On Farming….. and Phishing

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2015-09-09_14-04-35b_wmSometimes, you just have take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. Yesterday, the sun came out after several dreary days of rain, so I took the opportunity to go out and do a bit of yard work. There’s a fair bit of work that needs to be done around a farm to get ready for winter, and one thing I’ve learned in my nearly 30 years on a farm is that you need to take advantage of the weather when it’s in your favour.

2015-08-02_13-21-09_wmSo, there I was enjoying a bit of hard work on a gorgeous fall day, when the phone rang.

We still have a landline and we have a number of extension phones – one of which is in the barn (where I just happened to be at that moment). It’s really handy having that phone sometimes – especially since we can use any extension to call any other extension. This can be especially useful if you’re holding a squawking chicken or in some other kind of tight spot and need to call the house for help.

2015-09-08_18-13-54_wmAnyhow, guess who was calling? It was one of those nice Microsoft service people from “Technocare” calling to “fix” my computer. Now, normally I simply try and get them to tell me WHICH of my computers is having the problem.

They never seem to be able to tell me.

However, this time, since I was in the barn, and since every time I open the door of the barn, a bunch of the chickens I hatched this year come running into the barn to see what’s up, AND since I had just done exactly that, I decided to do this phone call differently.

2015-08-19_13-40-40_wmThe chickens, you see, like to make a lot of noise when they first come in the barn, and I had trouble hearing the lady on the phone because of them. So, I did the only thing that made sense…. I said…..

“I’m sorry lady, I don’t have any computers here. I live in a barn.”

….but we have detected a problem with your computer…..

“Nope, sorry – no computer here (amidst lots of squawking and clucking).
2015-01-06_16-19-44_wmLike I said, I live in a barn. ….. I have chickens though, listen……
(as I hold the phone up to one of my hens, who obliges me by letting out a wonderful GAWK!)…….
……….
Need any chickens? (more squawking).”

…..ummm…. I’m here to fix your computer……

2015-04-03_16-21-35_wm“I TOLD you lady, no computers here,… only chickens. Oh, and a turkey,…. need a turkey? He’s quite friendly. Maybe you’d prefer a rabbit or two? I have those too.”

….ummm… well,…. thanks for calling.

“YOU called ME. But thanks anyways. You have a great day now, K?”

Made my whole day.

The ‘girls’ seemed to like it too.

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Gamification 101[12]: Submission & Grading System

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This is Part 12 in my continuing saga of my current iteration of a gamified course. Time to talk about the grading and submission system. I’ve already said that the existing course management systems aren’t up to the task of a truly gamified course. I’m not talking about adding badges or a website theme that looks like World of Warcraft. There are a few systems out there that support that sort of gamification, but I have yet to find something that is customizable in the way I want, has servers in my country, AND doesn’t cost me anything.

As a result, I have created two spreadsheets to handle quest submissions and keeping track of grades. It isn’t automated, but it does work pretty well.

This is the place where you can make your own workload manageable or impossible, and with a larger class (I’ve done this for a class up to 50)  adding a few clicks here and there and having to wait for yet another page to load can add up to a substantial overhead in terms of my time. This is typical for Blackboard – and one of the reasons I hate it so.

scorecard 00

The two spreadsheets are these:

  1. A Quest Log – each student gets one. It is editable by them (and me) and this is where they are to record every quest they want me to assess. The basic rule is that if they don’t log it, I don’t mark it. The quest log has a line for every possible item they can submit. In order to submit something, they need to enter the date of submission, what type of item it is (document, image, folder, etc.), and a link to the item. Since all the quest logs are in one folder, I can easily see which ones have been modified. A modified quest cards means they submitted something so I can open it up and see what’s changed. Then I mark it using the score card, and record that it’s been marked in the quest log.
  2. A Score Card – each student gets one of these too but they can only read it. I edit this one. It is where I record the details of their assessment. Each major quest has a sheet describing all the criteria used to assess that quest. The students can look at it any time they like, but they can’t edit it.

Currently, these take some time to set up at the start of term, but once set up, marking is quite easy. Given that everything (except presentations and such) is submitted using Google Drive & Docs, I can also mark from anywhere.

This year, I’m trying something new – one of the first quests they are given asks them to put links to their scorecards and item inventories in specified locations in their quest log. I’ve also asked them to tell me the name they prefer to go by. They’ll get 10XP for this if they do it by Friday. This serves several purposes:

  1. It prompts them to access their quest log, scorecard and item inventory.
  2. It will uncover any issues they may have with access.
  3. It’s an intro to using spreadsheets (as both the scorecard and quest log are spreadsheets).
  4. It lets me know how they prefer to be called (their names on the class list may not be what they want to called).
  5. Let’s them get some ‘points on the board’ so they can feel they are on their way. It’s rare in a class that a student gets marks for something this early in the term.
  6. It establishes my assessment relationship with them – more on that in the next post).
  7. It also alerts me to students who may need more support than others (i.e. those that don’t do this.)

