The NBC comedy "Community" gets way more things right than they have to. For example: The sexpot statistics professor.
But wait, there's more. I've long held a theory about performance that, "No actor can play more intelligent than they are in real life". Largely this is a matter of diction: I hear actors stumbling over, or putting incorrect emphasis on, pieces of vocabulary that they don't really know or use themselves in daily life. "Community" places really great actors throughout the ensemble; they're delivering lines like "as long as we keep the work/fun ratio the same I want to keep seeing you", and "the deception is making the sex 36% hotter" so fluidly that they slide by almost without me realizing that they were meant to be jokey.
2010-01-28
2010-01-26
Elementary Teachers
Did you know?
This in a larger article finding:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_sci_fear_of_figures
Edit: The article linked above is gone from Yahoo News. But you can still see that via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. And here's a citation and link to the original academic article:
Beilock, who studies how anxieties and stress can affect people's performance, noted that other research has indicated that elementary education majors at the college level have the highest levels of math anxiety of any college major.
This in a larger article finding:
But by the end of the year, the more anxious teachers were about their own math skills, the more likely their female students — but not the boys — were to agree that "boys are good at math and girls are good at reading." In addition, the girls who answered that way scored lower on math tests than either the classes' boys or the girls who had not developed a belief in the stereotype, the researchers found.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_sci_fear_of_figures
Edit: The article linked above is gone from Yahoo News. But you can still see that via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. And here's a citation and link to the original academic article:
Beilock, Sian L., et al. "Female teachers’ math anxiety affects girls’ math achievement." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107.5 (2010): 1860-1863. (Link)
2010-01-03
Phonics and Bases
Speaking of the "Math Wars", here's an observation I made about teaching the most basic elementary-school subjects.
When I was very young, we were taught reading by "phonics", i.e., sounding out the letters of unknown words, and then thinking about how those sounds related to words we already knew. Sometime after that, phonics was dropped for a "whole word" approach, but it seems like the pendulum might be swinging back these days.
Why do "phonics" make sense as an instructional strategy? Because our system of writing is a technology based on exactly that principle. The whole point to our alphabet is that it is phonogrammatic, i.e., written symbols represent spoken sounds. This system of writing is meant for there to be an obvious connection between what we write, and what we say. (Of course, this is totally different from logographies such as Chinese whole-word characters and Egyptian heiroglyphics, but that's an entirely different story.) In teaching a child to read, why would you not use the language tool the way it was designed to be used?
Similarly, the traditional way of teaching arithmetic is to memorize a small number of basic facts (addition and multiplication tables), and then learn fundamental written procedures for adding, subtracting, multiplying, etc., large (many-digit) numbers. More recently, we've had to deal with the "Math Wars" is which training in time-tested prodecures has been frowned upon as too authoritarian (or something). Rather, there appears to be extensive time spent in base-10-system conceptual understanding, and then inventive or creative exhortations to make up your own multifarious addition, subtraction, etc., algorithms.
Why do "procedures" make sense as an instructional strategy? Again, because our system of written numbers is a technology based on exactly that principle. The whole point to our place-value system (base-10) is that it is intended to make the specific procedures for adding, subtracting, and multiplying simple, straightforward, and consistent for everyone! Consider the history of written numbers: With ancient systems like, again, Egyptian numerals or Roman numerals, there was no way to get addition or multiplying accomplished by simple writing or mental effort. Without a fixed base system, numbers don't "line up" the way they do for us. To get any arithmetic done (including total sales or tax calculations), you had to go to a licensed counter (think: public notary) with their counting board or abacus tool for use as a mechanical calculator, and trust that the computations they did there were correct. You were entirely at the mercy of this elite, cryptic profession, just to do simple addition.
At some later point, our Hindu-Arabic numeral system was invented and made its way to the West. This system of writing numbers is meant for there to be an obvious connection between the numbers we write, and how to add and multiply them, via a specific written procedure. Kings and princes were astounded at the prospect of people being able to do arithmetic on paper, or in their head, without using an abacus as a calculator. It's like magic! It's not some kind of accident that we use a positional-number system, it was engineered that way only so that we could use a specific adding and multiplying algorithm. In teaching a child to do arithmetic, why would you not use the written number tool the way it was designed to be used?
In summary, it's fascinating that both reading & writing instruction have taken almost exactly parallel paths in the last few decades in America. In each case, they have abandoned the rationale for which the writing tool was designed in the first place. It's like showing someone a power saw for the first time and asking them, "Can you think of something you might use this for?" To leave out the intention of the tool is to miss the whole point of it. We should play to the strengths of our writing technology, and not frustrate ourselves fighting against it.
When I was very young, we were taught reading by "phonics", i.e., sounding out the letters of unknown words, and then thinking about how those sounds related to words we already knew. Sometime after that, phonics was dropped for a "whole word" approach, but it seems like the pendulum might be swinging back these days.
