Any of you former teachers: What's your advice on 1) how much time to spend on review, 2) how much time to spend on lecture, 3) how much time to spend on pracice during each section, 4) how much time to spend on the summation at end of session. Also, is there anyone beside myself that misses having audio-visual material to introduce the sessions? By the way, I had trouble getting the room opened up at 9:15 am, because no-one was at the extension office, and in fact there was a sign there that said the office wouldn't be open til 10 am.

-- Anonymous, September 15, 1999

Answers

I am, not a former teacher as a profession but have taught quite a bit in the past. I am sure not an expert and learning the same as all of you about presenting this material. 1 - The amount of time I spend on review varies. I go through the list of what they had learned (usually the last text at the ned of the last lesson) and ask if there is any questions. If there are none, I may ask one or two to make sure they do understand it. 2 - my objective is to spend ZERO time on lecture as lecture. There are times where you must because you must explain terms before getting them to do the next exercise 3 - My goal is all practice. This is just as impossible to accomplish as "zero" lecture time but my feeling as long as the student is doing things at the keyboard they are learning ar enhancing what they have learned 4 - Summation is usually very short and just a review of the items at the end of the topic and a reminder to practice at home 5 - I personally think audio visual moves the the environment more to a classroom and less of a lab/tutorial mode. If I need the equivilent of AV material I ask them to open the book to a bage and we review the example together. The experiences of other centers was that AV equipment in the room had a danger of turning the class into a lecture class with far less knowledge gained by the student. 6 - Opening the room - Never experienced a problem. Are you or was Friday an isolated incident? I know Jean was away last Friday and there were several major things happening on campus. My solution if that happens again is just to call campus security (6111 or pick up any of the yellow phones on campus and explain and ask them to open the room for you.

Bruce

-- Anonymous, September 15, 1999

I haven't found time in the last two lessons to provide much review time. In short, I reminded them of what we had learned, asked for questions, and then plowed ahead with the new lesson. Most seemed read to move on. At the end of the lesson I always try to list what skills they should have learned, with special emphasis on the usefulness of the various buttons on the Toolbar. I also try to get them to take a look at the overall screen and see how much information is being provided as to what program they are in, what document they are working on, where they are on the page, etc. I'm trying to break my own bad habits of not using all the information that is available by instilling in them early the habit of really looking at the screen. If all the various icons and words begin to mean something to them, they should be able to continue their learning on their own as they practice.

-- Anonymous, September 18, 1999