Science Education resources and projects
When a course is sold, or students register online and pay tuition, the proceeds are divided by the instructor, the institution, the videographer etc, and some for prophet
For academic courses which deal with relatively standard material, perhaps even utilizing the same or very similar textbook or syllabus, it is possible to construct a semester-length course of say 15 or 30 lectures by combining the best individual lectures of various excellent teachers/professors.
Videographers/camera installers in each location submit their bids for services and their work is rated. There is not necessarily a need for a camera-person in the classroom if a correctly-positioned camera can be installed, focused on the teacher and board so that no students are captured, and controlled by the instructor (special board and face-recognizing and focussing cameras and services are available). Course-specialists and video-editors who are knowledgeable in the subject (and could be located anywhere) bid as well. Small samples of the course are prepared and are included in the prospective of offerings, and when there is sufficient demand, the editing of the entire course can proceed. The editing will be a collaborative effort with the instructor, who can for example maintain veto power over what can or cannot be used.
An additional revenue source: utilizing some of the videos as teacher-training, even for ‘enrichment summer-courses’ to prepare a prospective teacher for a course they have never taught, or to help existing teachers improve their classroom delivery etc. The courses can be paid for by the institution, governmental education bodies, organizational grants, teaching-unions etc.
Many people may agree that for academic courses a classroom-lectures are more learning-conducive than video-based home-learning. However I would go further – I believe that the videos of the classroom-lectures of a great teacher would have far better pedagogical effect than carefully-prepared lectures by that same teacher in a studio-produced non-classroom video. And so I believe that there is great value to recording the lectures of great teachers even though the editing-work afterwards is a huge task.
Comparison of live-classroom lecture videos over canned for-the-camera ones: There are obvious advantages to a well-rehearsed monologue-lecture taking place in a media-studio with appropriate lighting and sound and whiteboard with prepared written material etc, over a video of a lecture hall with its sound and lighting issues, and live student-attendees who often side-track the instructor with questions. And most instructors will have experienced that sinking feeling at least once in their teaching career when they realize that they are writing an equation or calculation incorrectly or explained something but they know it doesn’t make sense as said. And I have often seen – in videos of my lectures that I said ‘up’ when I meant ‘down’ etc. However, in the context of a video-presentation based on the lectures, all this can be rectified by editing. In contrast however to these removable-by-editing disadvantages, I believe there are significant advantages to a live-classroom lecture-video which cannot easily be edited into a canned lecture-video
There is no comparison between the energy which can be created in a classroom setting and that in the room while a canned for-the-camera ‘lecture’ is being recorded[1]. And the atmosphere in a student-viewer’s room at home as they watch a video of the live classroom lecture will certainly not be the same as it was in that classroom. It would be interesting to know how a student watching a lecture-video may be differently- affected by a canned lecture compared to a video of a high-energy classroom-lecture. My personal belief is that there is potentially a pedagogically-productive psychological effect on a student learning from the lecture-video, especially when it includes clear evidence of the attending students, such as the audio of their questions, and perhaps some side or back view of some of the students (perhaps this has been, or needs to be, studied).
In addition, performers of all types – including lecturers – produce substantially-different (and superior) material when it is in front of a live audience, especially a lively, reacting one, and so I believe the live lectures produced by a really good teacher will be superior to any that they can deliver as a canned video. In addition, from the pedagogical perspective the comprehensibility of a live-lecture presentation is constantly subjected to the reality-check of student questioning; a viewing student may get the feeling that they are participating in the class when a question they are thinking of is asked by someone in the video.
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[1] Having taught courses, given public lectures and also performed on stage, I am well-aware of the commonality between teaching and acting. In both it is necessary to engage with the audience, and to do so without losing control over it – especially in a classroom setting where one gives student free reign to ask questions and challenge. Inter-alia, to unite the classroom and provide the students with a sense of a journey, one which is fulfilling and which leaves them with something at the end.
