I’m Ben, and I’m bringing Bananas

For my first class, I used to repeat a simple psychological experiment: we would go around the class saying names, where we were from, and a third variable ingredient (major / favorite film / occupation 10 years from now...). Invariably, we would then find that after 7 to 9 students we wouldn’t just stop remembering new names, we would also forget all the previous ones.

Why bother? Most of the students did not take much interest in the exercise. Even though I would eventually learn the names I would still be one of the only ones to know them. And yet we are a brick and mortar operation and we go to a lot of trouble and expense to bring people physically together. Is this just a legacy habit headed for the scrap heap?

Jose Bowen thinks not. He advocates “Teaching Naked” (1). (It helps that he’s a Jazz musician, and so very cool). Pull the technology out of the classroom, have all the students do the reading / view podcasts / play some learning games before class. Post a short reading quiz on-line to make sure everyone is on the same page. Then come to class primed for something that happens best when people are together: discussion and connection.

One of my informal benchmarks for a class is to see how long it takes for the students to exchange phone numbers. This can take up until mid-term or later. During class we have small group discussions and problem solving. In the majors classes, assigning a few hard homeworks helps bring everyone together.

As for the first day, for a class smaller than around 25, pull out the party games and go around the class actually remembering names. He’s Mike, and he’s bringing mangoes to the party. You’ll remember Mike the Mango for the rest of the semester (2). Two catches to watch out for: 1. professor gets to go first and last, 2. be prepared to assist a student in distress: what can Zoe bring? was it Laura who brought the latte?

Benjamin de Foy, Saint Louis University. 19 Aug 2011.

1. Jeffrey R. Young, “When Computers Leave Classrooms, So Does Boredom,” Chronicle of Higher Education, July 20, 2009.

2. Joshua Foer, “Secrets of a Mind-Gamer: How I trained my brain and became a world-class memory athlete,” New York Times, February 15, 2011.