We're now a couple weeks into the semester, and things are pretty busy. But as I take a step back and look at all that's going on, I find I'm actually doing very well. I don't know how long this elated experience will last, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.
First, my Spanish class is going quite well. I've only had two classes, but we're moving along at a pretty nice pace, and the online materials aren't that bad. They aren't that great, but they aren't that bad. I've sat through a lot of demos of online learning systems, and this one is pretty much on par with what's out there. This particular setup is non-adaptive, so everyone gets the same thing and everyone has to do the same problems. But there are enough problems, and they have enough variety that it doesn't feel like a complete waste of money. There's a lot of audio to listen to, which is important for language acquisition. There are even some problems that require me to record myself, and the interface is feels natural. There are some issues with the accents in that you have to click a button, but the button doesn't always insert the characters. You kind of have to click around the page a little bit and then come back to where you really want it to be. The system recognizes multiple correct answers for certain problems, which is a nice feature. There are a lot of problems worth 2 points, but it seems that it's impossible to earn partial credit (I tried). It's either all right or all wrong, which makes me wonder why the problems are worth 2 points instead of just 1. It does do a decent job of helping to locate your error, but it doesn't always provide any support if you make a mistake. For example, if you omit an accent, it will mark it wrong and then highlight the letter that's missing the accent. But if you make a more complex error (such as making an incorrect conjugation), it won't give you any help to identify the error you've made, and it doesn't do anything to help you to fix it. But these are problems with most online learning systems, so I don't see this as being as significant.
The robot is alive. Well, not alive, but it drives around and the claw works and things like that. Here's a video: http://youtu.be/uNPOdNL96zU. You can see the orange USB cable in that video, and that is no longer necessary. It actually runs remotely, and seems to have decent range as long as you maintain a line of sight. I haven't tested the limits of the range just yet because I'm waiting for our visual media guy to stick a camera on it to let us drive around with a first person view. But that's going to be fun when it's ready to go. We ordered up lots of other pieces, and I'm going to need to go in and learn how to do some programming with it. I expect those pieces to arrive in the next week or so. I'm also looking forward to checking out some of the local high school competitions.
My proof-writing class is going quite well. I think the flipped classroom is going to be particularly effective in this class because I can use more class time to simply have them try to write proofs, which is kind of the point of the class. Well, that plus learning the logic that tells them the right things to write. But they seem to be enjoying the class, and several of them are picking up LaTeX quite nicely (even to the point that they are starting to prefer using LaTeX to writing things out by hand).
I'm making good progress on the updated textbook for the remedial math class. My student workers who are helping to develop problem sets are chugging along nicely. I'm a little worried because one of them won't have as much time this semester to dedicate to the project, so I'm not sure how exactly this will look. But I'm about 40% done with the text part, which puts me on good pace to be ready by the end of the semester. Then over the summer I can develop the videos, assessments, and other things like that.
We're starting into interview season. This is both good and bad. It's good because it means it's also fine dining season. This means I get to eat at places I wouldn't normally go to for dinner. But it's bad because there's a lot of time I'm spending watching teaching demos, giving tours, and doing other interview-related activities. The upside to this is that it represents growth for the college. I get to meet the people who are potentially coming here next year, and the people whose ideas will help us to keep growing and changing to meet new challenges.
I haven't started on the annual reviews yet. I had a meeting with the Associate Dean, who gave me a little bit of advice to get me started. I also have a meeting next week with the former Chair to learn a little bit about how she handled the faculty that's a split position between two schools. So it's going to start at some point in the not-too-distant future.
But that's enough about work. At church, we're starting into a short-term capital campaign to renovate the sanctuary. I have a lot of thoughts about this, and they're far too many to try to type up tonight. The big picture is that this is probably going to be a good thing. There are bits and pieces that I disagree with, but I think the end result will be a beautiful sanctuary. But something else that I'm pushing right now is the idea that there are some other deeper issues that we need to look at. We need to work on our communication infrastructure. We need to work on how we interact with visitors. We need to think about expanding how we try to interact with the community. We need to increase the connection between the various ministries. We need to strengthen small group ministry by working on our small group curriculum. And so on. My worry is that people are going to start looking at the renovation as being something like a magic bullet: "If you build it, they will come." There's just so much more work that needs to be done in other areas.
But with that said, I do see the value and the opportunity that this is. And even if we don't fire on all cylinders and get to all of things I think we should be working on, firing on more cylinders is a solid step and I'm looking forward seeing the outcomes of the changes that will be implemented.
There were a couple other things I could have typed up tonight, but it's about 11:30 and I'm tired. So I'm just going to give the short version. We brewed beer again, and we'll be enjoying those in another couple weeks. My Raspberry Pi project is coming along nicely. I can play Simon and it plays sound, and now I just need to make a visual interface for it. Basketball season is back at church, and it's good to run around. But right now, I'm tired. So I'm going to bed.
