Reasonably Random Rants and Raves

Blog

  • A rave on the scholarship of learning

    We believe the time has come to move beyond the tired old “teaching versus research” debate and give the familiar and honorable term “scholarship” a broader, more capacious meaning, one that brings legitimacy to the full scope of academic work. Surely, scholarship means engaging in original research. But the work of the scholar also means stepping back from one’s investigation, looking for connections, building bridges between theory and practice, and communicating one’s knowledge effectively to students.
    —E. L. Boyer, 1990

    A classmate from graduate school was recently hired to teach at a small teaching-oriented institution in the Midwest. Like many newly-minted Ph.Ds, he is now finding that he’s being asked to think more about the metaphysics of teaching rather than worrying about how to teach people how to program. This person asked my opinions on the following “meta-questions” about teaching:

    1. How would you define excellence in teaching?
    2. How would you define the scholarship of teaching?
    3. How do these concepts tie together?

    They’re all very open-ended and difficult to answer. Note that the following responses are slanted towards my opinions on the subject and may differ from accepted norms. Standard disclaimers apply; your mileage may vary…

    These terms are rather well defined amongst professional educators (by which I mean people who get the “Ed.D” degree from a Department of Education who are experts in the theory of teaching). Look at some of the information that you can find on the website for the “Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching” (yes, the same Andrew Carnegie who founded what is now US Steel Corp. and was one of the principal benefactors of Carnegie-Mellon University, go lookup his bio on Wikipedia).

    The Carnegie Foundation defines “scholarship in teaching” in three parts:

    1. Scholarship of discovery: research and performance that adds to a knowledge base and the intellectual climate of an institution
    2. Scholarship of integration: drawing together and interpreting diverse kinds of knowledge
    3. Scholarship of application: applying knowledge to practical problems

    Working from those definitions, you can define excellence in teaching by measuring, preferably in a quantifiable manner, how well an individual working within a program or a program in an educational institution addresses each of these areas. This is the equivalent of business planning in industry; you must define a set of objectives that you put in place to address these concerns and a set of goals that you must achieve to meet those objectives. Then a set of quantifiable measures are put in place that define whether or not you achieved the goals you have set for yourself.

    In a perfect world, an institution’s policies, practices, and infrastructure are aligned with these goals. An institution has to evaluate anything it does against the measures it has put in place for itself and adjust, enhance, eliminate, and/or introduce polices, practices, and structures as required.

    These are interesting questions that deserve further thought and ruminations. Look for more posts from me on this subject in the near future.

    References:

  • It’s gumbo weather

    Fall is starting to arrive here in South Louisiana… the temperature is finally dropping into the 70’s during the day and everyone is breaking out the winter clothing. Hey, it’s South Louisiana – you have to be careful to avoid splashing hot oil on your legs when you’re wearing shorts while you’re frying your Thanksgiving turkey.

    People down here describe this weather as being “gumbo weather”. So, in that spirit, here’s my favorite gumbo recipe. It’s adapted from one that John Folse included in one of his cookbooks. It’s a bit complicated but mais, cher’, it’s good. If you can’t get good oysters, feel free to use shrimp.

    Duck and Sausage Gumbo

    Stock
4 (1 ½ pound) mallards or similar ducks
4 ½ qt. water
3 ribs celery, cut into chunks
1 carrot, cut into half
15 peppercorns
4 bay leaves
1 ¼ t. salt
1 t. dried thyme
¼ t. garlic powder
¼ t. red pepper flakes
Gumbo
¾ c. all-purpose flour
¾ c. vegetable oil
2 c. chopped onions
2 c. chopped celery
1 c. chopped green bell pepper
2 carrots, sliced
1 T. chopped garlic
1 lb. andouille or similar smoked sausage, cut into slices
2/3 c. oyster liquor
1/3 c. port
2 bay leaves
½ t. freshly ground black pepper
¼ t. cayenne pepper
2 doz. Oysters
½ c. chopped green onion tops
¼ c. chopped fresh parsley
steamed rice
File’ powder

    Stock

    Combine the ducks and all other ingredients in a stockpot. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3 to 4 hours or until the ducks are tender. Remove the ducks and chop, discarding the skin and bones. Strain the stock into a container discarding the solids. Chill until the fat has congealed on the stock. Remove the fat and reserve for other purposes (Potatoes fried in duck fat, while quite deadly from a coronary aspect, are quite tasty).

    Gumbo

    Make a roux with the flour and water in a large heavy pot. Add the vegetables and garlic. Cook until vegetables are tender. Add 3 quarts of the duck stock, reserved duck meat, the sausage, oyster liquor, port, bay leaves, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hour. Stir in the oysters, green onion tops, and parsley. Cook for 10 minutes longer. Remove and discard bay leaves. Ladle the gumbo over steamed rice to serve. Sprinkle with file’ powder if desired.

  • How to setup SSH to not ask for a password?

    I’ve had enough people ask me how to do this that I decided to post a summary here on my blog. 

    Terms:
Client: machine starting the SSH session
Server: machine running the SSH session

    On Client:
Use ssh-keygen to generate a new public/private keypair:
ssh-keygen -t dsa
Take the defaults (except for passphrase if you want to be picky)

    Now append the generated public key (id_dsa.pub) onto the authorized keys for server:
cat id_dsa.pub | ssh uname@server 'cat >>.ssh/authorized_keys2'

    Make certain that .ssh directory is configured with permission 0700 and contents are permission 0600.

  • Welcome to my web site!

    P2110055

    This collection of pages is a reflection of my personal interests and experimentation. I tend to use these things two ways: trying different funky HTML things and as sort of an extended “Bookmark” file. So, pardon the mess and feel free to use this page as jumping off point to lots of neat places

    .