[ExI] Greener Urban Environment

[Dave Sill]

On Wed, Jun 7, 2017 at 12:27 PM, William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> Long ago, when people were still people (around 1966 for me), at the U of
> Alabama they put in a TV course for Psych 101.  My job was to take roll and
> turn on the TV.  50 minutes later I turned it off.  Prof was not the most
> exciting teacher, I admit.  But at the end of the semester the survey
> showed that about 90% of the students hated the course taught that way.  I
> could stop the tape and answer questions but nobody ever asked.
>
>
> So some people can sit and watch a screen and learn just as well, but
> maybe some can't.
>

What Spike and I are talking about is much more than sitting and watching
videotapes. Maybe you should actually try the physiology course he
suggested.


> Maybe what is needed is to greatly increase the amount of money paid to
> these teachers, so we can get the very best ones - ones who may not want to
> go to a classroom etc. but who will go to a studio and record everything
> there, preferably in front of some students who can ask penetrating
> questions.  That way the evaluation is done before the class is even
> taught, by the students who  attended the recording.
>

That's obviously not going to happen, and if it did, the cost of classes
would skyrocket even faster.

There are many things wrong with college education and expense is a major
> one.  If basics are taught, the famous prof gets a big chunk of money, but
> his lectures are vetted and can be used for several years, or even nearly
> forever if something like Shakespeare or trig is taught.  The best teachers
> can make big differences in motivation and understanding.
>

Agreed.


> Why not do like the old lawyers did:  study it on their own and pass the
> bar exam?  No law school courses needed.  Why couldn't this be done for
> math and many other subjects?
>

Why indeed?

Labs are not mentioned.  Aren't they useful in many cases?  Take chemistry
> online and never get the opportunity to blow up the lab?
>

Sure, people studying to be chemists need to do lab work: that's a required
job skill. But not everyone studying chemistry needs that skill.

-Dave
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