2011

Turning lectures into learning, at Youngstown State University (Youngstown, OH), Thursday, December 15, 2011:
Almost 20 years ago, Harvard physicist Eric Mazur had an “aha” moment about his teaching practice that forced him to rethink the traditional unidirectional teaching model. He described his early approach to courses as “not how you teach it, but what you cover. [Then] I realized education was not merely a transfer of information. It was about how well students could assimilate information and transfer it to their own experience.” So Dr. Mazur radically changed his approach. He developed a strategy that incorporates “just-in-time” teaching with short lectures punctuated by... Read more about Turning lectures into learning
Black silicon, at Harvard Energy Innovation Showcase, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Tuesday, November 29, 2011:
Shining intense, ultrashort laser pulses on the surface of a crystalline silicon wafer drastically changes the optical, material and electronic properties of the wafer. The resulting textured surface is highly absorbing and looks black to the eye. The properties of this 'black silicon' make it useful for a wide range of applications including improved solar energy harvesting.
Educating the Innovators of the 21st Century, at Education Lecture, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (Johor, Malaysia), Thursday, November 24, 2011:
Can we teach innovation? Innovation requires whole-brain thinking — left-brain thinking for creativity and imagination, and right-brain thinking for planning and execution. Our current approach to education in science and technology, focuses on the transfer of information, developing mostly right-brain thinking by stressing copying and reproducing existing ideas rather than generating new ones. I will show how shifting the focus in lectures from delivering information to team work and creative thinking greatly improves the learning that takes place in the classroom and promotes independent... Read more about Educating the Innovators of the 21st Century
Peer Instruction Workshop, at ICTLHE 2011 (Malacca, Malaysia), Wednesday, November 23, 2011:
Education is more than just transfer of information, yet that is what is mostly done in large introductory courses -- instructors present material (even though this material might be readily available in printed form) and for students the main purpose of lectures is to take down as many notes as they can. Few students have the ability, motivation, and discipline to synthesize all the information delivered to them. Yet synthesis is perhaps the most important -- and most elusive -- aspect of education. I will show how shifting the focus in lectures from delivering information to synthesizing... Read more about Peer Instruction Workshop
Confessions of a converted lecturer, at ICTLHE 2011 (Malacca, Malaysia), Tuesday, November 22, 2011:
I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will explain how I came to the agonizing conclusion that the culprit was neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I will show how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it has improved my students' performance significantly

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