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Re: How do you conduct live software training workshops properly
Subject:Re: How do you conduct live software training workshops properly From:Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Mon, 22 Sep 2008 07:20:13 -0400
Daniel Ng wrote:
> How do you do it, to keep the class in order and in pace?
I think it's like teaching mathematics. Students hate to see the prof
work through the problem. The get lost, pick their noses, read the joke
at the beginning of the following chapter of the textbook, or (most
commonly) daydream about (or txt to) other students.
In math, the key is the problem set.
A problem set is to be worked individually, within a particular time
frame, like perhaps six or seven minutes. Longer problem sets can be
given as homework, but they must contain the excitement needed to carry
the students into actually working them.
After the alloted time, the prof can invite the students to present
their methods for obtaining the answers, and if none of them hit the
mark, he can put in a few of his own suggestions. Class discussion can
be properly limited in mathematics (unlike the "social" "sciences")
because there is a right answer, and there are only a few best ways to
find it.
The knowledge comes from working the problems and getting the "A-ha!" of
the right answer. Problems should be difficult enough to require work,
but not overwhelming. Individual work is crucial. Being told the answer
to a problem you didn't get, or working in a group, or having it
explained to you, is generally ineffective.
The problem-set method is not unlike that used for teaching newswriting,
where the students get an in-class assignment (usually within the first
half of the very first meeting of the class) to produce a ten-minute
story from a fact sheet. "Here are the facts. Deadline is ten minutes
from now. Write a news story. Go!" Daily repetition of the assignment
makes the students able to write a good story in ten minutes, a skill
crucial in newspaper work.
Think back to the best two or three teachers you ever had. They are the
ones who could maintain a sense of excitement about the subject
throughout the semester. Every day you couldn't wait to get to the next
meeting of the class.
There's some way you can make your class like that. Be exciting. Be
tough. But be exciting.
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