[I know it's an old thread, but I'm catching up, and had a few experiences today that I'd like to share. -- Michael]
Danny Faught <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Vicki Brown wrote: > > Just to get things straight as I lurk on this thread. Are we talking > > "experiential" as the subject states, or "experimental" as people have used > > in their replies... the two words do not really have the same meaning... > > It's a strange word, isn't it! My original question was about > "experiential" training. (As in, the Association for Experiential > Education, http://www.aee.org/ - little to nothing about technical > training there, though.) This quote from the home page sounds technical: Tell me, and I will forget; Show me, and I may remember; Involve me and I will understand... > It's encouraging to hear that people have been using some semblance of > experiential exercises for perl training. I'd love to hear any other > examples or experiences. Seriously, now. I'm in the middle of teaching a ksh class. I have a little "skit" to illustrate the differences between the "intermediate temp file" solution and the pipeline solution. grep green_ink | nl grep green_ink > tmp1 nl < tmp1; rm tmp1 I pick 2 folks to play the parts of each of the Unix utilities. I play the part of grep's stdin by handing grep paper, one sheet at a time. Since my pen has greeen ink in it, those with my scribbling on it has green ink and are passed to stdout, the others get rejected. The job of 'nl' is to put a serial number on whatever flows through. In the temporary folder version, I hand them a manilla folder. As they quite naturally "open" it, I note that for the class, and again as they close it. Then I have the person playing the shell (usually me) clean up the process and set up the next one, passing the file folder. In the pipeline version, I have someone stand in as a pipe. They have to accept grep's stdout, keep it in order, and pass something to nl when requested. On occasion, I'll have them "fill up" and ask their grep to sleep, or to "empty out" and have nl sleep. The simulations contrast/contrast the sequential and parallel models. I got this idea from doing mailing lists for paper newsleters. Occasionally, we'd get a whole assembly line going on a line of tables. The queues in between the stations (sign, collate, fold, staple, address, stuff, stamp) just naturally seemed like pipes (or intermediate temporary files) to me. We quite naturally scheduled and reallocated resources to get the job done (after all, we were a 1 or 2 CPU team), and I saw the illustration as useful for a KornShell or Unix class. My best Perl example actually crosses many of the courses I teach (Perl, C, C++, shell) because it's actually related to the short circuit logical operators. I assign roles to some folks to act as functions, then have them stand in line. $go_to_movies = ask_mom() || ask_dad() || call_gramma() || whine_miserably(); We have fun with it. I had great results illustrating "guard conditions" (much better than $div != 0 && $num/$div) by asking a student to volunteer a hobby, then asking what is required for them to practice it. Sometimes I have them "play act" getting the prerequisites. $read_book = evaluate_reviews() && buy_book() && make_time() && prepare_tea() && (illuminate_room() || find_sunny_location()) && enjoy_reading(); As my .sig indicates, I try to find ways to add play into the learning process. When it works, I'm really proud. My struggle is to have the sense of fun be in support of the learning, not a palyful distraction from it. My current feeling is that most courses cover way too much material for students to absorb, and that a force-feeding (liver pate anyone?) approach doesn't lend itself to playful excursions. But I'm always looking and trying different things. Today was a good example. I do numerous check-ins by asking folks to rate various things on a 0- to 5-finger quickie show of hands. (A trick I kearned from Mel Silberman, principal for Active Training (www.activetrainig.com)) For example, "on a scale of 0 to 5 fingers, 0 being complete lack of knowledge to 5 being proficient, how are you in <insert programming language here>" It's a great way to figure a basis on the first day of a class. This weeks' class scored in the low 2-3 fingers on programming background, so I knew that I'd have to spend more time on most topics, especially flow of control. When that lesson came up today, I noticed that one of the students only raised 1 finger. Bad news! This was a student that had previously been very involved, but was starting to fade out. During a discussion at a break, without mentioning the low rating, I worked the conversation around to how he thought I could better serve him. After listening, I proposed a new way to work the exercises, and found out that most of the class preferred it. Rather than singly (or pair-wise, supported by an XP promotional talk) working on the examples, we worked it as a class. I was shocked at the number of folks that joined in to the group-wise programming (about 8 of 10), but on reflection I realized that they all lacked enough prior programming experience to get going on the overall algorithmic structure of program. By having them talk out loud, propose ideas, and talk among themselves, I had them draw out the collective wisdom of the group. And of course, it didn't hurt that I was moderating the white board construction of the class script. I'd support quickly inking the ideas that I knew would work, and (without squashing them) ask questions around the ideas that I knew would dead end. I made sure to tell them to watch what kinds of questions I was asking, not merely at the code we developed. I played "lead developer" as a student played "architect" by reading out the specifications (i.e. the exercise description). I'd have him read the whole thing a few times, then have him focus on one or two phrases, then have them watch as the English language was turned into Computer language. I think it worked well. Drawing on some of my dance background, I think that what worked well is that the students got a chance to model my behavior. That's how I teach and learn dance -- being or watching someone perform the action. Programming, although it's very much in my head, can be drawn out for others to observe. That lets them model behavior. I think that's experiential. Perhaps, like mammals, it's modeling and playing, too. -- Michael R. Wolf All mammals learn by playing! [EMAIL PROTECTED]
