There are good people all around you. Recognize them!

The long-awaited MAC trophy!

A year ago, I was named the 2022 Ball State University (BSU) institutional winner of the Mid America Conference (MAC) Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success. The trophy company the MAC used apparently still had a significant backlog due to COVID supply-chain issues, so the trophy just recently arrived on the BSU campus so it could be presented to me. This post is partially about me, but it's really about all the good people around us, so I encourage you to keep reading.

The MAC Outstanding Faculty Award recognizes one full-time faculty member nominee from each of the twelve MAC institutions that has demonstrated a dedication to student  success. From these nominees one faculty member that has gone above and beyond in their dedication to student success is honored as the winner of the MAC Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success. That was not me last year, but I was recognized as the BSU institutional winner.

This student-focused award is distinguishable from academic or research-based awards as it celebrates the commitment of the MAC to a holistic student experience and the creation of an environment that supports success in school and in life.

My remarks

A few days ago, BSU held a celebration in my honor at which they presented the trophy to me. What follows are the remarks I made at that event.

This award focuses on student success. So, what actions do I take that I believe contribute to student success? I don’t believe there is any one big thing, but rather lots of little things that all add up to student success. Things like…

• Using active learning to keep class engaging
• Using flipped learning by recording videos for learners to watch outside of class, and doing activities in class when they can ask me questions
• Being learner centered
• Having learners do reflective writing
• Being aware of disabilities, and doing what I can to support those learners
• Doing what I can to keep diversity, equity, and inclusiveness as part of the conversation
• Using alternative grading, primarily specifications grading, so learners can grow from their mistakes
• Emphasizing the workforce competencies they are indirectly learning
• Mentoring immersive learning projects to provide participants a rich learning experience

I make myself very available to learners during class, via email, and in my office (both physically and online) at a variety of hours during the day, since leaners often have questions after 5:00 PM. My goal always is to find a way to help learners understand, learn, and retain the material.

I often tell learners who are regular visitors to my office: “I’ll work at least as hard as you will, to help you learn this material.” What I’m telling them is that if they are trying, I’ll be right there with them—but they must put in some effort.

But this recognition is not fully about me. It’s about all of us in this room, and across campus. I happen to be the one who has a very supportive department chair, Jennifer Coy, who submitted the award nomination that was selected to be the BSU institutional winner last year. But I would not be the faculty member I am today without the interaction, training, guidance, and support of scores of other faculty, staff, administrators, students, and family, all of whom I’ve learned something from over many years. I’ve borrowed tips and techniques from uncounted others, many of whom are in this room today. I firmly believe there are many faculty who are just as deserving—perhaps more so, but are yet to be nominated. I just happen to be the one nominated last year.

I sincerely thank the faculty and students to wrote support letters for me, and everyone who has interacted and shared with me over the years, thus allowing me to learn something from you. I appreciate all of you for taking time out of your day to come to this event.

President Mearns presenting the BSU
Outstanding Faculty Award to me

Good fortune strikes twice!

I also had the good fortune of being nominated by Kara Duquette for the 2022 BSU Outstanding Faculty Award last year. This award is given in recognition of demonstrated composite excellence in teaching, scholarly or creative productivity, and service by a faculty member who has an academic record at Ball State University of more than five years. Eight individual faculty, staff, and administrators from across the breadth of the university took the time to write and submit letters of support for my nomination. Submitted along with the 25-page nomination dossier, Kara and Robbie Mehling produced a four-minute video highlighting why I was being nominated for the award. Ultimately, I was selected from the nomination pool, and was presented the award at Ball State University's fall 2022 faculty convocation. Again, I believe there are many other faculty who are just as deserving—perhaps more so, but are yet to be nominated.

So what!?

So, last year was a good year for me. I received two significant awards within a year's time. I am extremely appreciative of this recognition! While I believe I do a good job, I also suffer a bit from imposter syndrome. I don't see myself as being that good. However, others around me do, and submitted award nominations on my behalf. They saw the worth and merit of being supportive of those around them and chose to expend significant time and effort to recognize someone in whom they believed. To be the recipient of that level of support not once, but twice, is a bit humbling for me.

