The Academic Interview Day 2

As I wrote in my last post, the Department of Psychology is hiring a new FSO Teaching and Learning. I described day 1 of my experience, which included giving a presentation on the state of teaching and learning in my department. Did I mention that day got off to a great start? As soon as I got home from dropping my kids off at school, the phone rang. It was the school, asking me to pick up my youngest daughter, who was sick. Argh. Arrangements were hastily made (it’s not good to show up for an interview with your sick first-grader in tow). Day 2 would be different--no hitches, glitches, or problems of any kind. Right? Just sail through meetings that went straight from 8:30 to 4:30.

I had had a busy weekend, which was probably a good thing. My elder daughter’s soccer team was in provincial finals. Thankfully, the games were held in Edmonton this year, not Calgary. Shuttling her to four games over three days kept my mind off anything to do with the job, my presentation, and everything else. Mostly. (BTW, her team didn’t get a medal this time.)

First thing on my agenda was a breakfast meeting with the Chair of the Department at 8:30 a.m. No problem, right? I left extra early, allowing myself an extra 20 minutes “just in case.” On my way to the University, I heard the traffic reporter on the radio mentioning something about “the Groat Road problem.” Huh? What problem? I knew they closed Groat Road to work on the 102 Avenue bridge overnight, but Groat Road was supposed to be open again. Was it...still closed? Since I was now one block away from Groat Road, this was a pressing concern.

Yup, I could see the taillights of all the vehicles backed up. My mind raced. How else--where else--could I cross the river to get to North Campus? If Groat bridge was still open, I could...maybe...swing through downtown. This was the same idea that hundreds of my fellow Monday-morning commuters had. Argh. I sweated through every centimeter of progress, every minutes that ticked off the clock. I got to my breakfast meeting 15 minutes late, and very stressed out. I gulped my coffee and choked down a muffin.

Next up was my “guest lecture.” This is so that the hiring committee can see for themselves what I do in a classroom and how I do it. Hilariously, I was offered the opportunity to lecture in someone else’s class, if I chose. Naw, I just went ahead and invited people to come to one of my PSYCO 104 classes. I didn’t do much different, although I spiffed my lectures up a bit and made sure to run some clicker questions at the end. Of course, I ran into technical difficulties: one video wouldn’t run so I had to fire it up manually, and then I somehow put the clicker system into numerical mode and couldn’t change it back. Argh! (Just a typical lecture for me, eh?) I don’t think my colleagues learned anything new or interesting about Pavlov, either. (Did you know that he didn’t use a bell at first? He took the metronome from his wife’s piano.)

Next: more meetings--including a lunch meeting with graduate and undergraduate students. It was very instructive to hear their concerns. Unfortunately, I didn’t spend a lot of time eating. By the time my actual interview with the hiring committee was to start, I was exhausted and hypoglycemic. I think that’s why I got a bit emotional, recounting the story of a student who chastised me a few years ago. She missed an exam because her father had died. I told her the procedure to follow, what paperwork she had to fill out, blah blah blah, so that I could transfer the weight of the midterm to her final exam--all stuff that’s in the syllabus. A few weeks later, she approached me at the end of class. She was visibly upset. When I had rattled off all the information, I had neglected to say one important thing: “I’m sorry for your loss.” She told me how disappointed she was in me that I was so unfeeling. Since that time, I have always made an effort to be sympathetic to the situations that students find themselves in.

One more meeting, and then I was able to relax in my office and process a midterm. Yup, that’s right. Instead of going home and pouring myself a nice, stiff drink, I sat in my office and worked on an exam. Of course, it wasn’t as simple as uploading marks to eClass. Of course, I had made an error in coding one question. Of course, I had to go through and manually fix everyone’s mark. THEN I went home a poured myself a nice, stiff drink.

The next day was the wrap-up dinner, with two profs and an undergraduate student. This dinner was originally scheduled for Monday, but had to be moved to Tuesday. (This, after me going through three of the choices given to me, and finding out that none of them were open on Mondays.) I was grateful for the respite, even if it did extend my “interview” by another day. And I got to go to my first choice of restaurant!

It’s a bit strange to go through this process. I’ve had the same job for 15 years, and the interview process back then was a lot less involved. There have been jobs I’ve applied for over the years, but obviously didn’t get. Even though I’ve been kicking around the Department of Psychology for so long, I finally had the opportunity to talk to some people who I’ve never talked to before. It was also intimidating to hear all the things they expect from the new FSO Teaching and Learning.

Well, whatever happens, happens. If I get this new position, my life will change--at lot. If I don’t get it, I’ve still got a great job that I love to do. (Unfortunately, I ended up catching my daughter's cold, which also turned into a sinus infection, bronchitis, and now laryngitis. Stress will do that.)


BTW, if you ever apply for a tenure-track position, here's a great primer from University Affairs.

Why aren’t you studying?