Like any good performance, a classroom involves an energy exchange: “energy passes to and fro between performer and audience … this energy flow …. manifests in qualities such as enthusiasm, passion, emotional content, and what performers call commitment – believing in yourself and your material and giving yourself over to the performance 100%, in whatever style is authentic and truthful for you.”http://www.positivecomedy.com/2014/05/15/learning-from-comedians-engaging-with-an-audience/
Occasionally I will pause very briefly, for an internally-intense second-and-a-half to refocus the topic after a student’s question (and my subsequent response) has hyperlinked us to another issue, or to refocus my own energy. This of course would not happen in a canned-lecture video. However I believe it may actually be a positive element, and I am conflicted as to whether to edit these out. For me to watch these moments on the video of the lecture is a very interesting experience, and I believe that rather than distracting, this might help convey a sense of the intensity to the audience whether in the classroom, or in their own room at home.
Filed Under: B: Science Education
Among the millions of self-study students worldwide, there may well be a few other individualists with the same career interests and degree-needs as you. The site’s matching software will help you find each other, and using the site’s chat feature you can collaborate to craft a course title and description. When the minimum class-size is reached, an alert will automatically be sent to relevant credit-mentors and instructors around the globe registered as such on the site – some of them prominent professionals in advanced positions in the field.
Together with the mentor representing the accrediting institution, your class designs a credit-bearing course which fulfills the group’s specific needs (often leveraging what you already know as part of a course which will improve performance at a present place of work, perhaps as preparation for a management position). Instructors will then compete to be chosen as the provider. Ratings assigned to instructors by students in previous courses will help your group reach a decision.
All transactions including credit-granting, all payments including tuition and instructor’s salary, are conducted via the site, to maximize efficiency, privacy, confidentiality, reliability and safety.
Filed Under: B: Science Education
Three ventures, all involving complex video-editing (see analysis below):
Outline
- Site to match educators and video-editors with knowledge of the subject matter, to edit the classroom-lecture-videos and arrange the material as a Youtube channel;
- Site designed to present a combination of lecture-based video and text as appropriate for a textbook-replacement in a credit-bearing college-course. Geared for instructors (HS/college) as well as for content-providers.
- Site to coordinate a collaborative effort between textbook companies and instructors utilizing their textbooks. Solicited by either instructors or publishers. Process: If an instructor’s course is based on a particular textbook, they video their lectures, tutorials, problem-solving etc and place them on youtube, and then the site associates it as supplementary material for the textbook. If there are many views, and students rate it well etc, there is some kickback from the textbook publisher to the instructor, thus giving value-added to instructors who use a particular textbook. Eventually coursera etc can offer courses and accrediting agencies give credit to combinaitons like this without needing a college etc, so that the textbook company plus instructor become the vehicle for credit (rather than the college). Alternately, the combined video/text material can replace the standard textbook.
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Video-editing Background analysis: There is a large difference between these types of video-courses:
- a slide-show with narration;
- video of someone talking in front of a black/whiteboard in an other-wise empty room;
- video taken during an actual classroom-lecture.
Each has its advantages and disadvantages.
Although the first two can be much more easily created to specification, the last can be most exciting to some students as it makes them part of the class in some sense (and it is always interesting to hear what other students ask or comment, especially when it was what the viewer themselves was wondering about).
However, there are a great many issues which arise when converting a lecture into a video for students to watch on the internet, and the requisite editing is not a task suited to the average instructor. Nor is the required editing suited to the average video-editor:
- There is a great difference between attending a lecture for a concentrated 90 or so minutes and the typical home-viewer of a video who may be distracted, and be watching segments at different times. And so it may be necessary to separate out topics into smaller sub-videos of about 10 minutes each, not always a trivial task since topics inter-relate, especially when part of one lecture.
