Comments on: First year mathematics experience enhancement – a question for you!

By: Jonathan Shock

Jonathan Shock — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 10:18:00 +0000

I’ve come across them before and indeed they’re very interesting. This year we’re using a new online learning environment which I think will be very interesting to experiment with. In fact in terms of the translation, it seems that it won’t be a problem to get all official languages in South Africa. I think though that the videos are going to have the most effect.

By: Nitin

Nitin — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 03:29:42 +0000

You could get in touch with these guys at some point: http://www.siyavula.com
I’ve volunteered on checking their maths and physics high-school textbooks (in English) at some point, and they might be able to give you some ideas that might be interesting to you.
I think you probably need to do a survey about the demographics of the incoming class over the past few years, and decide which translations you should focus on (I think you will have to sacrifice a few languages at the start). Start a few and do it well.
The video idea is great! I think all classes should definitely adopt this video intro/testimonial aspect, and having a mix of students, tutors and faculty/teaching staff saying positive things about a course would go some way to giving some overall insight.
All the best with your experiments, and this year’s teaching, Jon!

By: Jonathan Shock

Jonathan Shock — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 08:48:19 +0000

Hi Caro, great comments. Indeed I contacted the African Languages and literature department but was worried because I don’t have funding for this and don’t want to exploit anyone. They put me in contact (via a couple of hops) with http://www.mep.uct.ac.za/ the multilingual education program, who do have resources for exactly this sort of project. The meeting with them was really positive! It seems that they go to a number of translation agencies, most of which seem to have former UCT graduates. I spoke with them and we discussed some very exciting possibilities regarding creating glossaries of technical terminology specific to this course which could be done collaboratively between MEP and the students taking the course to help bolster understanding. This is all very experimental from my point of view, but it seems that we need to try different avenues for increasing inclusiveness.

The mentors come from a pretty big range of different linguistic backgrounds, and so they will definitely be in the call for video making, but I will make it wider, to all 700 or so students who started on last year’s MAM1000 course. In my experience, I have had trouble in getting many people to take part in these sorts of things, which is why I am really interested in more ideas from students and those from other fields. The translation competitions I ran on here didn’t get that many entries at all, and so it is clear that I’m doing something wrong with my approach.

Thanks again for the support

By: Caro Le Tang

Caro Le Tang — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 08:38:51 +0000

Hi, Dr Shock! Are the mentors that you mention perhaps not in the best position to help with the videos? Or are they monolingual English speakers? I imagine they have already been through the course so they might have some good ideas about how to make the handbook more accessible through the video format if they’re bilingual. That said, I think the competition is a wonderful idea!

In terms of translation, I think it’s going to be quite time consuming and I think you’ve already highlighted a very important consideration about first language speakers not always being able to read their mother tongue. I would suggest you contact the African Languages and Literature department to offer the translation work to their students (perhaps tutors or postgrads) so that you have at least one faithful translation per language and then perhaps rope those students in to help judge the competition?

I wish more lecturers were as committed to their teaching as you are. I look forward to reading more about this endeavour

By: Jonathan Shock

Jonathan Shock — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 08:33:24 +0000

No worries, if you misunderstood it’s because I didn’t explain it well enough

By: Nicola Vermeulen

Nicola Vermeulen — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 08:32:32 +0000

Oh I see, I’m sorry that I misunderstood the first time. I still think it is a wonderful idea though.

By: Jonathan Shock

Jonathan Shock — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 07:37:10 +0000

Hi Nicola, I will be asking those who have been through it before to make the videos. I think that it’s important to come from people who have seen what MAM1000 is like and in particular I don’t want to be asking people to do things like this who have just arrived at university for the first time and already are rather overwhelmed with the experience. If it were about the MAM1000 material itself then I think that it would be a useful exercise for current students, but because it’s more about the general nature of the course, it’s not something that I think people need to ‘learn’, but more take on board.

Does that make sense?

All the best,

Jonathan

By: Jonathan Shock

Jonathan Shock — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 07:32:08 +0000

Many thanks for the words of support Abigail!

By: Nicola Vermeulen

Nicola Vermeulen — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 14:48:03 +0000

This sounds like a great idea. Who are the people you would like to make these videos? People who have taken and passed MAM1000W in the past, or students who are taking the course? Because I think it could assist learning if the people who are taking the course make these videos. They say one of the best ways to learn is to teach someone else. Of course thats just my opinion. I am very interested to see where this goes!

By: Abigail Mallows

Abigail Mallows — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 14:46:50 +0000

I think your ideas are going to be extremely helpful to the new first years. I wish I had had a resource book which was as dedicated to helping me understand the course, the course load and the methods I could use to get through it and succeed as this one will be.
I think the videos are a great idea!