The Academic Interview Day 1

The Department of Psychology is hiring. The position is for an FSO Teaching and Learning. “FSO” stands for Faculty Service Officer, an academic position that’s kind of a catch-all for a lot of varied things. For example, in psychology, there are currently two FSOs: one person who handles the department’s intranet, manages the psychology workshop, and deals with various research issues; the other person runs the psychology internship program.

This new position is about teaching and learning, which is right up my alley, so naturally I applied for it. It is also a tenured position. These kinds of jobs don’t come around often; I know that a lot of contract instructors with PhDs in psychology applied for it. It’s amazing that in this current budget climate, the Faculty of Science is willing and able to fund this position. I think that speaks volumes to the Faculty’s commitment to teaching and learning.

I am pleased to report that I was chosen to be interviewed (as was one other person; and there is apparently one other candidate being interviewed in a couple of weeks).

Let me step you through the application process. There are a number of documents that you have to submit. At the top of the list is your CV (“curriculum vitae,” which is basically your academic resume). You have to ensure that you CV is up to date with your most important accomplishments, publications, awards, etc. A teaching dossier is also required, which includes your philosophy of teaching, approach to pedagogy, and so on. To support this, it’s important to include some course syllabi and the results of student evaluations (USRIs: Universal Student Ratings of Instruction). Then, you have to find three people to write you academic letters of reference that speak to your ability to manage projects, teach effectively, get along with others in a team or group, and so on. Lastly, you have to write a cover letter. That’s just the paperwork.

I’ve been on screening committees before, so I know how this works. Part of it is to weed out people who can’t complete the paperwork. If you are unable to find three people willing and able to write you letters of reference and send them in by a deadline, that sends up a red flag. And if you don’t include documentation about how students view your teaching, what’s up with that? Teaching will be an important component of this position, in two ways. First, this FSO position is about leadership in teaching, which means supporting the Department of Psychology’s teaching mission. That might mean working with Contract Academic Staff: Teaching or tenured faculty to apply new teaching techniques in their classes. Or it could include training graduate students who may be teaching their very first course. Secondly, the FSO will be required to teach two courses per year. That would be a huge reduction for me, as I currently have to teach eight as a Faculty Lecturer. I had to think long and hard about applying for this position; teaching fewer courses was a big downside for me. I love teaching, and it has come to define how I think of myself. To consider changing that was very difficult. The lure of a tenured position is strong, though. Finally, there is also an administrative and service workload--which means being on a lot of committees.

The interview process is not like what you’d expect for a typical job. You don’t come in, talk to the hiring committee for an hour, and then leave. Oh no. My “interview” was a day and a half long (plus a dinner on yet another day). Two major components are an open presentation, and a guest lecture. The presentation is where you talk about your ideas for what you might do if you get the job. This lasts an hour, and includes time for questions (the scary part). I chose to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of teaching in the Department. Think about that: I’m potentially criticizing the people who are considering hiring me. Yikes. I then talked a bit about various trends and buzzwords in pedagogy (MOOCs anyone? Flipped classrooms?) and briefly evaluated them. The people at my presentation (faculty, graduate students, administrators) took it pretty easy on me. Or maybe I just rendered them comatose with my Powerpoints. Zap!

(Sorry about being circumspect in describing my presentation, but there is still one other candidate who will make a presentation in a few weeks. It’s in my own best interest to not say too much. Maybe I’ll post my presentation at some point in the future.)

A few faculty members requested meetings with me. So, after my presentation, off I went to six half-hour meetings in a row. Everyone offered me coffee, which I declined. (That’s all I need: six cups of coffee in a row. That’s enough to make me vibrate.) Everyone had different things that they wanted to discuss. Some of them were casual chats; others were serious discussions about the future of teaching and learning on campus. These meetings are not part of the formal job interview; however, after talking to me, these faculty members will generally give feedback to the hiring committee about my ideas. You have to be “on” all the time, make a good impression, and know your stuff.

That was day 1 of my interview. Well, half a day, anyway. It took place on a Friday. Now I had a whole weekend to stew about my performance, and get ready for day 2 the following Monday.

Next: Day 2, in which actual bridges play a role.

Why aren’t you studying?

#TheDress Explained

You know about "The Dress"? It first appeared on Tumblr? The one that's freaking out the Internet? Or at least, making it lose its composure? And Twitter's, well, all a-twitter about it, too? Yeah, that one. Here's the deal: some people look at the photo and see a black-and-blue dress. But others look at the same photo and see a gold-and-white dress. Wha--? How can that be?

Calm down, Internet. I'm here to explain. I'm a psychologist specializing in perception. I'm trained to handle situations like this.

What we "see" is affected not just by the pattern of light that falls on our retinas, but also by unconscious assumptions that we make about the visible world. Like, for example, the ambient illumination.