Why do "phonics" make sense as an instructional strategy? Because our system of writing is a technology based on exactly that principle. The whole point to our alphabet is that it is phonogrammatic, i.e., written symbols represent spoken sounds. This system of writing is meant for there to be an obvious connection between what we write, and what we say. (Of course, this is totally different from logographies such as Chinese whole-word characters and Egyptian heiroglyphics, but that's an entirely different story.) In teaching a child to read, why would you not use the language tool the way it was designed to be used?
Similarly, the traditional way of teaching arithmetic is to memorize a small number of basic facts (addition and multiplication tables), and then learn fundamental written procedures for adding, subtracting, multiplying, etc., large (many-digit) numbers. More recently, we've had to deal with the "Math Wars" is which training in time-tested prodecures has been frowned upon as too authoritarian (or something). Rather, there appears to be extensive time spent in base-10-system conceptual understanding, and then inventive or creative exhortations to make up your own multifarious addition, subtraction, etc., algorithms.
Why do "procedures" make sense as an instructional strategy? Again, because our system of written numbers is a technology based on exactly that principle. The whole point to our place-value system (base-10) is that it is intended to make the specific procedures for adding, subtracting, and multiplying simple, straightforward, and consistent for everyone! Consider the history of written numbers: With ancient systems like, again, Egyptian numerals or Roman numerals, there was no way to get addition or multiplying accomplished by simple writing or mental effort. Without a fixed base system, numbers don't "line up" the way they do for us. To get any arithmetic done (including total sales or tax calculations), you had to go to a licensed counter (think: public notary) with their counting board or abacus tool for use as a mechanical calculator, and trust that the computations they did there were correct. You were entirely at the mercy of this elite, cryptic profession, just to do simple addition.
At some later point, our Hindu-Arabic numeral system was invented and made its way to the West. This system of writing numbers is meant for there to be an obvious connection between the numbers we write, and how to add and multiply them, via a specific written procedure. Kings and princes were astounded at the prospect of people being able to do arithmetic on paper, or in their head, without using an abacus as a calculator. It's like magic! It's not some kind of accident that we use a positional-number system, it was engineered that way only so that we could use a specific adding and multiplying algorithm. In teaching a child to do arithmetic, why would you not use the written number tool the way it was designed to be used?
In summary, it's fascinating that both reading & writing instruction have taken almost exactly parallel paths in the last few decades in America. In each case, they have abandoned the rationale for which the writing tool was designed in the first place. It's like showing someone a power saw for the first time and asking them, "Can you think of something you might use this for?" To leave out the intention of the tool is to miss the whole point of it. We should play to the strengths of our writing technology, and not frustrate ourselves fighting against it.
Math Wars
Recently I've had some discussions about the wacky stuff being taught in elementary math classes these days. Not something I deal with directly in the college classes I teach, but turns out there's a whole history to the current situation actually referred to as the "Math Wars"!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Math_wars
Basically, there's been a dispute over whether to emphasize "procedural" (algorithmic, memorized step-by-step processes) or "conceptual" (creative, inventive, big ideas) skills in the earliest grades. In the last 2 decades or so the "conceptual" camp has basically won the debate in teacher education schools, claiming to have research backing up the approach. Recently there have been calls for a more middle-ground approach.
Interesting articles in this month's American Educator magazine. One by cognitive psychologist Daniel T. Willingham: http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/winter09_10/willingham.pdf
And another article by professor E.D. Hirsh: http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/winter09_10/hirsch.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Math_wars
Basically, there's been a dispute over whether to emphasize "procedural" (algorithmic, memorized step-by-step processes) or "conceptual" (creative, inventive, big ideas) skills in the earliest grades. In the last 2 decades or so the "conceptual" camp has basically won the debate in teacher education schools, claiming to have research backing up the approach. Recently there have been calls for a more middle-ground approach.
Interesting articles in this month's American Educator magazine. One by cognitive psychologist Daniel T. Willingham: http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/winter09_10/willingham.pdf
In cultivating greater conceptual knowledge, don't sacrifice procedural or factual knowledge. Procedural or factual knowledge without conceptual knowledge is shallow and is unlikely to transfer to new contexts, but conceptual knowledge without procedural or factual knowledge is ineffectual. Tie conceptual knowledge to procedures that students are learning so that the "how" has a meaningful "why" associated with it; one will reinforce the other. Increased conceptual knowledge may help the average American student move from bare competence with facts and procedures to the automaticity needed to be a good problem solver. But if we reduce work on facts and procedures, the result is likely to be disastrous.
And another article by professor E.D. Hirsh: http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/winter09_10/hirsch.pdf
The victory of the progressive, anti-curriculum movement has chiefly occurred in the crucial early grades, and the further down one goes in the grades, the more intense the resistance to academic subject matter with the greatest wrath reserved for introducing academic knowledge in preschool. It does not seem to occur to the anti-curriculum advocates that the four-year-old children of rich, highly educated parents are gaining academic knowledge at home, while such knowledge is being unfairly withheld at school (albeit with noble intentions) from the children of the poor. For those who truly want equality, a common, content-rich core curriculum is the only option. It is the only way for our disadvantaged children to catch up to their more advantaged peers.