I ask that you take a look around you. Yes, do it now. Who do you interact with that is doing a good job? Maybe it's as simple as they're doing what they're supposed to do, day in and day out—they're dependable. Let them know that you appreciate them. If their effort, ability, or attitude is rising above others, let them know that you noticed. If there is an award for which you can nominate them, do it. Regardless of being selected as the winner or not, simply being nominated is recognition in itself. 

Letting people know that you appreciate them, support them, and believe they are doing good, will likely be returned to you. I know I'm more inclined to go above and beyond what is needed or expected when I'm feeling appreciated by those around me. How about you?

So, who are you going to recognize this week?

Image credits:

MAC trophy photo by David Largent

BSU award presentation photo by Kara Duquette 

Of plants and students; a community conversation in the stairway

Grab yourself a cup of tea or hot chocolate, or coffee, if you insist. Find a comfortable seat and settle in. You’re about to read an epic, allegorical story of a plant and students. 

Rupert, 

the red pepper plant

It all started on a warm day back in May 2019. As I often do, that day I walked up the stairs from my office on the third floor of the Robert Bell Building at Ball State University to the Computer Science department office which is located on the fourth floor. As I got to the top of the stairs, I discovered a small clay pot with an even smaller plant in it sitting on the windowsill. Read on to find out what became of the plant, and what that has to do with students.

Rupert's birth

Not having any idea why there was a plant on the windowsill, or who placed it there, I decided to start a conversation via sticky-notes. I wrote a message and stuck it on the windowsill in front of the pot, and left a pad of sticky-notes and a pen laying on the windowsill. I soon had a response, so I continued the conversation, a transcription of which follows.

Me (M): Hello little plant. What are you going to be when you grow up?
Response (R): Big pepper.
M: What color?
R: Red!
M: Do you have a name you prefer to be called by?
R: Rupert!
M: Interesting name. Is there a story behind it?
R: Yes.

At this point, a third person (P) entered the conversation, providing what turned out to be rather prophetic advice. I’ve simply labeled the posts from all others as (P) from here on out.

P: Grow little plant grow!! Stay healthy.

Intrigued and amused by the exchange thus far, I continued the conversation.

M: What is the story?
R: I know a dog named Rupert (signed Rose, 7)
M: Rupert, is someone giving you the water you need?
R: Yes! I am being taken care of! Thank you for asking though!

Rupert's early life

By now, it’s June, and a few others entered the conversation. (The chronological sequence of these messages is not likely as listed.)

P: Dear Rupert, we are so happy you are growing. Enjoy the dead bug next to you.
P: You are a light in darkness.
P: I C U R still hangin in there Rupert!!
P: Plant a seed. Watch it grow by watering it and the sun from God up above. Plant called Lyfe, pronounced Life.
M: Rupert, congrats on your new leaves!
P: Grow for me!
M: I See you’ve grown a couple more leaves since I saw you last week!
P: Rupert hopes to grow up to be Seymore. Hopes to see everyone then.
P: I hope it’s not Audrey II.
P: Happy first day of summer, Rupert/Seymore!

Rupert made it through the excitement of Independence Day, and now had quite a few leaves. Lots of new messages had been left as well. A few of which were dated.

P: Rupert! You look lovely!
P: I hope you grow well.
P: Atta boi Rupert! I have no idea what you are but I’m excited to see you grow.
P: You’re my hero!
P: Rupert, you can do this! (Don’t die!)
P: Good to see you’re still with us Rupert!
P: Share the love!
P: Your pot needs rotated x1 per day or you will grow lopsided.
M: Rupert! It looks like you got thirsty. (07/16/2019)
P: One must imagine Sisyphus smiling.
P: Go plant go!
P: Be happy little plant.
P: Rupert, where do you see yourself in 5 years?
M: Rupert! It looks like you got thirsty. (07/26/2019)
P: Rupert, I love you and would die for you. You’re doing amazing buddy. Keep growing. (08/27/2019)

Rupert's demise

But then tragedy strikes during September 25-26, 2019.