Say you "see" a piece of red paper. Is it red paper under white light? Or is it white paper under red light? If you don't know for sure about the light falling on the paper, your assumption about the illumination makes all the difference. Your unconscious assumption makes you see the object one way, or another. Same goes for the dress. (What if it's red paper under red light? Shut up. I'm trying to make a point here.)

Usually, our assumptions about things match the reality. We know what the ambient illumination is. It's obvious. But what if reality is ambiguous? That is, what if we don't know for sure what the ambient lighting actually is? Like, say, in a poorly exposed photo? Can we force our perception to change?

Let's try. Want to see the dress as gold and white? Try scrolling the photo so all you see is the topmost part--just to where the frilly ruffly bits start. Then tell yourself that the black neckline under bright illumination is actually a gold colour under low illumination. Also, think about the lighter areas as actually being white, again under low illumination. (Likewise, if all you see is a gold-and-white dress, imagine that you're looking at the dress under much brighter illumination.) You're using "top-down" perception, driven by your beliefs about the stimulus, not just about the "bottom-up" incoming signals from your eyes.

Still not working for you? Wait until it's dark outside, or go into a completely dark room. Download an image of the dress from the original Tumblr page. Pull it up in a graphics viewer. (I like FastStone.) View it full screen, with nothing else around it, just a black background. Now decrease the brightness of your computer screen, and turn off the lights in your room. At the lowest screen brightness, try again to convince yourself that you're looking at a white-and-gold dress. There's no guarantee this will work. I mean, maybe you're brain damaged, I dunno. It's late and I'm tired, and I want students from my classes to stop sending me emails about this dress. It's pretty ugly. (Sorry.)

There ya go, mystery solved. It's all about your unconscious assumptions. As to why some people can more easily see it as gold and white, whereas others cannot, well, that's an interesting question!
(By the way, the dress is actually blue and black, according to Amazon. That's the objective reality. So stop arguing.)

Why aren't you studying?

The Reading Week Reading List

Happy Reading Week! I don't have as much time as I'd like to read. Sure, there's all the stuff that I have to read (new textbooks, scientific papers and whatnot). There's also what I feel obligated to read: the newspaper (I've read the newspaper every single day since I was in grade 1. Not that I was reading about global socioeconomic events back then; just the comics. I was amazed to find comics in the newspaper. Now I do read about global socioeconomic events...and then read the comics to cheer up again.). Then there are the magazines I subscribe to. I have to read those; I'm paying for them. (For the record, these include Wired and Consumer Reports.)

And then there are the books I read for fun. Listening to audiobooks counts as "reading," right? I'm going to say it does. I "read" a lot during my commute: it makes the time pass by faster, and it's better than eyeball reading a book while driving. A lot of books I read are nonfiction, science-based and usually about psychology, but I enjoy other topics, too. Like economics. (What? What's wrong with economics? It can be fun. Well, maybe not macroeconomics.) I do read fiction, too, but not as much as I'd like. Anyway, here's a sample of some books I've read, or am reading.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline This one's right up my alley: A book for middle-aged white guys, full of references to D&D, classic video games, and '80s music. Apparently, other people enjoy it, too. The story itself is structured like a video game, making you wonder whether the protagonist will complete the final level and defeat the boss. Not only was the book filled with all kinds of coolness, Cline also wrote a working Atari 2600 game, The Stacks. This game was part of an online scavenger hunt; the winner was given a DMC DeLorean by Cline. This book is going to be made into a movie. Read the book, cuz we all know the movie is never as good. Atari 2600, eh? That brings me to...

Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System by Nick Montfort & Ian Bogost Ah, more geekery. This book is about the inner workings of the Atari VCS, a.k.a. the 2600, the game console of my youth. It starts by explaining the technical workings of the system, like the horizontal blank and the vertical blank. And then it gets really interesting. No, really. It explains the development of six classic cartridges including Combat, Adventure, Pac-Man, and Pitfall! Even if you're not into the technical side of games, if you've ever played these games online, it's interesting to read about the stories behind the games. For example, I learned that Yar's Revenge started off as a port of the arcade game Star Castle. Neato!

Tasty: The Art and Science of What We Eat by John McQuaid Although it sounds like this is a "food" book (another one of my favourite topics!), it's really about the sense of taste. You gotta love a book that starts off with a discussion of Edwin Boring's mistaken tongue map. Other chapters cover the quest to grow the world's hottest chili pepper: for the record (literally), the Carolina Reaper, and the effects of the miracle fruit. Although it seems like it's all about taste (per se), there's also quite a bit about flavour. What's the diff? You could just look it up on Wikipedia. Or you could take my PSYCO 367: Perception class. I'll be sure to add some interesting things from this book.

What are you reading?

Why aren't you studying?

