[lojban] Re: Lojban Class at Rice University

[djandus <jandew@gmail.com>]

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 I'm sure people will
> > eventually need my direct email address:
> > jandew+loj...@gmail.com
> > (don't worry about cluttering my email -- gmail will tag anything you
> > send to the "+lojban" email address)
>
> > Also, I will probably be on the IRC almost all the time after school's
> > out, around May 4th. Thanks to the awesome Lojbanists who have already
> > helped me so much, and to the help I know I'll get in the future!
> > (This community is pretty excellent, in my opinion.)
>
> > co'o
> > djandus
>
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>
> --
> mu'o mi'e .aionys.
>
> .i.a'o.e'e ko cmima le bende pe lo pilno be denpa bu .i doi.luk. mi patfu do
> zo'o
> (Come to the Dot Side! Luke, I am your father. :D )

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