P: WATER YOUR PLANT.
P: This bug has more life than me.
P: [F]
P: RIP
P: Why is the bug literally me?
P: We should take a lesson from this plant and realize that our relations need love and nurturing to grow!
P: RIP friend.
P: NO!
P: Poor plant.

Rupert's resurrection

 For whatever reason, no one chose to remove the leafless body of Rupert or the notes that had been left. And then suddenly—eight days later—there was new growth!

M: New growth!!!
P: I can get past being thirsty and I hope y’all can too.
P: You’re doing great sweetie!
P: We are cool.
P: Ah, ah, ah, ah, staying alive, staying alive.

Rupert gives birth?!?

So then my Mom and I decided to have a bit of fun. She provided me one of the red peppers she had grown in her garden, and I left it in the pot with a note on it.

M: So, this pepper showed up last night. I asked Rupert if it was his, but he wouldn’t respond, other than to say he hopes someone will take it and enjoy it. (10/07/2019)
P: Thanks Rupert. I loved the pepper. You are a cutie.
P: Rupert is like baby Groot!
P: Grow!! We watered you.
P: Hope you’re enjoying the new fall weather Rupert.
P: This note made possible by destroying Rupert’s parent tree. Thank you, deforestation.
P: I love plants. This made my day.
P: LIVE!!!
P: We be-leaf in ya.
P: Grow through what you go through little man.
P: I’ve only just met Rupert, and I am in love, I would do anything for Rupert. Rupert is everything.
P: I envy Rupert! He’s living the life I want to live! #inspiration
P: I love you Rupert!
P: Hang in there Rupert.
P: Dearly beloved Rupert. You’re doing amazing. We believe in you. We love you. We cherish you.
P: Grow on Rupert.
P You got dis!
P: I'm glad to see Rupert is coming back to LIFE!!!
P: Tuesday, Oct 29: I added some water since soil looked dry.

Rupert's year-end celebration

So, by now we’ve reached the end of 2019, and this thing has obviously taken on a life of its own, with relatively little input from me after the first few days.

P: Happy new year!!
P: Go little plant go.
P:  I gave Rupert some water. 12/27/19 –Janitor Joe.
P: Thank you Janitor Joe
P: Happy Holidays!
P: It’s been a roller coaster semester. First you were great, then you almost died, now you’re good again. Keep going Rupert.
P: Rupert!!! Juan was here.
P: Y’all crazy.
P: Thank you for being something I could look forward to seeing. Dec 5
P: Stay safe this winter, friend. May your caretaker take you home over break.
P: Go Head Rupert!!! Good to see you’re still here with us.
P: Photosynthesis
P: Let’s go, Plantboi!
P: My Rupert, nice to see you’re still doing well.
P: God making sure Rupert is OK.
P: Happy semester break everyone!!

Rupert starts a new semester

Fortunately, Rupert survived the break, and we continued into spring semester!

P: Who waters Rupert and how often? 1/8/2020
P: I have a class up here now MWF ending 1 PM, and I’ve started watering him after class. Not flooding it. 1/13/20.
P: Neat origami.
P: Keep on keeping on, Rupert.
P: Survive. You got this boyyyy.
P: I only came up to fourth floor to see Rupert.
P: Just keep growing. Just keep growing. Just keep growing growing growing.
P: Lydia and Ashlen love you.
P: Rupert can get this DUMPY!
P: This is my first time meeting Rupert… I am honored to be in the presence of such a legend… Love you Ru. Grow strong!
P: What it do Rupert?
P: Grow up!
P: Rupert, you were my first love. I fell for you like a child. You must live or I don’t think I will make it in this cruel world without you.
P: Rupert loves my SQL.
P: Watch BSU Tonight.
P: We are happy to see you are inspiring so many students. Keep growing big and strong.

Rupert's birthday

And today a large piece of paper appeared with an important announcement.

