Excellent! I always regretted that I found out about St. John's too late -- I already had my degrees and was teaching full time and had a family. But I always regretted that I had missed it since I had the feeling that it would have been a perfect fit -- and this was decades before Zoom on online courses. Life has taken me other directions and I have no regrets about those but I loved reading about what you are doing and only wish that my kids or not my grandkids could have learned deeply with you.
I think about this a lot because we already have the foundation. Using AI for us allows us to learn more, produce more, and create more. But for newer generations, they don't have the foundational skills.
Wonderful! Congratulations! Community College prof. here ... I am currently putting together an application for the St. John's Certificate in Liberal Arts Ed, so it is good to hear about your experiences as a grad student there. I've been doing my best to integrate the pedagogy into my classroom in the last few years, with some small-scale success. I am hoping to develop our Honors program along these lines as well. You are 100% correct about how the readings are the work - nothing, or very little, else is required. This has completely changed my prep for classes - instead of coming up with, or modifying, a host of different quizzes, assignments, etc., I now just make sure that I have re-read the material and that I am ready to engage fully and authentically with the students. To some this might sound like I am phoning it in or something, but any resources preserved by not busily getting all the bells and whistles in order are tapped into during the class discussion itself. With a 5-5 load, I am still prone to getting pretty tired now and again from teaching - but it's a different kind of tired ... and very much worth it! Anyway, congratulations again and perhaps I will soon be joining you as a St. John's alum! (A "Johnnie", right?)
I tried this kind of class last fall for an Honors Early American lit class, and it was fairly successful: no-tech in the classroom, just a discussion class where students read books, talked about them, and wrote reflection essays. There were no ebooks allowed because no tablets, phones, or computers were allowed in this class.
But this fall, my uni insists on e-book options for First Day Access to textbooks. Students could still choose to buy hard copies but! Our honors classes have many bright dual-enrolled high school students. Per another policy, dual-enrolled students don’t buy their books, and now the bookstore won’t rent them hard copy texts because they have e-book options (cheaper for the bookstore, I assume?). And there are no exceptions for any class.
So the class design of last fall was axed because, per the policies, now students will bring their “books” to class on laptops or phones and also bring with them outside distractions from these devices.
This is just another example of what feels like at every turn there’s another uni policy to undermine deep reading, thinking, and discussion.
Can't you photocopy the selections you're focusing on each class? I agree - it's much, much better with hard copies that are annotated. Laptops are such a double edged sword - access to so much material if used well, but they create a barrier and no one wants to police what students are doing, which, unfortunately is often not what keeps them engaged. Tech giveth and tech taketh away.
Excellent! I always regretted that I found out about St. John's too late -- I already had my degrees and was teaching full time and had a family. But I always regretted that I had missed it since I had the feeling that it would have been a perfect fit -- and this was decades before Zoom on online courses. Life has taken me other directions and I have no regrets about those but I loved reading about what you are doing and only wish that my kids or not my grandkids could have learned deeply with you.
Thanks! Never too late - they are accepting applications for the remote "low residency" option for this fall!
Congrats on finishing!
I think about this a lot because we already have the foundation. Using AI for us allows us to learn more, produce more, and create more. But for newer generations, they don't have the foundational skills.
Congratulations! The program and your experience sound amazing.
Wonderful! Congratulations! Community College prof. here ... I am currently putting together an application for the St. John's Certificate in Liberal Arts Ed, so it is good to hear about your experiences as a grad student there. I've been doing my best to integrate the pedagogy into my classroom in the last few years, with some small-scale success. I am hoping to develop our Honors program along these lines as well. You are 100% correct about how the readings are the work - nothing, or very little, else is required. This has completely changed my prep for classes - instead of coming up with, or modifying, a host of different quizzes, assignments, etc., I now just make sure that I have re-read the material and that I am ready to engage fully and authentically with the students. To some this might sound like I am phoning it in or something, but any resources preserved by not busily getting all the bells and whistles in order are tapped into during the class discussion itself. With a 5-5 load, I am still prone to getting pretty tired now and again from teaching - but it's a different kind of tired ... and very much worth it! Anyway, congratulations again and perhaps I will soon be joining you as a St. John's alum! (A "Johnnie", right?)
Yes - I will officially be a "Johnnie" on Saturday.
I tried this kind of class last fall for an Honors Early American lit class, and it was fairly successful: no-tech in the classroom, just a discussion class where students read books, talked about them, and wrote reflection essays. There were no ebooks allowed because no tablets, phones, or computers were allowed in this class.
But this fall, my uni insists on e-book options for First Day Access to textbooks. Students could still choose to buy hard copies but! Our honors classes have many bright dual-enrolled high school students. Per another policy, dual-enrolled students don’t buy their books, and now the bookstore won’t rent them hard copy texts because they have e-book options (cheaper for the bookstore, I assume?). And there are no exceptions for any class.
So the class design of last fall was axed because, per the policies, now students will bring their “books” to class on laptops or phones and also bring with them outside distractions from these devices.
This is just another example of what feels like at every turn there’s another uni policy to undermine deep reading, thinking, and discussion.
Suggestions?
Can't you photocopy the selections you're focusing on each class? I agree - it's much, much better with hard copies that are annotated. Laptops are such a double edged sword - access to so much material if used well, but they create a barrier and no one wants to police what students are doing, which, unfortunately is often not what keeps them engaged. Tech giveth and tech taketh away.
I thought of that but that’s a massive amount of copying. Maybe for something special, but frustrating when there’s the book. Right there.
Thanks for your essays, and your response!
Huge achievement, Stephen. Congratulations.
What a great course that sounds. I'm more than a little envious!
And a really timely reminder that humans are motivated to learn by other humans, not by machines.