The Awards: 12

It was my pleasure to be invited again to the ISSS (Interdepartmental Science Students' Society) Instructor Appreciation Night. Apparently, some nice person (or persons) nominated me, and ISSS decided to give me an award ("for excellence in teaching" and "In Recognition of Your Dedication to Undergraduate Teaching"). Thanks! On the left is a pic of the nice plaque I received. Congrats as well to the other 17 instructors and 13 teaching assistants who received awards. Special shout-outs to my psych department colleagues who also picked up awards, Dr Anthony Singhal and Dr Erik Faucher.

There was a nice reception in the PCL Lounge, followed by an even nicer dinner at the Faculty Club. I don't go to the Faculty Club often; I don't have a membership. (Contrary to what many people think, no one automatically gets a free membership. Membership costs $25 a month. And I'm a cheapskate.)
This dinner was the culmination of a big week for ISSS: Science Week! If you're not aware of all the services that ISSS provides to Science students, you should check out these services.

Somehow, I managed to get a seat at a table with a couple of Associate Deans. You've got to be careful in a situation like that. (It's not good to spill a drink on an Associate Dean.) There was some interesting information going around the table. Apparently there are some rumours going around about me, but I couldn't get any details. Does anyone know anything? Is there something in my teeth? Should I be looking for a new job? Are my ties not cool enough?

Why aren't you studying?

The Conference

On Friday, I was away at a conference. I don't go to conferences often. (OK, so I was away 11 months ago. But I called that a "business trip.") It wasn't a scientific conference--that is, it was not organized by a professional organization like the Association for Psychological Science or the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. (I'd really love to go to one of those conferences--but I've have to cancel a lot of classes. APS is in May, and HFES is in October. It was bad enough that I had to cancel my intro class on Friday. I feel so guilty...)

At a typical scientific conference, a lot of researchers present their findings as talks or posters. Plus, there are opportunities to meet with the researchers and with students. Usually, a notable person delivers a keynote speech. This conference was organized by a publisher (like my business trip last year), but it was filled with scientists (psychologists, mathematicians, and physicists) and people from the publishing company, Pearson. The conference was billed as a "Digital Innovation Summit."

Instead of presenting research papers, people discussed their teaching, with an emphasis on how digital technology is changing pedagogy. There were opportunities to talk with others over breakfast and lunch (I bumped into a colleague who, like me, is teaching in Science 100 this year), so that was nice. And the keynote was given by Professor Eric Mazur, who is on the forefront of innovations in teaching. (He is "author or co-author of 288 scientific publications, 36 patents, and several books" and has contributed to a number of startup companies, like Learning Catalytics.) He was amazing to hear, and I think his talk on changing how we assess students made all of us think about teaching in a different way.

There wasn't a lot of time for fun, but I did get tickets for Flyover Canada with my hotel room, so I checked that out. (Verdict: Fun; much like Soarin' Over California. The older ladies sitting next to me sure had a hoot.) Beyond that, though, there wasn't time for anything else. I had to zip back home for one daughter's soccer game (they won, and are now in city finals, yay!), and another daughter's birthday party. Still, if you're jealous, it rained. A lot. Like a 90-mm-severe-rainfall-warning lot.

Here's a photo out the window of the plane, and a crummy shot of Canada Place, where the conference was held:

Part of the conference was slanted toward the publisher showing us that they are serious about changing education for the better using digital tools, which is good to know. Will going to this conference influence me, making me more likely to pick their textbooks in the future? I try to be objective in selecting a textbook.

Full disclosure: although the conference--including breakfast and lunch--was free, I had to pay for my own airfare, hotel, and transportation. (I didn't have the breakfast.)

Why aren't you studying?

What I Did on my Winter Vacation (2014 edition)

In Fall term, the stars aligned and my finals were scheduled to be finished relatively early. As soon as my wife heard that, she said, "Hawaii." So my family went to Hawaii over the holidays. (Yup, again. Hey, it's been three whole years.)

There's a joke that every tour guide in Hawaii tells. If it's your first time to the islands, you're a malihini. "That means you're a newcomer," the tour guide says. If it's your second time to the islands, you're a kama'aina. "That means you're rich," the tour guide jokes. Har har. (Kama'aina actually means "child of the land," but it usually refers to someone who is a resident of Hawaii.) The joke isn't too far off the truth: it's expensive--expensive to go, expensive to stay, expensive to do anything. And the Canadian dollar being worth USD$0.85 also hurt. Ouch.

Here's the lagoon at the Hilton Hawaiian Village:

I love the flavours of Hawaii. Macadamia nuts. Having Kona coffee and a papaya for breakfast. And check out the cool flavours of yogurt (haupia is like coconut pudding):

I'm also a sucker for cereal--there are all kinds of wacky ones. Cap'n Crunch Oops! All Berries! Peanut Butter Toast Crunch! Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme!

