Post AwKD8MLChi5UvcOJc0 by troberts@theblower.au
(DIR) More posts by troberts@theblower.au
(DIR) Post #AwKBKYZMrgXoQ9hkHo by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-07-20T12:25:45Z
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I kind of hate the concept of "gamification" HOWEVER, there might be something people who write syllabuses could learn from video game quest lines. Especially in very sequential subjects like math. "concur the linear equation""unlock zero product property power""reduce any quadratic into a product of linear equations"Maybe I'm losing my mind. Really a map might convey more information than paragraphs here.
(DIR) Post #AwKBlVlXOg9rXnFYkS by bradr@infosec.exchange
2025-07-20T12:30:33Z
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Hmm. Sounds like maybe a good project for the students to design and share those maps towards the end of the syllabus (or incrementally throughout the syllabus) to cement the sequences and relationships.(Also, I wonder if the students and the teachers live in game worlds that understand each other...)@futurebird
(DIR) Post #AwKBvr8OnsJeiJsMsK by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-07-20T12:32:29Z
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Nobody reads syllabuses. I'm just thinking about that and why.
(DIR) Post #AwKCC8dpTrzHdzLDRw by Alon@mastodon.social
2025-07-20T12:35:24Z
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@futurebird Math theorem dependency trees could be portrayed as a kind of tech tree or skill tree, yeah.
(DIR) Post #AwKCD36pXESYm9LAQa by JoBlakely@mastodon.social
2025-07-20T12:35:30Z
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@futurebird There is a very very helpful mental health tool called Superbetter that ‘gamifies’ healing. I’ve used it for a time, I’m not a gamer, but I found it really helpful and made it more fun to do self care. I think this is a very well done, very accessible to all ages, use case of gamifying something. The structure is great.
(DIR) Post #AwKCKqt4rL2jBed1Bg by SKleefeld@mastodon.social
2025-07-20T12:36:59Z
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@futurebird Nick Sousanis (@nsousanis) does his syllabi as comics. I'm not sure if he has data on how often they're *actually* read, but I can't help but believe it's considerably more than your average syllabus. https://spinweaveandcut.com/education-home/
(DIR) Post #AwKCmGSxrkGWKxUAVM by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-07-20T12:41:58Z
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Thinking on it with more care I think the aspect of "gamification" that turns me off are loot box mechanics. Which exploit the innate human love of gambling that most people have (to varying degrees)--And "gameplay loop" these are so often tools for pure evil in the wild I spend most of my time teaching my CS students what they are and how to recognize when someone might be trying to run one on them.But YES you can use them on yourself for you own positive goals I think.
(DIR) Post #AwKCrOrQ5CmFotNBlw by mensrea@freeradical.zone
2025-07-20T12:39:22Z
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@bradr @futurebird @sjpiper145 has a project that might be useful here https://github.com/sjpiper145/MakerSkillTree/tree/main
(DIR) Post #AwKD3Mjxn9hEidaiAK by catmisgivings@stranger.social
2025-07-20T12:45:01Z
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@futurebird in high school all my teachers were so consumed with making sure we knew what a thesis statement was "so we could succeed in college" but not once did they mention how to use a course syllabus, what a syllabus is, or the word syllabus. So first term freshman year I collected all my course syllabi and chucked them under the bed, then wondered why I was getting straight C's on midterms. I was my high school's valedictorian(A teaching assistant took pity on me and explained)
(DIR) Post #AwKD8MLChi5UvcOJc0 by troberts@theblower.au
2025-07-20T12:45:49Z
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@futurebird Goal setting, and breaking objectives down into measurably things can be extremely helpful.But like, helpful when setting markers for yourself. It could easily could turn toxic when imposed on others.
(DIR) Post #AwKD8sX11KY8lWACSu by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-07-20T12:45:58Z
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@bradr My only qualm with this is it's something they could only do at the end of the year. It really does take a little expert knowledge to put everything in the right order and I think only my strongest students would succeed. But if we are reviewing something they learned in previous years this might make sense.
(DIR) Post #AwKDEd5NMPZ0bAyfRo by JoBlakely@mastodon.social
2025-07-20T12:47:04Z
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@futurebird So make the language more interesting in syllabus as in gaming?I assume the language presentation in quest lines is different from the syllabus though the outcomes the same? I think maps are also great for many types of thinking. I love mind maps, spatial maps, I like seeing the whole & then choose a focus or follow tangent lines to jump to for close up understanding. I like jumping from macro to micro, more than micro to macro.
(DIR) Post #AwKDHlOYvGBNErRjHs by bradr@infosec.exchange
2025-07-20T12:47:39Z
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I was thinking the same thing, both ways - the teacher has the expert knowledge about what the connections are, and the students (maybe?) have the expert knowledge of what the compelling gamified frame is.@futurebird
(DIR) Post #AwKDIck0aFpSgit6Zc by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-07-20T12:47:44Z
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@catmisgivings Ah yes. The skill set of "understanding college teachers and how to interact with them" I talk with my seniors a lot about this, and as I used to be a college teacher I can give them the low-down. But, with my younger grades I just want to make it as easy as possible for them to succeed.
(DIR) Post #AwKDM2k0NBnEC6W608 by xinit@mastodon.coffee
2025-07-20T12:48:22Z
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@futurebird I watched a video a couple years ago of an instructor who requested students email him the name of their favorite candy. Well, only in the syllabus. The 5 people that did out of a class of a hundred each got a big bag of their favorite candy. Presented in front of the rest of the class.
