Are you like me, do you have ‘great’ things to say until you sit down with a pen and a blank sheet of paper; or a keyboard and a text box? I have been told the only way to overcome that is to start writing. So, here goes.
For the past five years I taught physics, electronics and statistics. During that time I found students were seldom interested in my presentation; only in the test and the grades. What I took away from this was, I had assumed they were as interested in learning as I was; they weren’t. So, I tried things to allow them to get involved. I encouraged them to build things. That helped. At the heart of much of this was a lack of math background. I thought (and still think) computational thinking is an answer. The computer programming and problem solving skills of my students was generally not strong. This is where I start my ‘thinking out loud’.
I wrote all of that a few years ago. It is now 2023. I am still ‘thinking out loud’ on these posts, and, I hope I am now acting on these concerns. I look forward to your comments.