Next time, we’ll find out how the assessments can be set up so that it is both efficient for me and still provides meaningful feedback for the students.

gamificationIf you are interested in following my course journal, watch for the “Gamification 101” heading.

Also, for more information on gamification, check out my website here.

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Gamification 101[11]: Course Spaces

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This is Part 11 in my continuing saga of my current iteration of a gamified course.

The first class is today, and I think I’m pretty much ready.

XSCP 10042 CM 2

Here’s what I have:

My institution uses Blackboard, but I don’t, so all I put there is a welcome announcement and links to the resources I have built.

My institution also uses Google for Educators. That means that our email system is gmail and that we have access to a wide variety of applications available on Google Drive, Docs, and so on.

 

The three spaces that make up the bulk of the course resources are:

  1. 2015 Google Drive GraphicGoogle Drive – containing three sub-folders:
    1. The Store: this is a folder where all the quests, lecture notes, examples and so on reside. All students have read-only access to this space.
    2. The Public Square: this is where I put documents that we will share as a class, such as collaborative lists. All students have edit access to this space.
    3. Item Inventories: this is where students are to put any documents they wish to share with me – such as their quests. Each student has their own Item Inventory folder that is shared only with me (created using gClassFolders). The student and I both have edit access.
  2. Course Website – this is largely just a way to organize and present the documents, notes, examples, etc. that are also in the Drive. It does include some additional notes and features a calendar on the main page that highlights important university and class dates.
  3. Discussion Group – even though this is a face-to-face class, I have found it very useful to provide an online discussion list. I encourage students to ask questions – and answer them. They can share interesting things they have come across and some silliness. It is also where some of the quests are to be posted.

It turns out that Google’s wide variety of tools makes it possible to create a well-integrated system. It also doesn’t require a huge learning curve (or any programming) to set up a Google website. I can easily insert folder lists, google documents, pdf documents, and even the discussion list so that they look like they are an integral part of the website.

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gamificationIf you are interested in following my course journal, watch for the “Gamification 101” heading.

Also, for more information on gamification, check out my website here.

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Worth a Read: Computer Science Courses that Don’t Exist, But Should

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CT23A list by James Hague:

CSCI 2100: Unlearning Object-Oriented Programming
Discover how to create and use variables that aren’t inside of an object hierarchy. Learn about “functions,” which are like methods but more generally useful. Prerequisite: Any course that used the term “abstract base class.”

CSCI 3300: Classical Software Studies
Discuss and dissect historically significant products, including VisiCalc, AppleWorks, Robot Odyssey, Zork, and MacPaint. Emphases are on user interface and creativity fostered by hardware limitations.

CSCI 4020: Writing Fast Code in Slow Languages
Analyze performance at a high level, writing interpreted Python that matches or beats typical C++ code while being less fragile and more fun to work with.

CSCI 2170: User Experience of Command Line Tools
An introduction to UX principles as applied to command line programs designed as class projects. Core focus is on output relevance, readability, and minimization. UNIX “ls” tool is a case study in excessive command line switches.

PSYC 4410: Obsessions of the Programmer Mind
Identify and understand tangential topics that software developers frequently fixate on: code formatting, taxonomy, type systems, splitting projects into too many files. Includes detailed study of knee-jerk criticism when exposed to unfamiliar systems.

There might be a few I’d add : like one about debugging, one on tool use (programmers should be made to use the tools they make), and maybe one about failed projects and code. What about you?

Source: Computer Science Courses that Don’t Exist, But Should

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Porcupines Prove the Existence of Multiple Universes, Right Here on Earth

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Taken without using zoom.

Taken without using zoom.

OK, so maybe not PROVE, but you really gotta wonder.

During my candidacy for my PhD I took a number of evening classes. One night after one of these classes, I arrived home around 9 p.m. It was already dark and as  I got out of my car I almost fell over a big (fat – aren’t they all?) porcupine wandering right through our yard between the house and garage.

Even though it walked right beside the van, it didn’t even acknowledge my presence. Since it seemed so unaware of my presence, I decided to follow it for a bit. I tried stomping my feet – nothing – it didn’t even speed up; I tried yelling at it – still nothing. So finally, I just followed and watched it.