Save the date to celebrate! A big party for a resilient little plant. Rupert’s birthday is April 27th. Watch this space for more information coming soon.

After nine months, a simple conversation I started with an unknown person has expanded to include many more people. I’m guessing (based on handwriting) there have been a dozen or two different people who have participated in the conversation, and almost certainly many dozens more who have stopped for a moment and read the messages. A community of caring people has formed, although I have no idea who any of the other people are, and I suspect that is true for them as well. Yet we’ve all come together to nurture and encourage this one little plant, and dare I say, each other.

Is this about more than a plant?

So, what can we learn from this experience? What if we were to imagine that Rupert the red pepper plant was one of our students? Do we show as much care and concern for them? What if we don’t make the effort to help them to learn? Might they then shrivel up and withdraw, like Rupert?

How many times have we given up on a student that was too far behind to catch up, just wasn’t getting it, or was too needy? Once Rupert dropped all of his leaves, I suspect we all thought that was the end of the plant. Yet one of us decided to continue watering it. And a week later, new growth appeared. What if we keep working with those struggling students—who might have even given up on themselves—to help them through the tough parts of their days and lives, whether that be our course content, or helping them juggle priorities in their life. 

What if we involve others to help support the student as well, just like the community that has formed around Rupert. Then we can all celebrate the student’s success—completing an assignment, a course, a semester, or a degree—just like we’re going to celebrate Rupert’s birthday in a few weeks.

When asked what I do, I like to say that I strive to turn on light bulbs. By this I’m referring to those “ah ha” moments learners have when something suddenly makes sense. Maybe I also need to say that I strive to keep things adequately watered and nurtured.

How about you? What are you doing to nurture those with whom you come into contact?

Weird is Good!

Last August, I participated in our Freshmen Convocation, the university’s official first academic event for new first-year students at Ball State University. During the event, our President and Provost formally welcome the first-year students to campus and speak about the exciting year ahead. This being an academic event, faculty participate in this event--dressed in our academic regalia--by processing in and sitting on the stage during the event. There is also usually a guest speaker--an alumnus or faculty member--who is asked to deliver some inspiring words of wisdom. Last fall, that speaker was Maura Jasper, Associate Professor of Art, from the BSU School of Art.

Maura claimed that weird is good! Initially, that seemed like strange advice to give to a room full of first-year students who are likely trying to figure out how to fit in with everyone else. Yet, she was emphatic that weird is good.

Let's explore this a bit. Merriam-Webster offers this definition of "weird".

"of strange or extraordinary character"

It also offers this definition of "good".

"of a favorable character or tendency"

Thus, perhaps she was stating that strange or extraordinary is favorable. I can live with this! Anyone who knows me would likely not be surprised that I'd agree that weird is good.

One of the many statements Maura made that day has stuck with me. She said,

"If we're not exploring weird stuff, we're not learning. We already know the normal stuff."

And one of my favorite musicians, Frank Zappa, seems to agree:

"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."

So, in an effort to establish how good I am, I've compiled a list of the ways others likely think I'm weird.

• my sense of humor
• my use of puns
• my "interesting" socks
• wearing socks with sandals
• wearing sandals with a suit
• wearing a suit and tie when it's not required
• my "interesting" ties
• wearing bow ties
• shoulder-length hair
• staying up late, and then getting up early
• enjoying music ranging from Bach to Zappa
• playing the tambourine in my high school marching band
• being a Boy Scout most all of my life
• power walking for exercise
• being a non-tenure line faculty member who researches and publishes
• utilizing flipped learning and specifications grading

I'm sure there are other items that I should add to my list. What do you think I've left off?

But more importantly, I want to hear about the good in you. How are you weird?

Lilly Conference reflections: 2019 edition

I recently spent three wonderful days at the 39th Original Lilly Conference on College Teaching at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. This is the fifth time I’ve been able to attend this conference and have been privileged to present at the conference all five times as well. As I said in my post last year, if you can afford the time and money, I highly recommend attending this conference which is held the weekend before Thanksgiving every year.