 My wife liked going to the beach, but the kids preferred the pool (no sand between your toes; no salty seawater getting in your mouth--yuck!). Me? I'm more of an iced-coffee-and-a-book-in-the-shade kind of person. What I like best, though, are the cultural experiences--the opportunity to learn about different cultures and showing that to my kids. In Hawaii, there's no better place for that than the Polynesian Cultural Center (having great food and enjoying an amazing show are great, too!):

Finally, there was Pearl Harbor, a poignant reminder of the human consequences of war:

How did you spend your winter vacation?

Why aren't you studying?

The eUSRIs

USRIs, of course, stands for Universal Student Ratings of Instruction. You know, the paperwork you fill out near the end of term, evaluating and giving feedback to the instructors of all of your courses. Until this year, that is. Hence, the “e” in eUSRIs.

After a limited trial of online evaluations, General Faculties Council approved the move to online-only evaluations on September 22, 2014. (That’s why my course outlines for this term still had a date set aside for evaluations to be completed in class. I created those syllabi in August. Warm, sweet August.) The trials took place in Spring, Summer, and Fall terms in 2013. The results are available at the VPIT's website.

This abrupt change caught a lot of people off guard--we were officially told only on October 7. Instructors received a curt email with a link to a very limited FAQ and an attached technical document that was of no use or information to anyone who does not have backend administrative access to IT systems. (No, most instructors do not get backdoor access to Bear Tracks, PeopleSoft, or any other system. I wouldn’t want it anyway--it smells like more work.)
So what’s driving this move to online evaluations? Although you won’t see it anywhere, the idea is to reduce costs. No more printing forms, scanning them, and (in some cases of very small classes) transcribing students’ written responses. The rumour mill has whispered that it’s actually costing more to do online evals this term; the software platform (CoursEval) isn’t free, and people have to be trained how to use and modify it.

The biggest downside to eUSRIs? Lower response rates. Online evaluations are notorious for having significantly lower uptake than paper forms that are distributed during class time. Which brings me to my point.

Please please please please please please please please please complete your eUSRIs! Please? The results of USRIs are important for things like promotion (of tenure-stream faculty) and rehiring (of contract academic staff). Written comments are tremendously useful feedback; I look forward to them every time. Plus, sometimes they’re, you know, interesting.

So won’t you take a few minutes to evaluate your instructors this term--please?
Here’s the link: eUSRIs. Thank you in advance.

Why aren’t you studying?

The Awards: 11

The Department of Psychology released the Teaching Honour Roll for Spring and Summer 2014 courses, and I am pleased to say that I earned Honour Roll with Distinction for both of my courses >blush<.

On the one hand, "intersession" courses are easier because they're smaller, and full of awfully motivated students. I mean, you've gotta be motivated if you're taking classes when the weather's great and you could be working to earn money for next year's tuition.

But on the other hand, they're also tougher to teach, because they're compressed into 6 weeks. That's why I decided not to teach my behaviour modification course--the self-management project I designed requires students to collect data for a total of 4 weeks, in addition to other assignments. Reducing the length of the observation period would decrease the likelihood of success of any behaviour change procedure.

Anyhow, on to the comments. As usual, sarcasm filters are off!

From PSYCO 258:

Dr Kloepelm is great =)

(Aw, thanks. You're great, too, pandasnuggles69!

I didn't have any problem with the course except I wished Dr. Loepelmann could speak a little louder.

(YOU WANT LOUDER? HOW'S THIS? MAYBE YOU COULD TELL ME TO SPEAK LOUDER *BEFORE* THE CLASS IS OVER!)

This course was a pleasant surprise with how interesting and informative it is. The Instructor (Karsten L.) made this class! I have heard that it is a very difficult and dry class from others. He provided a lot of time to speak to him after class which was very appreciated!

Dr. Loepelmann was awesome as usual - passionate, clear, helpful and engaging. I really appreciated all of the engage activities throughout lecture.

Karsten explained everything very well, but his jokes made me angry. Best dressed prof for sure though.

Karsten is a great prof and obviously is very passionate about psychology. I would take another class with him. The only complaint I have about this course was the textbook. It is very dry and boring. Karsten is also very well dressed and I appreciate his shirt and tie combinations.

(Hey, thanks, I really appreciate the--wait, what? You like my clothes? I'll be sure to tell my wife, who picks them out for me. My jokes made you angry? Which one? "A Jewish person, a Polish person, and a visible minority person walk into a bar..."? I must be telling it wrong.)


From PSYCO 367:

You're a gem

(Thanks?)

This is my 4th class w/ Lopelmann, by far my favourite prof so far in university!

(Take one more class, and maybe you'll be able to spell my name right!)

Teacher was enthusiastic but sometimes spoke to us like 5-year olds.

(Aww, what's wrong pumpkin? You wanna have a lollipop? Oops, sorry. Though I was speaking to my 5-year-old.)

- I like the practical case studies you presented (eg: colours of hockey jerseys or detergent colour)
- update on the McCollough Effect: 2 weeks and going strong

(Call me when you get to 2 years. Maybe we'll write a paper.)