- In a classroom setting the 2nd lecture of the course should include review of the first, this is not appropriate in a video since the student can simply watch the first video as a review. Or the review given in the beginning of the 2nd lecture should be placed together with the first video. Sometimes there are issues which arise later in the course, perhaps misunderstandings manifested during an exam, which are addressed mid-way through the course, but which properly should be part of the beginning. In fact, upon watching my videos, I have sometimes found that the third explanation is best, and have inserted that instead of the first.
- Often, student questions raise a side-point which is actually a distraction and this discussion is better either left out or placed elsewhere.
- Instructors can also make mistakes, and then correct them, which is a distraction and should be deleted. I myself have caught a few mis-statements only when watching the video of my lecture. Usually it is something which can cause a bit of confusion – like saying ‘x axis’ when I mean ‘t axis’, or pointing to the t axis when I say x-axis. I believe that students’ brains is eventually understand from the total context, but it is worthwhile correcting these types of errors via editing.
- There are times when watching my videos that I found myself starting a sentence as an introduction to a topic, but then changing in mid-sentence as something occurred to me as further explanation of the previous topic.
- Sometimes an explanation could be greatly facilitated by a diagram which can be inserted in the edited version.
- And so on….
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Service to edit lecture-videos, and arrange the material as a Youtube channel
Since most instructors do not have the technical skills for video-editing – nor the vast amount of time it requires – and video-editors could not possibly make the types of decisions outlined above without being very familiar with the subject-matter, it is necessary for there to be a close collaboration between instructor and editor, and optimally a good understanding by the editor of the subject-matter.
The site, and the process:
- instructors create a Youtube channel and upload the unedited videos as ‘private’ (or ‘unlisted’ etc); they categorize the subject matter and level, and specify the knowledge-base required, and the total length in hours of the material;
- editors register on the site and indicate the topics in which they have close familiarity, or academic background, listing their qualifications (this can be via Linked-in or etc); they upload sample of their work to Youtube (they can also choose them to be ‘private’); they are notified when an appropriate-seeming topic is posted, and can offer their services; the instructor sees their note and can view the editor’s sample videos and cv, and they can interact via the site. The instructor can include the editor as a registered viewer for the videos, and the editor can make some suggestions in order to demonstrate their appropriateness for the task.
- After choosing an editor, the instructor can upload to the site individual lecture-videos in full-quality for the editor to download; as soon as they do so, they delete the video (as default, the video remains on the site only for some specified maximum amount of time).
- Standard contracts would be available on the site, and after working together, instructor and editor can rate each other as appropriate. Payments can be arranged via the site, with legal records of all transactions and of the work done. If both sides are satisfied (with the work done, and the payment rendered) after completing the first lecture, they can proceed to the next.
- Other professionals can be involved, for example consultants who are familiar with other similar courses and who can recommend ways to distinguish one from the other; SEO aspects; ways to monetize; contacts with publishers; etc.
(Perhaps this can be for videos of conference proceedings, etc; also, for text-editing as well, preparing manuscripts for publishing using editors with knowledge of the subject-matter;.)
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After editing: Site geared to presenting a combined text/video course as appropriate for a true for-credit college-course.
Youtube by itself is not sufficient, one needs to place various text material before a course, to describe it, and before each lecture as introduction to it, and as Table of contents for the lectures; notes to appear alongside various parts of the lecture; further references; perhaps discussion group chats; button to download a textbook-companion to the lectures; problems, solutions etc.
To those who purchase an accompanying eBook, perhaps additional material can scroll alongside the video …… [does this software exist?]
What exists: See for example the MIT course or my playlist, and compare the limitations of this format with my NYU site as an example of a website which can serve as a template for a course using youtube or video etc as host. Note for those viewing my website, press the “Overview” video (3-minute slide-show), and move the arrow to the end of the video, you will see that the next video on my playlist shows up. Perhaps there need only be one ‘window’ on the website, but with different accompanying text alongside it as each successive video loads…..