The last two years, I’ve talked about my experiences combining specifications grading with learner-centered teaching. This year I focused on just specifications grading, leading a three-hour pre-conference workshop and delivering a conference presentation. I've blogged about specs grading here and here. I also volunteered to host a discussion table during lunch on Saturday for the first seven people who signed up to eat with me and discuss specs grading. All three events seemed to go well with lots of participant interaction and positive responses from the participants.

I’ve said it before, but every time I’ve attended Lilly, I’ve come away from the experience rejuvenated. When you spend time in conversations with others excited and interested in finding the best way to teach, how can you not become excited yourself? The conference attendees are a very friendly group of people. One has a sense of attending a homecoming and getting reacquainted with old friends when one attends Lilly.

I always come away from Lilly feeling like I was trying to drink from a fire hose; there is so much good information received in such a short time. I’m still mentally processing this year’s insights, so I’m simply going to provide a list of very briefly annotated quotes I wrote down while listening to presenters. They are presented here in the order in which I experienced them.

• “If you believe the words in your video are important, why wouldn’t you want all people to have access to them?” (Brenda Jo Brueggemann) Seems like a pretty obvious justification for captioning to me.
• “On quizzes, include questions about the new material, as well as previous material.” (Sheri Stover) Retrieval learning reinforces previous learning.
• “Cramming works for a day. A week later, you’ve lost most of it.” (Sheri Stover) Spread out the studying if you really want to learn the material.
• “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” (Nelson Mandela) What more is there to say?
• “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” (Albert Einstein) If you can think, you can continue to learn.
• “Teaching is leading students into a situation in which they can only escape by thinking.” (Unknown) Sounds like a great situation to be in!
• “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of their tomorrow.” (John Dewey) As we learn of better ways to teach, we must adopt them.
• “In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” (Eric Hoffer) We must be life-long learners, lest we get left behind.
• “Engagement requires both motivation and active learning.” (Elizabeth Barkley) One of them by themselves is not sufficient.
• “Rewards and punishment is the lowest form of education.” (Chuang Tzu) Carrots and sticks don’t work as well as other approaches.
• “Forget the mistake. Remember the lesson.” (Unknown) Move towards a growth mindset.
• “Unpredictability can generate emotional learning.” (Mike Pinter and Peter Giordano) Shake things up a bit and get people’s attention.

Share your thoughts below. What quotes resonate with you? What ones raise questions? Do you find fault with any of them?

Image credits: All images by Dave Largent

1,623 e-mail messages and 44 days later...

So, what did 1,623 e-mail messages and 44 days get me? I don't have all the answers yet, but let's explore.

First, a bit of background. I am one of a dozen individuals from colleges and universities located around Indiana who decided they would collectively submit a proposal in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP) from the State of Indiana. One thing we all have in common is an interest in helping people learn the mysteries of computer science.

The RFP was posted 44 days prior to the deadline for submission of proposals. Fortunately, it was during the summer when we faculty-type people have "nothing" to do and could thus devote our time to developing our proposal. (Actually, this is a myth for most of us. Summer is when we try to do everything we didn't accomplish during the rest of the year, while we're teaching.)

So, we started off slow, holding an online meeting to see what direction we all wanted to take the proposal. Gradually, some overlapping themes started to emerge, and we were off and running. Well, we thought we were running at the time, but by the time we got to the end of the race, we discovered we were just jogging--or maybe even walking--at the start.

I think we treated our journey in preparing this proposal as a bit of a road trip. And "what a long strange trip it's been!" (Sorry, I couldn't resist using a Grateful Dead album name.) We had a starting place, and a destination we had to arrive at by a certain date and time, but what we did in between was not planned for those other 42 days. Along the way, we picked up a couple more travelers (we started out with ten) and took a variety of turns we didn't anticipate when we started out. Some of those were based on choices we made, and at other times we ran into "detour signs" along the way and were forced to take a different route. Most (but maybe not all) of our re-routing ended up resulting in a stronger proposal.