You were a blast when I had you in into psych in like 2003. You are still a blast. Thanks for being so enthusiastic about teaching. It was swell.

(2003? Whoa, that takes me back.Thanks for sticking with me for, er, 11 years. Are you going to graduate soon?)

Give the man a raise

(Hey, I do this for the love of it--not the money.)

Did a great job explaining concepts, but sometimes it is hard to hear him or he talks too fast.

(SoagainyouneedtotellmethatbeforetheclassisoverandI'lltrymybesttoslowdownifIcanandspeakupsothateveryonecanhearme.)

I understand why you have fill in the blanks, but please explain + show them at the same time during lecture. Some people learn best with audio AND visual cues at the same time. I know you want people to pay attention but please consider this.

(Thanks for the feedback.)

Thank you for taking your time to make the course interesting. Your efforts definitely made an impact on my motivation to learn and pay attention in this class (=

(My pleasure.)

Great prof

(kthxbai)

Why aren't you studying?

The Weekend

The weekend is never long enough, right? On the Thanksgiving long weekend, my wife had a medical conference in Jasper, so we all stayed at the Jasper Park Lodge. That doesn’t happen often, so we enjoy that opportunity whenever it arises. But it still wasn’t long enough. Here’s a look at my past weekend:

Friday

I come home from work, and pick up my kids from daycare. Everyone’s excited: my wife and I are going out for dinner, just the two of us. My daughters are happy to have their Oma and Opa come and babysit them.

My wife and I go out to dinner at least once a year, for our anniversary. And, usually, that’s it. Yup. Once a year. So for us to do this is definitely out of the ordinary. But I recently had my contract extended for another year, and that’s as good a reason as any to go out to dinner. Destination: Violino.

We’re at the restaurant 15 minutes late, but it’s still pretty early and it’s not busy yet. Our food comes fast--really fast: 10 minutes. (Waiter: “It’s pasta. How long does that take?”) We linger over dinner, but it’s still early. If we return home now, the kids will wail at us for coming home too soon. What to do? Eh, let’s hit the mall. (Listen, if you have kids, this is considered an indulgence, okay?)

After the kids are in bed, my wife and I watch part of a movie. We’re tired, and it’s getting late, so we only manage to watch the middle third of Her. Yeah, it takes us several days to watch a movie. It feels like such an indulgence. See above, re: kids.

Saturday

I get to sleep in, which means about 9:30 (yay!). By that time, the noise level in the house is enough to wake up any sleepyheads. I make a cup of go-juice, which helps my eyelids to open, and I grab the newspaper. A funny thing happens, which is: nothing. Nobody’s hollering for me because somebody hit somebody else, or they need this lid off of that jar, or...anything. So I keep my head down and keep reading the newspaper until I’m finished it.

That never happens. I mean, never. I’ve never read the whole weekend newspaper in one day before--much less in one morning. Typically, it’s still sitting there unread on Monday morning. Feeling somewhat guilty, I check and answer my email for the first of a half-dozen or so times, and then start work on my consulting project.

I’ve got a hard deadline coming up, and I’ve barely started my work. It’s consulting; nothing to do with the university at all. So that means I can’t use my university computer, electricity, or Internet--I’ve got to do it all at home. But home is where the family is, and that means interruptions and noise. Taking advantage of the blanket of calm that has mysteriously descended, I dive into my work until it’s time to come up for lunch.

Naturally, everyone in the family wants something different for lunch. Sigh. The kitchen is now open!

After lunch, my eldest daughter has a friend’s birthday party to go to. The first part of the party is at the friend’s house, but then it moves to a local hall for a Halloween party. In the middle, I have to chauffeur my daughter to her soccer game on the opposite side of town. So I drive her back and forth across the city, grabbing dinner at a drive-thru on the way. (At least the Whiplash won their game, and my daughter scored a goal. Yeah!)

After the hall party ends, it’s time for bed. My wife and I watch the last third of Her. (It’s original, but in the end, I felt like I had just spent the whole time looking at Joaquin Phoenix’s face while listening to a radio play.)

Sunday

Another day, another birthday party in the afternoon, so I should have some more quiet time then. My wife’s at brunch with a friend when I get a call--would my girls like to come over for a playdate? Um, sure. I walk them over to the playdate, and then it’s back to work for me. In the silent, empty house I finish my consulting project. And then I start updating my lecture notes. There’s an exam coming up, which means I’ve got to post the next set of notes online. First, however, I’ve got to make a couple of dozen changes--updating, correcting, clarifying things. Oops, nope--first, it’s another round of email.

I’m halfway done, when the peace and quiet disappears. My wife’s back, and so are the kids, who now want lunch. Then it’s off to the birthday party for my youngest daughter. I do a bit of work here and there, in between doing loads of laundry. I’m feeling pretty good about everything I’ve gotten done and decide to reward myself. Kaffeezeit! As I’m making my coffee, I look out the window and am momentarily puzzled by the fact that I can’t see past the end of the yard--there’s all this white stuff in the air. No, it’s actually falling. Snow!? Sigh. That must mean Halloween is coming soon. Looks like everyone will have to bundle up again this year.