2009-12-24
Security Questions
Consider this. At online finance and banking-type sites, "Your security is important to us." In addition to standard login-id and password, for quite some time they've been fond of using these additional "security questions that only you will know".
Back in the day, it was always one thing in particular: "Mother's maiden name?" Obviously, only you will know that, because it's not important for anything. Well... except that NOW it's important because it got used everywhere as a security question. So every bank I dealt with knows it because they required it for me to do business with them.
So now that's been basically dropped, and a whole slew of other security questions have popped up. "Mother's date of birth?" "Childhood pet's name?" "Where did you go on your honeymoon?" (These are are all actual examples.) Obviously good security questions because no one would want to know any of this trivia.
HEY SECURITY DUMBASS -- AS SOON AS YOU ASK THIS QUESTION IT BECOMES OF INTEREST TO AN ATTACKER, AND THEREFORE A SECURITY VULNERABILITY.
What really pisses me off is that over time, these financial and business sites are going to know every scrap of personal information about my life if this goes on. All my relatives' and friends' birthdays. Nicknames and pets, favorite books/ authors/ places I dream of vacationing, etc., etc., etc. Every time one becomes somewhat widespread, they have to switch to something even more esoteric and private.
Nowadays I'm running into multiple sites (that I've used in the past) that are refusing to allow me access unless I give them some new tidbits of "security question" information. The nice girls at my local bank see my distress and helpfully suggest "Just make something up!" Which has the disadvantages of (a) now I'm not going to remember it and need to write it down, and (b) the fine print of the terms-of-service demand honest and factual information, and while I'm sure the tellers at the bank don't mind, I'm equally sure that the corporate entity will be happy to crucify me over a transgression like that if we ever get into a dispute.
Fuck that.
Back in the day, it was always one thing in particular: "Mother's maiden name?" Obviously, only you will know that, because it's not important for anything. Well... except that NOW it's important because it got used everywhere as a security question. So every bank I dealt with knows it because they required it for me to do business with them.
So now that's been basically dropped, and a whole slew of other security questions have popped up. "Mother's date of birth?" "Childhood pet's name?" "Where did you go on your honeymoon?" (These are are all actual examples.) Obviously good security questions because no one would want to know any of this trivia.
HEY SECURITY DUMBASS -- AS SOON AS YOU ASK THIS QUESTION IT BECOMES OF INTEREST TO AN ATTACKER, AND THEREFORE A SECURITY VULNERABILITY.
What really pisses me off is that over time, these financial and business sites are going to know every scrap of personal information about my life if this goes on. All my relatives' and friends' birthdays. Nicknames and pets, favorite books/ authors/ places I dream of vacationing, etc., etc., etc. Every time one becomes somewhat widespread, they have to switch to something even more esoteric and private.
Nowadays I'm running into multiple sites (that I've used in the past) that are refusing to allow me access unless I give them some new tidbits of "security question" information. The nice girls at my local bank see my distress and helpfully suggest "Just make something up!" Which has the disadvantages of (a) now I'm not going to remember it and need to write it down, and (b) the fine print of the terms-of-service demand honest and factual information, and while I'm sure the tellers at the bank don't mind, I'm equally sure that the corporate entity will be happy to crucify me over a transgression like that if we ever get into a dispute.
Fuck that.
2009-12-11
Disk Icons
Something else that occurred to me teaching computers recently: Applications still use a picture of a floppy disk to indicate the "save" operation. (See the top of the MS Office Ribbon, in the last post.) This in an era when some of my college students have, apparently, never actually seen a floppy disk. I realized working with some of my students at the end of the semester that this icon doesn't have any intrinsic meaning to them. What to replace it with?
2009-11-14
MS Office Ribbons
So for the first time the computer literacy class I teach has been forced to switch over to MS Office 2007 products, and hence this past week I was finally forced to use the MS Office Ribbon interface. I tried to stay away from it, but now here it is finally. I really don't like it.
Here's the thing I really don't like about (aside from just the radical change from anything that's come before): It's semi-impossible to describe to someone else (say, a student) where they should be clicking.
In some sense, this is basically the primary disadvantage of the GUI having been doubled in intensity. With a command-line interface, it's easy to write out your instructions and transmit them in writing or verbally to another person. The GUI makes that piece of business a lot harder (now the geographic location that you're clicking on makes a big difference, and you wind up clumsily describing the pictures and icons that you're trying to activate).
So with the MS Office Ribbon, this is even more exacerbated. At least with the traditional menu bar, there was a linear order to each step of a process. Click on one menu item, another linear list drops down, find one item in that list, proceed to the next, etc. For example, to center the contents of a cell in Excel, I could provide a handout that says, "Click on: Format > Cells > Alignment > Horizontal > pick 'Center'". But now, I have to say something like "On the Home Tab, find the Alignment section, and kind of near the middle of that section there's a button that kind of has its lines centered, click on that". Very, very clumsy... and more so for lots of other examples that we can probably think of.
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