As you've likely experienced, designing something by committee is always an interesting, and usually slow and frustrating process. I experienced that a bit this time, but not as much as I expected. We were relatively focused and headed in similar directions, and knew we had a looming deadline we had to meet. The challenges and frustrations I experienced were largely thrust upon us from external factors. It was a genuine pleasure to work with this group.

As one measure of our workload, I present the following chart showing how many e-mail messages I have sitting in a folder for this proposal. This counts both messages sent to me, and messages I sent. As you can see, we got a whole lot more serious about completing the proposal during the last few days!

So, what did these 1,623 e-mail messages and 44 days get me? I don't have all the answers yet (for instance, I don't know if we're going to be awarded the project), but let's see what I do know at this point.

After working with the other eleven professors (and a myriad of other supporting staff) for over a month (approaching 24 x 7 the last few days), I believe I've developed some new collegial friendships. At any rate, I've expanded my collegial network. I now have tremendous respect for many of these individuals, and (although I'm likely biased) I believe the others now have more respect for me.

I repeatedly practiced patience, listening, negotiating, cooperating, leadership, taking chances, and making myself vulnerable. I was able to fight my imposter syndrome a bit, realizing others value what I have to offer at times.  I found many new resources, both people and otherwise. Most importantly <grin>, I was also able to use my sense of humor (however strange it may be!) at key moments in our journey.

Was it worth it? Would I do it again?  The answer to both is a resounding "YES, in a heartbeat!" Even if we aren't awarded the project, I gained so much more from the experience. Having said that, I do hope we get the award, as I want to continue working with this group to spread computer science knowledge.

It is amazing how hard and long we will work when we're passionate about something. This was definitely a labor of love. I've come away from it with renewed energy and excitement! 

What have your received in similar circumstances? Leave me a message below, or email me.


Image credits:
E-mail: http://www.publicdomainfiles.com
Calendar: http://www.publicdomainfiles.com

SIGCSE 2019: Where the inspired inspires the inspirer

I attended my first SIGCSE Technical Symposium as a faculty member last week. I attended one other time, way back in 2010, when I was a graduate student. At that time, I delivered a Student Research Competition talk and poster about my thesis work related to small group development as it relates to software development teams. I also served as a student volunteer for the symposium. It was a great experience, but I only experienced part of the full event. This year, attending as a faculty member, I was able to experience the full gamut that SIGCSE has to offer, including being both giver and receiver.

One of the symposium co-chairs is a two-time graduate of Ball State University's Department of Computer Science. Manuel Pérez-Quiñones now serves as the Associate Dean of the College of Computing and Informatics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I first met him when he returned to the Ball State campus a few years ago to deliver a keynote at a diversity research symposium. It was good to greet him again and deliver a “hello” from BSU.

Dave, Christian, and James

I was fortunate to have a workshop proposal about specifications grading accepted for presentation Wednesday evening, at the start of the symposium. (I've previously posted about specs grading.) James McGuffee (Christian Brothers University), Christian Roberson (Florida Southern College), and I jointly authored this proposal, and I am indebted to their help making it a reality. The material we presented resonated well for the thirty-plus workshop attendees, and I believe we made a few converts that evening. We had lots of great questions and discussion, with many attendees staying well past the 10:00 PM ending time discussing possible ways to implement specs grading in their courses. All in all, it was a great way to start the symposium off on a high note.

I enjoyed the keynote presentations. Marie desJardins (Simmons University in Boston) focused on inclusion in computing, ultimately discussing these “Five Pernicious Myths.”

“He was born to be a computer scientist.”
“Computer scientists are… {insert stereotype here}.”
“Anybody can be a computer scientist—girls just don’t want to.”
“It’s a joke—don’t you have a sense of humor?”
“’Diversity programs’ are just political correctness.”

Check out her presentation slides for a wealth of information and resources.