(DIR) Post #AwKDXubcRgP4REFn72 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-07-20T12:50:35Z
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@xinit Yeah there are a LOT of stories and jokes like that. But to me it just says there is something very wrong with the way the information is being presented that everyone keeps ignoring it. And lets be real: *I* ignored the syllabus in most of my undergrad courses and mostly got excellent grades and learned a lot. Only as a grad student did I learn how reading that document could save me time and help me to learn the subject.
(DIR) Post #AwKE93nzClhLgUkgcq by pewnack@aus.social
2025-07-20T12:57:14Z
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@futurebird "Gamification" to me, personally is exclusionary as I never got into playing computer games despite growing up surrounded by them.When people discuss "gamer" terms I have no fucking idea what they're talking about.Frankly, it often sounds like they're in a really fucked up cult.
(DIR) Post #AwKELSGE6ccV0Ts5Gi by mllsc@beige.party
2025-07-20T12:59:29Z
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@futurebird I always read mine, but I had a lot of difficulty with the planning/time management part of college, so I needed any leg up I could get. Also knowing what the workload and grading would be was really helpful...even if I didn't use the information effectively.
(DIR) Post #AwKEMSJZOI8LSnud5U by grant_h@mastodon.social
2025-07-20T12:59:36Z
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@futurebird mmm. I convert the syllabus to a mind map, and explicitly tea h from that, in the order of my choosing, ticking off elements as we go. My kids love it. I had one who found I topic I missed in transcription!Busy writing a tool to allow mapping the dependencies more explicitly, which is very valuable. There is a whole discipline analysing this in depth, and a Moodle add in that allows you to make your course a literal map, with weighpoints and all.
(DIR) Post #AwKF7HW1MM0Na54424 by JoBlakely@mastodon.social
2025-07-20T13:08:09Z
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@futurebird I used to be the kind of person that read the whole manual of software before I started, so I could get a whole overview & how it fit together. I think in early days they were better written, more caring about getting it to work for people. It was all new, less tech speak, more accessible & explained each thing as you went along. You didn’t have to go on laborious side quests to understand unexplained tech jargon, it’s implications of what it could or could not do. they were there.
(DIR) Post #AwKFXu1cntgcXuXbN2 by AstroHyde@mastodon.social
2025-07-20T13:12:58Z
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@futurebird @xinit I found some success in making the most important parts of the syllabus into a mini quiz that gave points (not a ton of points mind), but I even included the plagiarizm section in the midterm multiple choice, based on correct answers at least 80% of them did find the syllabus. also, apropos of nothing, it seems to help if you follow a zine template rather than a university one... an ongoing area for imrovement for sure!
(DIR) Post #AwKH7NjsQ8jEn6ilpA by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-07-20T13:30:34Z
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@catmisgivings I'm not a college math teacher anymore because they gave me too many students and paid poverty wages. Nonetheless I might go back some day maybe just before I retire for a few years. I loved working at the college. But working with teens is great too and I laugh a lot more, they are so funny.
(DIR) Post #AwKIWSQOEi8GW87wWG by grant_h@mastodon.social
2025-07-20T13:46:18Z
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@futurebird In direct answer to your question *why* nobody reads syllabii, I think it would depend on what material the teachers are given. In my current system, there is a syllabus statement, there are past exam papers with memos, and every 6 months, there is an exam. Get there how you will. The SA government system has a document which gives mandatory lesson topics on a day-by-day basis, for every subject, from Gr0 - Gr12. I never needed to read the syllabus then.
(DIR) Post #AwKKnFNiBRbotb0YjY by MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social
2025-07-20T14:11:44Z
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@futurebird @xinit A corollary, few profs get instructions on how to write syllabi. When I started my first faculty position the department had a lot of brand new faculty. The held a weekly intro to instruction for us.One of the early ones we were asked to bring a syllabus for our future class. Most of us brought doc that listed topics and reading assignments for different days and our office hours.1/🧵
(DIR) Post #AwKMj5HE0hCEJ57IAK by GinevraCat@toot.community
2025-07-20T14:33:22Z
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@futurebird I think of maths as more of a concept map than a linear sequence. So the idea of learning it as a series of quests is great. Especially since you could then link skill points to unlock certain quests e.g. You can't open calculus until you have a certain level in functions / graphs / algebra!
(DIR) Post #AwKNVA5xOoRP9Nlsy8 by donray@mastodon.online
2025-07-20T14:42:03Z
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@futurebird @catmisgivings My observation: Good student or not, most kids bring a lot of life to the classroom — very little of the faded, jaded, world-weary demeanor that people seem to develop even during their college years.
(DIR) Post #AwKOoAWA9TO5uwej2m by JoBlakely@mastodon.social
2025-07-20T14:56:45Z
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@futurebird I was just reminded, by reading something on physics discovery, understanding, how many physicists put sooo much emphasis on the math to convey understanding of an idea. Frankly, I think a lot of understanding is lost this way. I have a 1922 early copy of The Theory of Relativity (special & general) written by Albert Einstein. There is almost zero math in it. It is explained in very clear language so as many as possible can understand the actual ideas & implications.
(DIR) Post #AwKXNq6kJPgkfwHsye by nsousanis@mastodon.social
2025-07-20T16:32:08Z
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@SKleefeld @futurebird yes - I draw them all and in fact am sketching out a mini comic for a new class I’m supposed to teach this fall. I think you already posted link to my syllabi page but threading here is confusing me so just in case. And yes - they do read it! And keep it (and sometimes color it!) https://spinweaveandcut.com/education-home/
(DIR) Post #AwKXi1V7f7VfnoJW9g by mainec@fromm.social
2025-07-20T16:36:23Z
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@futurebird do you have pointers to explain those loops to interested kids?
(DIR) Post #AwKYAL2oasFcWWZhpI by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-07-20T16:41:36Z
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@futurebird it's easy to concur with a linear equation. It's non-linear equations which are disagreeable.