[lojban] Re: Lojban Class at Rice University

[djandus <jandew@gmail.com>]

doi seth, I don't have any plans currently to print anything off...
I'm not sure how necessary any of it would be. I know that I find
electronic resources much easier to use, and I could list all of the
printable resources at the beginning and allow students to acquire a
copy. (If I do things right, I could submit such documents in a few
weeks, and they would be available for purchase as a simply bound
text.)
Help me think through this because every item requires a different
analysis -- for instance, for a dictionary, I find the use of ctrl-f
essential for ease of use, but if a student wants a print copy, I
could manage that. For lessons, however, at best I would require
exercises to be printed out, but it's very likely that my lesson plans
will have to be extremely flexible to follow the students. This
doesn't preclude the use of a print version, but certainly undermines
its usefulness.
Also also, although I have some sort of a budget, it makes things
incredibly simple if I don't have to buy anything :) However, please
tell me if you think of something essential to be in print!

doi .alyn, I'm not sure how much assistance I will need... I should be
able to handle things, but I'm certainly not an expert in LaTeX, so I
may run some things by you, eventually. (With the options for study
materials left to "anything," there's always the unforeseeable!)

On Apr 11, 1:22 am, Seth <thirderivat...@aol.com> wrote:
> what is your plan for books? just rely on electronic? you can always use that 24 page word list as your dictionary, since it is cheap to print, or you can use the dictionary I designed for print. I use it for all of my translation and stuff.http://www.lojban.org/tiki/Books
>
> seth (aka seryf)
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jonathan Jones <eyeo...@gmail.com>
> To: lojban <lojban@googlegroups.com>
> Sent: Sun, Apr 10, 2011 9:19 am
> Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: Lojban Class at Rice University
>
> Ah, I did think of one suggestion: record the lectures and post them on YouTube. I'm certain the in-class videos would be useful to others.
>
> As for a place to put stuff, lojban.org is an obvious choice. You can either use the wiki, which can be modified by anyone, or if you want some other interface, you can talk to Robin about the details.
>
> doi Robin, you are still the one that maintains lojban.org, yes?
>
> On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 11:24 AM, djandus <jan...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I happen to have a number of friends who have already requested the
> same thing, which is partly why I want to have everything done online.
> (The other reason being: who likes all that paper stuff anyway?) So,
> as it stands, I would have everything that would be covered in class
> available online for anyone for certain. The exercises that would be
> completed through Owlspace I will have to put a little extra effort
> into releasing on a schedule, but I'm sure I can work it out. (It's
> not that I'm afraid of students knowing how to do assignments before
> they have to do them -- as I mentioned before, the grades don't matter
> very much. Really, I'm afraid of students being scared off by seeing a
> huge document of assignments.)
>
> I certainly want this to be something that others can study along with
> from anywhere, following along as it continues in the fall. (I've
> already started typing up a bit of an introduction, where I explain
> how if you're reading this info and you're not in my class, try to
> keep to a 14-week schedule, and try to get a partner to learn with, to
> practice conversation.)
>
> Exactly where all this information will reside is a little up in the
> air, but I'm fairly certain I get a webpage as a Rice student that I
> can use for this purpose. Basically, I'll just double all of the
> information online as it runs in the classroom.
>
> Speaking of all of this, I forgot to mention that I am relatively
> proficient in typing with LaTeX, (through LyX, with some direct TeX
> code experience) as one maybe can tell from the Table of Contents I
> linked to. So, I hope to have all of my lesson plans detailed in there
> in a way that as I teach a class, anyone can go straight to a document
> and read what I taught.
>
> --djandus
>
> On Apr 10, 3:11 am, Jonathan Jones <eyeo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Well, I can only think of two things to say: First, Right On! That's just
> > freaking awesome that someone going to be teaching Lojban at a university.
> > Second, I humbly request that you make as much of the materials you use
> > available to non-Rice Lojban students as well, because the more good
> > learning resources our nintadni have, the better.
>
> > On Sat, Apr 9, 2011 at 2:30 PM, djandus <jan...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > coi rodo
>
> > > So, I am Joe Anderson, an undergraduate at Rice, and am planning on
> > > teaching a class on Lojban in the fall.
> > > (http://courses.rice.edu/admweb/swkscat.main?
> > > p_action=COURSE&p_crn=16915&p_term=201210)
>
> > > I know a lot about Lojban, but I'm going to have to work like crazy to
> > > put this together, especially over the summer. I originally learned
> > > Lojban through Lojban for Beginners, about 3 years ago. I have started
> > > visiting the IRC only recently, learning a lot about how the language
> > > has been changing in Lojbanistan since that teaching aid was created.
> > > I've been playing around with many other teaching aids, especially
> > > Anki, and have many ideas for how to structure the class. I've also
> > > been working closely with a French professor here who studies teaching
> > > languages in general. With her help, I've already made a pretty
> > > accurate table of contents for the course, which I have uploaded here:
> > >http://jandew.ersoft.org/lojban/contents.pdf