See also a somewhat similar layout of this MIT course where each individual video has a place for associated notes, as on Youtube but more visible.
The combination of text and video can be considered as a form of textbook, sold like an e-book to students taking the course, instead of buying a print textbook from a major publisher; the site will make it look like a nice textbook and arrange for the e-sale, and a percentage goes to the site.
Several instructors can get together on the site to compose their own ‘textbook’ in collaboration, by using video material from both, text from both etc, with graphic artists and diagram-drawers, bibiography and TOC makers etc. People can also offer their services on the site for video editing, marketing courses etc.
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Filed Under: B: Science Education
“Albert WHO??!!
My goal in such courses is to inculcate a sense of science in general as a programmatic attempt to arrive at naturalistic explanations for objectively-observable phenomena. An important step is conveying the scientific method, and to which types of phenomena it is suited. At an early stage in the course students are prompted to develop the ability to distinguish between claims which are or are not in theory and practice ‘falsifiable (or capable of proof/disproof). Then via examples taken from astrology, telepathy and alternative medicine I inculcate an appreciation of the scientific method as a means of determining the truth of ‘falsifiable’ claims of any sort. By the time the course is over they do not see the scientific approach as limited to what is classically considered ‘scientific’ or ‘technological’ fields but rather as a method of determining the truth of certain types of assertions: those which are ‘consensually’ provable or disprovable by experiment.
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Course: Critical reading & studying:
- how to spot internet scams; how to rate the reliability of a website’s information; intelligent internet searching.
- how to read with understanding: utilizing popular science books, classroom practice in understanding what each paragraph says, how each ties into the one preceding and following, how a chapter coheres, and how the book progresses from chapter to chapter. What to glean from the title (eg ‘the blind watchmaker’), from the preface/introduction, from/back cover, reviews, the TOC and the text itself.
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Courses: “Astronomy and other extra-terrestrial matters”; “Astronomy, astrology and the scientific approach”
Introductory topic: “What is science”? guided classroom discussion
- what does ‘naturalistic’ mean, what does it include/exclude? Find examples of phenomena which do and do not qualify as ‘objectively existing’.
- Try to formulate political, philosophical, religious, cultural and ‘scientific’ beliefs as sets of assertions. Do the same for: astrology, conspiracy theories, alien abductions and ancient visitations etc.
- Categorize assertions according to whether or not they are in theory capable of being consensually-proved or disproved by ‘experiment’.
- How would you test such assertions? (By experiment of course!). What constitutes an experiment? (including the brain etc as an instrument.)
- Can there be true statements which are not experimentally provable?
- Is there ‘artistic truth’? political truth? etc which is separate from ‘scientific truth’? What is there that you deeply believe in, or believe to be true which is not provable/disprovable scientifically (in practice right now; in theory perhaps)?
- Classroom discussion: construct examples of assertions which are and are not, and find examples of non-consensual ‘proofs’/experimental proof. What constitutes proof? (Sagan: extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs.)
Body of the course: Science as a universally-applicable bias-free method (I used some of the below material in an astronomy course I taught): The scientific method and statistics using ‘counter-scientific’ examples, from controversial non-traditional medicinal practices to zombies. (First one can have a discussion with the students to find out what they believe in or have been exposed to via entertainment & social media etc.)
A: Conspiracy theories: analyzing the relative likelihood of the standard version of an event vs that proposed by the ‘conspiracy theory’; examples:
- if the Holocaust is a hoax, what does this imply about the German government, given their declarations and laws prohibiting Holocaust denial, and then what would that necessitate, and how likely is that, and which scenario is more likely;
- if aliens landed in the US 75 or so years ago, what would have been necessary in order to create a successful cover-up, and how likely is this compared to the standard scenario.
