Sunday, October 5, 2014

Catching up - concerns near the end of Phase II

It's been a while -

This is an edited e-mail that I sent during Week 5 to Richard Kamins and Stefano Fasulo, both of whom my section is partnered with, about our readiness for the presentation.



I polled my students on 9/25, and only 5 of them are available at 1:00, none at 11 or 12.  They favored recording so more people could participate in giving the presentation.  They figure they’re on track for Oct. 1, but I wonder.

Two groups are focused and psyched, another is working quietly, and the fourth has students chatting extensively off topic, isolated individuals, and subgroups within the group.  The students chose to have each group present on one of the four questions.  They plan to do a dry run on Friday and record the “real thing” on Monday so Richard's students can see it on Wednesday.  I suspect the bugs, both technical and intellectual, will appear in tomorrow’s dry run.  I would not be surprised by moments of depth, but a good bit of “good enough.”  I have been barely able to make it to class, thanks to a sinus infection.  I’ve been intentionally letting the groups work mostly on their own with minimal checking in, but lots of eavesdropping.  My plan is to get more involved in the groups as they get further into it and I’m not contagious or coughing constantly.

Right now our schedule is to have an AAR on Monday, Oct. 6.  I’m wondering if it’s best to leave it on that date, or push it forward to this coming Monday.  If we push it forward, then we’d have to do our recording on Wednesday and your class wouldn’t be able to see it in class until Monday, Oct. 6, although it could go onto YouTube as an unlisted video (can be seen any time by those who have the url).

As I think through all this, I’m inclined to let what happens happen and keep the Oct. 1 deadline and the Oct. 6 AAR.  

And I haven’t even gotten to how our classes will exchange questions and feedback….

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