Tag Archives: teaching

More on ID

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I haven’t written about this in years, so here goes.

Intelligent Design (ID) is not science. That being the case, it has no place in the science curriculum of our public schools. (Or the science curriculum of any school, but I suppose private schools can be dumb if they want to be.)

Am I trying to avoid the teaching of religion in public schools? Hardly. I would love to see religion taught to every kid in every public school across America. As long as it’s taught as the factual history of belief in America and around the world–not religious indoctrination–I’m more than fine with it. I advocate for it.

But I digress. ID is not science. Right? Right. For one thing, it’s hypotheses are not falsifiable. Bang, right there: not science. However, you’d be surprised (or maybe you wouldn’t be) at the amount of argument I get on this point. In a recent discussion on the subject, an ID proponent offered this quote:

Intelligent design refers to a scientific research program as well as a community of scientists…

I googled it. It’s from here.

I offered this one from wikipedia:

Advocates of intelligent design seek to fundamentally redefine science to accept supernatural explanations,[11] arguing that intelligent design is a scientific theory under this new definition of science.[12] The unequivocal consensus in the scientific community is that intelligent design is not science.[13][14][15][16] The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has stated that “creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the methods of science.”[17] The U.S. National Science Teachers Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have termed it pseudoscience.[18] Others in the scientific community have concurred,[19] and some have called it junk science.[20][21]

I was immediately chastised for citing wikipedia–totally untrustworthy! Anyone can go there and write anything they want!

True, sort of. But the rejection is bullshit in this case. I’m sure you noticed all the little [11] and [12] notes in the quote. That’s because in the wikiepdia article they are links to footnotes. Footnotes which contain links directly to the sources cited. Like the National Academy of Sciences–who wrote exactly what the wikipedia article said they did.

Would this be good enough for the wikipedia-scoffer? Of course not.

Thoughts?

Photography class

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Tomorrow afternoon I’m teaching a 2.5 hour class on digital photography at the university. I rarely get to sneak away from my regular duties to do this kind of thing, so I’m really looking forward to it. Best part: I hear that the chief photographer, Dan Johnson, may be making a special guest appearance later in the session.

Although attendees will determine the direction of the class to a great extent, here’s a few of things I have in mind to get us going:

  • Differences between point-and-shoot and DSLR cameras
  • What is a megapixel?
  • Improve composition by getting closer
  • Improve composition by the rule of thirds
  • The focus-and-frame technique
  • Mind the horizon
  • Camera modes including auto, program, priority and others
  • Recipe for a good portrait using any camera
  • Sharing your masterpiece using the web

And here’s some of the photos I might be using as examples. Not all are great, but they each illustrate some principle of photography people might want to know about.

Teaching photography

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This lifted my spirits today. I got forwarded an email written by a participant in yesterday’s “Better Digital Photography” class. It was the first time I offered it and, as such, I only had tentative ideas about what people expected to learn there. In other words, I winged it.

But apparently something went right because this participant positively raved about the class, saying that our three hours together was far superior to an expensive two-day photography seminar she had attended in the past. She also was encouraging us to offer the class again, as she was advising her colleagues to take it next time.

All of which makes me very happy for two reasons. First, I’m glad I didn’t waste anyone’s time yesterday. But second, I’m probably going to be doing something similar for the upcoming PhotoCampMilwaukee event taking place in May, and now I have reason to hope that it will also be well-received.

One thing I had yesterday that I won’t have in May, however, is expert help. My good friend Dan sat in on the class at my invitation and heckled me good-naturedly throughout, much to the amusement–and enlightenment–of everyone in the room. You see, Dan has been taking pictures for a living for over thirty years.

Pretty good team, don’t you think? A camera enthusiast-cum-professional who happens to be an educator, and a seasoned veteran photographer. Not a bad combo for a basic photography class.

By the way, I think I’m on track to get that new article out the door.

PhotoCampMIlwaukee

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So there’s this thing for photographers called  called PhotoCampMilwaukee.  It’s going to be a whole day filled with teaching, learning, photowalks, demonstrations and what-have-you.  It’s happening on May 2nd at Bucketworks.  I’ll definitely be there.

I’m hoping to teach a n00bz0r session on getting your DSLR camera out of auto mode.  I’m hoping to learn…what?  How to do fabulous things with one off-camera light?  That would be cool.  Maybe I’ll suggest it to the Google group.

So, hey, you should come!  I’ll certainly be blogging about it again before May, but you should put it on your calendar right now and subscribe to the blog feed.

Photo class curriculum

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If you were going to teach a three hour class on digital photography, what would you include in it?   What would you put into a photo editing course?  I’ve recently been asked to do both at work.  Here’s a few ideas off the top of my head:

Photography: types of digital cameras, parts of a camera, megapixels/resolution, camera modes, composition, flash, printing, sharing on the web.

Photo editing (using Photoshop Elements): cropping, color adjustments, exposure adjustments, sharpening, resolution, printing and optimizing for the web.

Thoughts?

Eat your own dogfood

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A couple of weeks ago I was giving an impassioned lecture on the web, blogs and organizations having conversations with their customers online. I told my students that many organizations and businesses just don’t get it. They’re afraid of engaging their customers and communities in a genuine dialog on their web sites. If they open the site up to visitor input, someone might say something critical of them, heaven forfend. I concluded my remarks by saying that if these organizations don’t want to have that conversation with their markets, their competitors will be happy to step in and do so.

Then one of my clever students raised her hand and asked a question. Did I have any visitor input on my photography web site?

Uh…no. But I should! I think. Yes, I definitely think I should. Heh.

Teaching Multimedia

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I just now signed the contract for my appointment as an adjunct faculty member in Marquette University’s College of Professional Studies. They asked me to teach a course to adult undergraduates called simply “multimedia,” and I said yes. (You may recall that I mentioned this a while back, but that time it fell through due to low enrollment.)

Understand, dear reader, that I love nerding for a living. I do. But teaching is something I enjoy even more, so I am thrilled about this.

What’s in store for my class? I asked myself what my students should be able to do and know after having taken the course–”learning outcomes,” in edu-speak. First thing that came to mind is that they should be able to make a PowerPoint presentation that doesn’t suck. Second thing, they should understand how video is edited and compressed for use on the web. Third thing is they should be able not only to make a simple web site, but also to explain the unique strengths and weaknesses of the web as a medium, as well as the most common misunderstandings about it.

So there you go. Knowing where we need to be at the end, I can chart the course to get there. A syllabus emerges, with reading assignments and hands-on projects.

The adventure begins next Saturday.