I missed a lecture yesterday morning. I had updated the timeslot change from the previous week in one calendar, but not propegated it to the other calendar…so I was in for the lecture, just not in the room. So the only thing I could think of doing was putting my hand up stating mea culpa (Latin for d’oh) and rescheduling the lecture for the later tutorial slot and another slot this morning.
The thing is that I agonised over designing that lecture. It’s on source control, which is a subject dear to my heart. I tried to figure out the best way of drawing the students into the lecture, but I think I ended up loosing them. I think there are two reasons for this
So I’ve to give the same lecture today and I’ve rejigged it slightly.
I think I now understand what people mean when they say “You can never teach at too low a level”, I don’t think they’re trying to be scathing of students, I think it could be better stated as “You can never teach the basics too well”. For instance, the class I took consists of intelligent, well motivated people (all universitity students are by definition intelligent and generally motivated to get a qualification). It would have been better if I went in and given them an understanding of source control rather than details of the minutae. They can then use that base and build on it themselves. On a good day (or a well-planned lecture) I should be able to communicate the understanding of source control and explain some of the minutae. So the changes I’ve made to the lecture reflect my intention to communicate – clearly – the understanding of source control. I’ll update on how it goes later on.
My saving grace is that I think the tutorial sheet is a good one…but we’ll see what the students think of it.