overhead projectors are a bit dimmer and can't make nearly as big (or uniform) an image as the document cameras can.
9 karma · joined January 20, 2014
BEST CLASS EVER. I went to almost all of the lectures, but when I got home the video was usually already online - so if I missed something during the lecture, no worries, I could go back and rewatch it. IT WAS AWESOME.
Slides are terrible though - the problem is that it takes forever to make really good slides. I've seen it done before, and when it's done right it's a real piece of art, but 99% of the time slides are copied/made in haste and then the teacher just reads them off in class too quickly.
The only plus side to slides is you don't have to read the teacher's awful writing that is usually too small on a board that's too small for the giant room.
Of course you're not going to see change if people don't want to spend money on it - and usually when they do it's pretty demanding (see the standardized test stuff).
In my university's electrical & computer engineering classes, the teachers no longer use slides - they did for a while and for various reasons switched back to chalkboards. I can see why - the ones that do tend to go through the slides way too fast, because they have nothing to slow them down. It promotes assuming the students know more than they actually do know too, and the danger of skipping slides.
On note taking: I just got a surface pro and aside from the handwriting being a little sloppy, I wish I started using a tablet PC years ago. As a friend that has done so put it, he has his notes archived from every class he's ever taken in folders on his computer. I only keep about a year of old notes/materials because it takes a ton of space when you do it on paper!
On ebooks: I like them if they're cheap/free. Frankly I'd rather the teachers just use public domain books or class wikis instead of assigning stuff out of a $150 textbook that nobody ever needs to read otherwise.
On typing: I grew up typing, we didn't have a computer at home until I was 9 (and I'm in my 20s), but we always had a typewriter, and when I saw my mom using it, I learned how to use it too! By the time I was around 10, I could already touch type without looking at the keyboard, and that fact randomly dawned on me one day lol. Right now I can type around 140wpm max.
On microsoft word: lol, my first computer was a 286 that was as old as I was. It ran WordPerfect and Lotus123. Yes, I used it to write a report, and yes I printed it on a giant dot matrix printer. It was awesome!
As for primary school: It has by a lot. The standardized testing and ACT/SAT stuff, especially in high schools, has made the top end crazy advanced. Students are under pressure to graduate having taken calculus, chemistry, physics - all things that for the most part weren't even options in my high school. If you so much as get a B, you won't have much luck getting into any of the good state universities here.
That's pretty scary, because as a teenager there's this overwhelming tendency to screw up.
The tough part for me is I keep hesitating to apply to you guys because my projects are getting more interesting as time goes on (and I have more time to put into them, EE classes suck up a lot of time!)
Ah well, anyway, I will be applying for a few positions, including that one mentioned. Perhaps you'll get to interview me, that'd be awesome :)
I'd ask for it back but I have no idea what I'd do with it.