Holiday Party. That somewhat obligatory, bright light, non-cocktail, mid-day event. Everyone is expected to bring a gift donation for the announced charity. Great, I can do that and have put something under the tree each year. But, my thing is why December? Why not have the party in February when the winter seems like a permanent condition and we all suffer from a slight case of SAD.

What routine looks like

This week has been more cruise control, with a steady and easy flow of routine activities resulting in a few "products" ~

• Editorship work resulted in getting manuscripts processed (accept/reject/revise) in a timely manner so that my stats look good on the amount of time for turning around manuscripts.

• Presentation preparations resulted in having the powerpoint presentations for the two presentations at APHA ready to be unloaded to its website by the deadline.

• Committee membership attendance resulted in furthering discussions but no decisions with immediate results-some activities fall into the category of fermentation, an important process to arrive at a smooth final product....

• Teacher work included reading the assigned articles to be prepared for class discussion and grading their second assignment papers. Hopefully, the teaching work results in students with enhanced skills and a feeling of being mentored. Some results are more like secondary consequences which are not results for the primary party.

• As an author I worked on one of the many manuscripts in the queue (front and back burners) with the result of inching toward a manuscript for submission - note that I say submission because that is the really the only aspect of authorship that I have direct and sole responsibility for.

So, overall, it it felt like a groove, uncomplicated, focused, doable with no threats or looming deadlines. A groove with results as well as opportunities to have intellectual stimulation.

Why I like good students

I am taking this opportuntity to be thankful.

Good students make the life of teachers so much easier. Good students do their homework which makes it easier to have interesting discussions. Good students come ready to share of themselves in potentially vulnerable ways. That helps us all learn. Good students ask the hard to answer questions that deserve to be asked. Good students make connections between their life experiences and what they are learning, and that enriches understanding. Good students put in the hours that it takes to do a good job, to have a job well-done.  Good students don't expect good grades, only fair grades. Good students make us want to give more of ourselves as teacheres.Good students somehow bring out or tap into what we have forgotten that we know.

If only life had only good students....

Teaching Evaluation

With all the news about the quality of teachers in K-12, you'd expect a little news about the quality of teaching in universities. Not so. The evaluation of teaching does happen, albeit behind the scenes, with an emphasis on the privacy of the faculty member. 

At the end of each course we teach, the students receive an email providing them with a link to an online survey about the quality of the course. (The paper versions are gone.) What happens to those surveys? The results are reviewed, course by course, by the Associate Dean, then forwarded to the Division Director, and finally to the faculty member. Faculty with good evaluations get a nice letter from the Director, and the others (I'm told) have a meeting with the director. All of this is routine and happens each semester.

On a much more infrequent basis, a more serious step is taken. When a faculty member is going up for promotion, another faculty observes the teaching and writes a report. This report is used in the promotion packet.

Last week I had an observer. I didn't do anything differently than previous weeks. We had a good discussion during the class and lots of thoughtful questions posed, most with no right or wrong answers. The students all selected one chapter written by different great minds in management and briefly presented on what they learned from the life story of that great mind. Students were animated and engaged.  At the end of the class, the observer said "That was fun."  I took this as a good sign.

Rite of Passage

You could see it on her face, that mildly stunned, disappointed look of "is that all?" There was no drum roll, no fanfare for the common man, no disco ball flashing lights. But, you could tell that she expected something, anything more than what just happened. I reached out my hand to shake hers to be first on to say "Congratulations Dr.Smith!" But, that was clearly not enough.

Her reaction is more the norm than not. Doctoral students work so hard, for so long doing coursework, cramming for the preliminary examination, conducting the dissertation research, writing, more writing and even more writing. Then during the last few weeks, they sprint with anxious breath toward the day and hour of the defense.  After all that, all those years, all that tuition money paid and earnings lost while in school, anything short of gold confetti is bound to seem anti-climatic.

I could not tell her or explain how or why that what she had just experienced (as do nearly all doctoral students at the same moment) will now be the reality of the academic life she has chosen. She had, maybe for the first time, had experienced the reality of how hard, enduring, quite work is rewarded; that perseverance and dogged pursuit of an elusive goal (whether a degree, a grant award, or a publication) is expected and assumed. We, the omnipresent we of society, pay no head to effort expended, only to the product.