> > > My main objectives are to teach proficiency in conversation and cover
> > > the grammar of approximately half of Lojban for Beginners. From my
> > > table of contents, you can note that this entails teaching everything
> > > up to tenses, where including the last chapter in my lesson plans is
> > > entirely up to how much lesson time I have. As for the time I have,
> > > I'm given a one-hour class a week for 14 weeks. My plan is to have as
> > > much talking as possible in class, with vocabulary and exercises being
> > > covered outside of class. To do that, I'm wanting to write up
> > > exercises that can be completed online (I'm currently investigating
> > > how much I can do with Owlspace) and require students to use Anki and
> > > somehow turn in their study results. (I know Anki keeps track of that
> > > very well.) There's obviously a lot of parts to this, but with
> > > everything so primordial, here's what I'd love to have help with:
> > >   Lesson plans:
> > >      The theory behind ordering the courses as I have, making sure
> > > the general plans are good
> > >      What I'll be covering in class, how to keep students on their
> > > toes
> > >      Exercises to give outside of class, creative assignments
> > >      The vocabulary I will cover -- how much per week, what order,
> > > etc.
> > >      Any ideas about study materials -- I'm going to keep it simple,
> > > with vocabulary in one place, (Anki,) and other exercises in another.
> > > (online, probably Owlspace) If anyone has interesting ideas on cool
> > > study materials I could put it, I'd love to try to fit it in
> > > somewhere.
> > >   I also need support in teaching me -- I need to get more proficient
> > > in speaking Lojban in the areas I will be teaching. I am not lacking
> > > so much in the concepts as the vocabulary. I want to get the students
> > > used to Lojban conversation, and I'm still not used to it, yet!
> > >   There is a strong possibility that I can organize one day to have a
> > > computer lab trip for a videoconference with other Lojbanists! I think
> > > this would be a really fun way to end things, making sure that the
> > > students get connected with Lojbanistan. Any interested in helping
> > > with that may need to do the same as I, practicing conversation with
> > > the basic tools I will end up teaching over the semester.
> > >   One day must be spent "outside of class" as a requirement for
> > > student-taught courses at Rice. Ideas for this are welcome -- right
> > > now, the best I've got is something like a scavenger hunt on campus.
> > > (note that with a videoconference and a day-outside-of-class, that
> > > means I really only have 12 weeks of class that I can count on)
> > >   Any suggestions on communication. Right now, I'm only really
> > > accustomed to email and the IRC. This is my first post on the mailing
> > > list. I have browsed around a lot on lojban.org, but there's a lot of
> > > information there, and if anyone recognizes some great online resource
> > > for anything, even talking about this, (in case this discussion
> > > clutters up the mailing list or something,) then feel free to speak up
> > > about it.
> > >   I happen to know how to program in python, and I've been working on
> > > a few study programs to help, say, learn the numbers. I'd love people
> > > to help suggest improvements for those as well, as I write them.
>
> > > In working through this, I will for certain be able to have the
> > > resources associated with Owlspace, which basically entails easy
> > > communication with students and ability to have assignments on there,
> > > in a variety of ways. I will be investigating its capabilities as soon
> > > as possible. I probably will have access to it after Fall
> > > Registration, which begins tomorrow. I will also start getting numbers
> > > of people signed up for the course then. For those eager to learn more
> > > about that resource:
> > >https://owlspace-ccm.rice.edu/portal/site/!gateway/page/!gateway-300
> > > I may end up also having access to the the Language Resource Center on
> > > campus, which means computer lab access with built-in speaking
> > > capabilities and any associated online resources. This means I could
> > > give assignments with audio or video interaction -- things which may
> > > not exist yet for Lojban. (These resources are normally used in ways
> > > like having a test with the last question being "Speak for at least
> > > one minute about {your family..., what you do on the weekend...,
> > > etc.}" or giving an assignment where students watch a video of a
> > > weatherman speaking and then answer questions about the weather.)
> > > These sorts of assignments/tests can be given online, if necessary. I
> > > might be able to have Anki installed in the lab in a lojban folder, so
> > > that students have access to it there, etc.
>
> > > Oh, and I need to explain student-taught courses! So, at Rice, they
> > > work like this: it's counted as a one-credit course, as well as being
> > > a special type of pass-fail, called satisfactory-unsatisfactory, where
> > > the difference is in how GPA is calculated. Basically, this all means
> > > that even though I will have to have grades and whatnot, the grade
> > > will be rather unimportant. As a con, students will be rather
> > > unmotivated by bad grades. As a pro, the students who sign up will
> > > probably be extremely motivated by desire to learn the language
> > > itself. So, I can actually put very little focus on grading. (Also,
> > > note that at Rice it's really common for students to change around
> > > their schedule quite a lot for the first two weeks. I've been
> > > factoring that in to exactly how my lesson plans will work.)
>
> > > Many of my plans are very flexible, so I'm welcoming as many
> > > criticisms and new ideas as possible right now. For now, I think
> > > that's best done through this mailing list, but
>
> ...
>
> read more »

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