B: Applying science as a method, without prior bias (neither scientistic, new-age or religious etc), and understanding its range of applicability:
- Astrology: utilizing science to determine parameters which an astrological system should incorporate; employing statistics to find the most accurate astrological predictions.[1]
- Computing the likelihood of the existence of extra-terrestrial life (I used some of this material in an astronomy course I taught); looking at claims of alien encounters; ancient alien artifacts.
- Methods to apply in investigating the efficacy of different ‘schools of medicine’, and the validity of paranormal effects.
- Class project/participation: prayer; ‘codes’ etc; debate, and then switch sides, construct experiments, read literature.
- Sagan’s books and articles in the skeptical inquirer.
- Classroom discussion to analyze what one would have thought without the benefit of an appropriate statistical analysis; what one can/cannot learn from a statistical analysis.
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[1]For a book manuscript based on this course, but aimed at those who guide their lives via astrology, titled “Quantum Astrology and your future” subtitle: choosing the most effective astrological system and the best astrologer for you by utilizing science & statistics” : Part I presents the model of the universe as understood by science, including: human origin as ‘stardust’, so we are linked intimately to possibly other regions of the galaxy rather than just the neighborhood of Earth, and to times when the pattern of ‘stars’ about us was different; the structure of the universe (we see galaxies as dots so effective astrology should not think of them as individual stars); how we see this structure from Earth vs elsewhere (3-d shapes will be different when seen from different vantage-points or perspectives, so perhaps one should prefer a universal astrology valid for the structural-pattern as seen from other planets as well); the size of the universe (most of the physical universe is invisible to the naked eye and a truly valid astrology might include the entire universe rather than just what is visible to the eye); exotic elements such as black holes and wormholes and the way that space and time are warped, which affect the concept of causality in the universe and should be reflected in any cosmic model making long-term and cosmically relevant predictions; quantum physics introduces and element of randomness, and this – rather than pure ‘Fate’ – should be included in a modern astrology. Part II is basically a statistics primer presenting methods useful for gauging the accuracy of the types of predictions made by astrologists, and a review of studies made to determine their accuracy.
Filed Under: B: Science Education
My specialty in a classroom setting: What distinguishes my approach is the Socratic method of drawing laws of nature (for example Newton’s laws) out of students’ minds through guided classroom discussion rather than simply ‘lecturing’ (presenting the laws to them directly); in class we employ a combination of heuristic motivations and pre-lab hands-on experience to arrive heuristically at Hooke’s Law (F = – kx), the ideal gas law (PV = nRT), and relationships such as a = v2/r. (Further description of my approach, and references to videos of my teaching an actual class are included in the accompanying teaching statement.)
My expertise lies in crafting directed questions to draw out their initial assumptions, expectations and intuitions, and then guiding a classroom discussion meant to challenge these very expectations and assumptions, as a path to their discovery of the laws of physics. After this process, I seek their input in an attempt to construct the simplest equations which enshrine these conclusions mathematically.
A very good idea of my general teaching style and pedagogical technique can be gleaned from the videos of an “introduction to physics” course I taught to general-science majors some years ago, on my Youtube channel. The GR lectures on Youtube are another example, though time-limitations did not allow for the extensive back-and-forth I prefer.
Drawbacks of my method: 1. Not all students want to understand, some want to just know how to pass the exam, and will resist this method (perhaps one needs a two-tiered course?). 2. Given that the amount of time required for developing the ideas in the above manner is far greater than that which is required for simply writing equations on the board and explaining them, less material can be covered. 3. Some aspect of the exam will need either to be oral, or will involve mini-essays rather than equations/problem solving, and this will require more of the instructor’s time, either more time spent with individuals or more time spent on correcting/grading.