The New Students

We use room 932 for the presentations of graduating students and faculty meetings. Today the room was filled with incoming MPH students who will be in the Community Health Sciences Division. And, the room was really filled, with eager, if not slightly apprehensive, faces. There were not enough chairs for the faculty to sit at the long parallel tables. So, we stood around the walls in the back of the room, looking a bit awkward.

Each of the 60 or so students gave a name, where they were from and something interesting about themselves. The Midwest states were very well represented, but students also came from both coasts. I don't recall any international students. (The decline in the number of international students corresponds directly with the tightening of granting student visa since 9/11.) Several students are training for marathons. Several like dancing or play a musical instrument. A few were funny. We have identical twin brothers. Some of the students will be taking all of their courses online, making this their only in-person appearance. Most of the students have some international experience either volunteering or studying abroad. Overall, wow, what a group.

For us as faculty, this first in-person introduction to the new students brings a certain satisfaction. We did good to have so many good applicants who want to come to UIC. We feel a renewed optimism about what they can do and how we can work with them. We feel anticipation for their learning curves and we feel confident in our ability to keep the curve at just the right slope. Then, we scurry back to our offices to finish our syllabi.

Santiago Work

I've lived in Santiago Chile before, each time for about 5-6 weeks. Long enough to get comfortable, but not so long as to get bored. This year, I'll be here 5 weeks, again teaching the Program Planning and Evaluation  course to post-graduate and master's level nursing students. The course goes ultra quick, and thankfully they are really smart students who seem able to keep up with the pace.

The start was rocky. I was exhausted and still  in hyperdrive from the June crazies. That said, they were not exactly organized either. They were still drumming up students (so that it would be more than 4; we ended up with 6), wanting they syllabus reformatted to the UC requirements, the course webpage not accessible to half the students, and no plans for me to meet with other faculty. All of this took a week to mostly get sorted out.

I teach all day on Friday (9am-6pm, 1 hour for lunch) and 4 hours on Saturday. In Santiago, almost all of the small stores close by 2pm on Saturday for the weekend. It changes one's patten of living. The campus is about 30-45 minutes away on the Metro. Yes, I am a seasoned subway commuter here, including being squeezed into a train car during the evening rush. Not fun.

Lisette and I have been asked by the Minstry of Health to consult with them to develop a plan for how to improve the national disaster and emergency plan.  Lisette had been asked to do this because a former classmate of hers is now in the position in the MINSAL (as it is abbreviated here). So, we have been coordinating that consulting work as well. Lisette is moving to US at the end of June to start the PhD program at the SPH. So, she too is ultra busy getting ready for that major life change.

Our first meeting include a representative from WHO/OMS. The international scene is fascinating to me. How the WHO provides support, but not really. How the national health system is both centralized and decentralized. These differences come up in my working with the students in the course. The reliance on MINSAL, but not really.

Last Class

Every semester ends. Some have easier, simpler, more gratifying ends than others. This semester ends on a high note: one doctoral student finished and who will be hooded next week, one master's student overcame a huge hump toward completion of her essay, and a class with students who praised the course as meeting their needs. A faculty member can't ask for much more.

The final assignment of the course was for the student to give a brief book report on the biography or autobiography of a scientist . I saw two themes across the lives: following passion and intuition is linked to success, and personalities can affect the level of recognition received. Both lessons relevant to yesterday...

The rest of the day was taken up with telephone meetings, in-person planning, and email. As I was packing up my briefcase with work for the weekend, I looked over the to-do list. And, felt disappointed in myself. I could not cross one item.  Yet, I has spent the full 8 hours at task. Things come up. I've learned that it's easier to get it done just then. Once it's on the to-do list, it could be weeks.

And were was the public health part today?  One of the calls was with one of the local health departments participating in my intervention project. We talked about the workforce needs and how we might best address them. Quality improvement is the new focus and requires that everyone in the health departments learn new skills and change attitudes  about change. It was the type of conversation that helps me stay connected to the real, the daily, the practice. And, challenges me to find ways to make useful, little-by-little changes.