It’s time to start making dinner, then lunches for school, bath time for my daughters (made much more enjoyable by the presence of foam soap), then it’s time for bed. But...but...there was so much more I wanted to do!

No, the weekend is never long enough. Need more evidence? I’m writing this on Monday morning.

Why aren’t you studying?

The Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo (2014 edition)

Last weekend was the annual Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo. Some people were disappointed with the celebrity "guests". Surely there was someone there who would make you geek out, no? Alice Cooper? Summer Glau? J. August Richards? (Ok, I admit. There weren't the same calibre of guests as the Calgary Expo gets--no offence to anyone. Why can't we get the reunion of the entire cast of Aliens? *sigh* OK, I really need to shut up--after all, I did have the opportunity to go to the pinnacle of nerd-dom. Yeah, I could have gone to the San Diego Comic-Con this year and turned it down. *sigh*)

Still, it was fun to go to panels and meet some cool celebs. Like Kunal Nayyar and Simon Helberg. I had to get their autographs. No, really: I had to. My wife insisted. And seeing as how she was looking after the kids all weekend while her husband got to go to the Comic Expo, how could I say no? You can really judge the status of a celebrity by how much they charge you for their autograph. Each of these gentlemen charged $70. I guess when you're on the top TV show, you can do that. (I've heard that Sigourney Weaver was asking $175 in Calgary. Yikes!)

I also got a couple of Tiny Titans comics, that were autographed by Art Baltazar. No, he wasn't at the con; I scored these out of a bin--only $5 each.

I also got an autograph from Dirk Benedict. It's hard to convey how much impact the original Battlestar Galactica had on me. As a kid, it was like having Star Wars every week on TV. We all ran around and recess pew-pew-pewing at each other, and everyone wanted to be Starbuck. He had a great panel discussion with Dwight Schultz. Those two guys could have gone on talking about The A-Team, Hollywood, and their lives for the rest of the day. I wish they could have.

Man, the Expo has grown. I've been going to it for a few years, and every time it's just bigger and bigger. More exhibitors, more fans, more costumes, more everything. (No, I don't dress up. What would I go as? No, really, I need suggestions. One person has suggested that I look Bruce Boxleitner-ish. Should I get a Tron costume? A skin-tight, body-hugging suit that lights up? See, this is why I don't dress up.)

Ooh, here's a cool thing (above). It's now one of my most prized nerd possessions. Anyone know what it is? (And do you get why there's a Superman logo on the box?) Hint: here's some info that comes with it:

Warning: Ring does not allow wearer to fly, does not protect wearer from adverse environmental conditions, provides no tracking or navigational aids, does not come with communication or recording capabilities
However, owning one does contribute to an enhanced sense of well-being, because, well, you have this awesome ring

Like last year, as a VIP I was lucky enough to get a bag of Expo merchandise, including an Edmonton Expo shoulder-strap bag, water-bottle thingy (never used), T-shirt (size medium, never worn), Telus World of Science drink holder, comic book, and blue dice (?). If you would like to win this package, leave a comment below describing your particular brand of nerdliness. I will pick one commenter on Thursday, October 9 at noon, and after successfully answering a skill-testing question, that person will be the proud owner of this cool swag.)

Why aren't you studying?

The Research Project: Results

Last year, I worked on a research project in my PSYCO 104 classes. (I've referred to it as the "Secret Project", only because I didn't want to influence students too much.) One class was a control, the other was the experimental group. The latter group had to do a lot of extra work.

I made students go to a website (or two). Some websites had students do experiments online, like taking a left-brain/right-brain "test," or making judgments of stimuli that comprised a visual illusion. Next, students had to go online and discuss their findings with other members of their 5-person group. Finally, one person was chosen by the group to submit a summary of the discussion, which was marked. There were 10 of these assignments. These assignments were intended to foster greater engagement with the material: students didn't just go to class and read the textbook. Rather, they had to try and apply what they knew to these online examples, and compare and contrast their findings with that of other students.

The experimental class also used a different textbook that came with a rich set of online tools. The platform, from publisher McGraw-Hill, is called Connect. It included an adaptive testing tool called LearnSmart (which is also available as an app for iOS and Android). LearnSmart asks you questions about things you've read in the textbook, but it also asks you how confident you are before you answer. It's assessing your metacognition: your knowledge of how much you know. One of the things new learners have difficulty with is knowing that they don't know everything. That is, they are overconfident they know it all. LearnSmart was designed to give feedback on your actual learning--not just your perception of it. I chose these resources to make mobile learning easier. That is, you can pull out your phone and do a bunch of LearnSmart questions, which can help you identify the things that you need to work on understanding better.