Lab: Just as diagrams help in ways that text cannot, so too experiment can grant intuitions that equations will not. Although expensive, complex, sophisticated up to date equipment for lab experiments have their place, I do not seek these for courses in basic physics for bright and already-motivated students. Instead, I try to have them come up with simple ways to examine phenomena, test hypotheses and compare predictions made via equations – even when it means to visualize a ‘gedanken-experiment’, for example imagining the use of a rocket in far empty space, and so on. When it is clear that ordinary things lying around and thought-experiments will not suffice, they are encouraged to mentally-design the least-complicated equipment that might do the job. Only then would I introduce the actual lab-equipment we will be using, and have students examine it to understand how it works and what it can measure.
What this means however is that there is less time available for the experiment itself and fiddling with often-recalcitrant or obscure equipment (as seen by the student). Within limits, and depending on the context (for example excluding engineering students, for whom lab and equipment are important in of themselves), it is less important to me whether the equipment worked as it was supposed to, and whether the measured numbers came out within the expected error margin, than whether the students acquired via their lab experience a deeper understanding of the phenomenon being studied, and an understanding of physics as inherently tied to experiment, both as verification of proposed theories or models and as a generator of unexpected and perhaps counterintuitive phenomena giving rise to new theories or models.
Understanding vs memorization: When students understand that physics is not intended as a compendium of received wisdom, but rather relies to a large degree on rational analysis (and of course experimental-verification), they can be empowered to see themselves as eminently qualified to participate in that endeavor.
Students in my class are led along a path enabling them to discover the laws of nature, seeing them as logical distillations of experiment (which can include ordinary experience) rather than as formulae to be memorized.
The laws of nature are however often counter-intuitive to the novice. In order to truly understand those which are, it is important first to engage the students’ intuition – to guide them to the realization how and why nature is not in accordance with it – and then hopefully towards a yet-deeper understanding and intuition.
Furthermore, when as part of a collaborative effort in the class we do formulate a law of physics, it is only after students have understood its logic and clearly grasped the meaning of the quantities represented in the formulae. Students will have arrived at “F = ma” , but also “a = F/m” and even “m = F/a”. They are able to articulate not just “a equals F over m” but rather “the amount of the acceleration of an object of mass-amount m due to the application on it of an external force of amount F, is given by (the amount, or the ratio) F/m”. “Learning a = F/m” means understanding why it makes sense, and the same for any other formula whether it is Bernoulli’s principle or kinematic equations or expressions of energy conservation.
Scientific model-building as a creative activity & appreciating the aesthetic aspects of physics: As physicists see it, practicing physics is not simply amassing greater knowledge of the workings of nature – as some students entering a physics course may misguidedly think – but rather, arriving at understanding of a law of nature and expressing it mathematically is to practice an art, engaging intuition, expressing an aesthetic. I make sure to impart an appreciation of this to students, via the process of arriving at equations in the classroom, as wells as by having them experience first-hand the simplicity of the equations we arrived at in comparison to potential competitors such as a = F/m vs a = F2 Volume/m3. I also stress wherever possible fundamental aspects such as symmetry, unification (e.g. that the gravity acting to push us down also governs orbits), and ‘relativity’ (e.g. the relation of Galilean relativity, the law of inertia and a = F/m).
At the end of a course, students can understand what physicists mean when they say that the Einstein equations are a great cultural achievement for humanity.
Motivating classroom attendance: As an instructor, I am constantly aware of the need to maximize the benefits accruing to a student who attends my classes over just reading the text. One central benefit of attendance was mentioned above – the real-time Socratic back-and-forth student-teacher interaction. However an additional benefit of this type of interaction is the exposure of the students to the questions, insights and misunderstandings of their peers. Since it is inevitable that some students will ask or state what others could not articulate, or would never have thought of, students in a classroom of peers can benefit in ways that are impossible even from what would otherwise be optimal – an individual teacher-student interaction. My teaching method seeks to maximize this type of benefit by eliciting comments to my probing Socratic questioning from as many students as possible. I also make sure to encourage future participation by commending thoughtful contributions, and always make it clear that the purpose of their participation in these dialogues is not for students to show me that they already know the ‘correct’ answer.