Along the way it occurred to me – his ‘people’ have probably been wandering along that path (that now happens to sit between my house and garage) for hundreds of years. Who are *we* to think we can just plunk down our houses and fences, and expect the world to keep out?

 

I really think porcupines mostly live in a dimension that is a little shifted from ours – to them man-made things are slightly out of phase and have a ghost-like appearance. That’s why they so often ignore us and our stuff.

Except corn, apparently.

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Worth Sharing: I have one of the best jobs in academia. Here’s why I’m walking away. – Vox

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I also walked away from a tenured position. I did it literally to save my life. In my case it was determined bullying from my department head, which turned into departmental, and then faculty mobbing. The last straw was being assaulted by a male “colleague” and then having the Dean rule that it was my fault.

I even tried teaching in a different faculty, but the culture of bullying and of protecting mediocre academics for no reason I can see other than that they pander to those in power, meant that ultimately, they would stop hiring me (which they did).

There are many things I agree with.

I graduated college at 19. I landed a tenure-track job at 29. Now I’m quitting academia for good.

 

Source: I have one of the best jobs in academia. Here’s why I’m walking away. – Vox

 

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Gamification 101[10]: Getting a Gamified Course Up and Running

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This is Part 10 in my continuing saga of my current iteration of a gamified course.

XSCP 10042 CM 2The design of this class is more complex than most other classes. Remember that I have 20 different kinds of things that students can do. Some of these are repeatable which means that if a student did EVERYTHING they could possibly do, they would be submitting 60 different things. The epic quest has 5 parts and one of the achievement quests has 3 iterations. Even if they never re-submit anything (which they can), I could still get 68 things from each student to mark. This year I have 50 students and I do all my own marking. That means I could have more than 3400 things to mark just in this one class. (Gosh! I never did the math before. Maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t or I might never have tried this.)

Add to that the fact that the majority of the quests have NO deadlines, it would appear that I am either an idiot, or crazy. Turns out, I’m neither. I’ve been teaching a long time – everything from tiny classes of 6 people to multiple sections of 250+.

Based on previous numbers, I can reasonably expect to get an average of 35 submissions per student over the semester. Given the way I have set up the marking, most take only a minute or two to mark. I’ll devote an upcoming post to that.

If this design is to work (and I can verify that it does), then there are some things that absolutely need to be in place before the class starts:

  1. 95% of the quests need to be written up so students can see them – even on the very first day if they choose. I actually give my students access to the course before the first day so they can peek ahead of time (hardly anyone does).
  2. The grading schemes for everything need to be figured out. I’ve long thought that my students should get to know how they will be assessed before they start any assignment. Since they can technically do any given assignment on the very first day of class, then I need my marking guides done too.
  3. The course website needs to be set up and ready to go.
  4. The course discussion list needs to be set up and ready to go.
  5. The submission & grading “system” needs to be set up and ready to go.

This last one is a biggie (as if all the others weren’t). I will spend at least one post talking about just that. Here’s a hint: BlackBoard can’t handle what I need done. Nor can D2L, Moodle (I tried), or Google Classroom. I built my own.

XSCP 10042 CM 2

 

gamificationIf you are interested in following my course journal, watch for the “Gamification 101” heading.

Also, for more information on gamification, check out my website here.

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Worth Sharing: Some Rules for Teachers – The New Inquiry

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This is a great list – I only disagree with one or two….. as for the rest, YES, YES, YES!!!

After John Cage.

Source: Some Rules for Teachers – The New Inquiry

1. only ask the questions to which you really need answers

Maybe I don’t understand the intent. If the idea is to only ask questions that are important for the students to understand, then fine.

2. demonstrate uncertainty

3. reconstruct for your students your own previous errors of thought and elucidate to your students what factors lead to a changed mind

4. do not let the terms with which you understand the world get in the way of understanding it

5. give up any desire to be the smartest person in the room

6. remember that students have bodies and that bodies require movement, sustenance, rest, and relief

7. leave an inheritance of dialectic

I was uncertain ( 😉 ), so I looked it up – it basically means debate.

8. preserve and sustain whatever delusions you’ve found necessary to behave in good faith

9. every student is a genius

This one I have difficulty with. We aren’t all geniuses, you know. HOWEVER – we all deserve the same respect and our very best efforts to help them learn and grow.

10. do not be afraid to state the obvious

11. a socratic bully is still a bully

12. thoroughly prepare class, including making preparations to abandon your preparations entirely

13. listen with your body

14. suspect charisma

15. conduct yourself in such a way that your students can eventually forget that you exist

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