At the end of the course, both the control and experimental classes were given questions about their experiences. The results are in--and they're posted on the APRIL website. You'll see that, on some questions, there were no differences between the classes. (For example, "Reviewed your notes prior to class" showed no difference--no surprise.) However, other questions related to engagement showed a statistically significant difference (e.g., "Discussed ideas based on your readings or classes with others outside of class (students, family members, co-workers, etc." increased in the experimental class).

I also looked to see if students in the experimental class fared better on exam questions based on my lecture notes. Nope, no difference. (There was a difference in exam means, but there was a confound: The control class used a different textbook than the experimental class. The experimental class's averages were higher, but many exam questions were drawn from the textbook, which was not as "high-level" as the book I used in the control class.)

It's important for me to send out a thank-you to all of the students in my classes who were involved in this project. It wouldn't have been possible without you! I'm still pondering the implications of the results. I think they may have led to one change already: the new textbook adopted by the Department of Psychology this year is published by McGraw-Hill, and includes Connect and LearnSmart. I found it to be very useful (and students have informally told me that they liked it, too.)

Why aren't you studying?

What I Did on my Summer Vacation (2014 edition)

It would be nice if I had some kind of theme to these “Summer Vacation” postings, wouldn’t it? Hmm, I’ve got it! This summer was The Summer of Soccer.

Both my girls played soccer this year, which meant that almost every evening from May to June was a mad rush to scarf down dinner and zip off to a game or practice.

It was worth it, though, to see my girls having fun on the pitch. (Full disclosure: Yeah, it's super fun for me too!) I’m especially proud of my elder daughter and her team, “Whiplash!” They won gold at the Slurpee Cup (U10 Girls Pool D), and went on to pick up a silver medal at the City Finals (U10 Girls Tier 5).

On a perfect evening at Commonwealth Stadium, the girls and us parents watched a couple of U-20 Women’s World Cup matches. My favourite was watching Germany beat the USA. (It was amazing to see Germany play and win the quarter final here, too! And then go on to win gold. But in Montréal, sigh.) I can’t wait to take my girls to the Women’s World Cup matches that are going to be played here next year.

But the highlight of the summer (of the year? of the past 24 years?) was watching the Men’s World Cup. I don’t watch much TV--except every 4 years. Then I go on a major soccer binge, with hope in my heart that Die Mannschaft will earn another star on their jerseys. Which, of course, they did. The day of the final, we were on a weekend beach vacation. But my eldest daughter and I went back to our hotel to watched the game. (I wonder if any other guests heard some insane cheering coming from one of the rooms during the game.)

(I feel a bit sad for Brazil. And Argentina. But not too sad, eh?)

So, yeah, I'm a big fan of Germany. But don't get me wrong: I'm Canadian, born and raised, and I do cheer for Canada first. (Do I cheer for German teams in hockey? Er, not so much. Let me put it this way: If Canada gets eliminated in a tournament, then I'll cheer on the German side. But hey, how often will that ever happen? *crickets chirping*)

Somewhere among all the soccer, I managed to win the Klawe prize (yay me!).

(Recipients of Faculty of Science teaching awards posing with the Dean of Science. 

Photo courtesy of the Faculty of Science.)

The family went to K-Days. Here, I’m about to enjoy a deep-fried Twinkie. (Hey, I only indulge like this once a year!) It was surprisingly good. I’m looking forward to having one again next year. Or maybe I’ll try the deep-fried Mars bar...

(I like this photo because it looks like there's an amusement park ride coming out of my head.

Which would be really cool.)

And we had the requisite beach vacations, at Aspen Beach on Gull Lake. We like it because it fulfills our three criteria: beach, playground, and ice cream. Check, check, check. Our usual destination has been Sylvan Lake, but sadly, the water level is so high there’s really no beach anymore. We did pass through, but we only stopped at the Big Moo for an ice cream.

After that, we visited Ellis Bird Farm, where we saw purple martins, mountain bluebirds, and baby ducks, and enjoyed a nice lunch at the teahouse when it started to rain.

(Guess which kind of bird this is. If you said baby duck, you're wrong.)

I bought a new car--my first in over 10 years--this summer: a hybrid. It was an expensive buy; good thing I still have a job after what happened last year. So far, I like it a lot. It has all-wheel drive, so I'm expecting to like it even more when the snow falls and I don't get stuck in the snow outside of my house again. And miss a midterm. That was embarrassing.

(Photo from Subaru.ca. No, I didn't get it in Plasma Green Pearl. My wife hated it.)

And, of course, I spent every spare moment in between working. On what? Doing data entry/data analysis from my student engagement and mobile learning project. Writing lectures and going to team meetings for Science 100. Reading textbooks and going to meetings for the intro psych textbook committee. And updating the rest of my other courses.

What about you? What did you do on your summer vacation?

Why aren’t you studying?