Gloria Townsend (DePauw University) provided a top-ten list that identified the most effective strategies used at DePauw to recently award 47% of their computer science undergraduate degrees to women. Her list included these items, many focusing on women:

10.  Celebrations
9.    Networking
8.    ACW-W chapter
7.    Mentoring
6.    Role modeling
5.    Outreach
4.    Content preview
3.    Social activities
2.    Female CS1 teachers
1.    Encouragement

Mark playing a ukulele

Mark Guzdial (University of Michigan) delivered a keynote in which he posited that “teaching programming as a way to express ideas, communicate with others, and understand our world is one of the oldest goals for computing education,” and that “Computer Science was invented to be a tool for learning everything else.” His justification can be found in his presentation slides. At the end, he gave us a call to action to find our allies and grow the community, and to invent, mutate, and evolve. His blog is well worth your time, so take a look.

I first met Mark when he chaired my paper session at ICER 2010 in Aarhus, Denmark. This was my first international academic conference. To put things into perspective, I started my first semester of full-time teaching at a university a few days after the conference. I presented my thesis work related to small group development as it relates to software development teams. After collecting five years worth of data, I turned it into an ACM TOCE journal article. If I recall correctly, my table-mates for dinner that evening were Mark, Beth Simon, and someone from NSF, whose name I have long since forgotten. Talk about being out of my element! But they were all very gracious, and it was a great dinner. Beth and I talked about peer instruction and the use of clickers. I started using clickers that fall, but it was three more years before peer instruction made its way into my classrooms.

I attended a variety of paper presentations and a workshop. Since this post is already lengthy, and I have one more big thing I want to share, I’m going to skip the details of the papers and the workshop. If you really want to know, ask me about them.

But wait; there's more...

My two presentations served as bookends for my symposium experience; I started with the specs grading workshop and ended Saturday morning by presenting a poster about the CS1 Art Show I’ve been coordinating for six years. For much of that time I anecdotally knew the show had a generally positive impact on our students, the department, and how others view us. This past summer I started collecting data, and now can more formally make that claim, with data to back it up. My poster presented some of that data and described the details and logistics of producing the art show. Included were student and judge comments.

I talked with a dozen or more people during my two-hour poster presentation who seemed genuinely interested in doing something similar with their own course. I remember one person exclaiming “This is exactly what I’ve been looking for!” All these interactions provided a wonderful affirmation that I did something good. But there were three visitors, in particular, who but me over the top, providing a great way to end my symposium experience.

In the fall of 2013 we started using the media computation textbook authored by Mark Guzdial and Barb Ericson. That same semester, I was inspired to hold an art show based on collages our CS1 students were creating for one of their course projects. The idea originated from an article by Beth Simon and Leo Porter about a similar event they produced. I took their idea and modified it to work in our environment.

Fast forward to a few days ago. I wondered if Mark, Barb, Beth, or Leo (all of whom I knew were present at the symposium) might be interested in my research about the art show, so I sent them all a message letting them know I was presenting my poster Saturday morning. They all expressed interest, indicating that they’d try to drop by my poster session, but some of them indicated they had busy schedules. As such, I wasn’t holding my breath.

To my delight Mark arrived and talked with me for 10-15 minutes. While reviewing the presented data, he seemed excited about how learner-centered and engaging the whole art show process is. After he left, Barb arrived a few minutes later. I was talking with another individual at the time, but she very patiently waited until they were done, spending time reviewing my poster. She also provided lots of encouragement about the art show project.

Image by rawpixel.com

It was getting close to the end of the poster session when Leo arrived. We talked at length about the logistics of how I run the show. The more we talked, the more excited he became, and the more questions he asked. I could see a light bulb starting to glow. Now remember, Leo originated the art show idea with Beth when he was serving as a Teaching Assistant at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and operationalized it while at Skidmore College. But, after moving back to UCSD, he was faced with very large class sizes, and dismissed the possibility of continuing the art shows. Now, after years away from the art show, he was seeing a way to make the process scale to larger class sizes. Maybe he could produce an art show with large class sizes at UCSD. The light bulb was definitely on at this point, and that made me very happy. What a way to end my SIGCSE Technical Symposium experience.

The inspired (me), had just inspired the inspirer!