Why they don’t ask questions

April 30, 2007 By 2 Comments

I was one of the many participants at last Friday’s 7th Annual Symposium on Communication and Communication-Intensive Instruction. It was my first time to participate, so I can’t say anything about how it was compared to last year’s, but I think it was a great success and I had a very good time learning and thinking about various aspects of communication and communication instruction.

In the table discussion, I was assigned to a table facilitated by Phyllis Zadra, Assosiate Dean of Zicklin School, as well as John K. Gillespie, President of Gillespie Global Group, who is involved in cultural consulting and training of cooporate staff from Japan working in the US, as well as those from the US working in Japan. I don’t know if his presence and his interest had an effect on the direction of our discussion, but many of us were interested in considering cultural factors in communication and teaching of communication, and curiously, the discussion went into the direction of something that I wrote in one of my past postings at cac.ophony.org, which was about Asian people’s general tendencies to be less active in their class participation. I was glad that I was able to offer them input based on the real-life experience as someone who comes from that part of the world. I also learned that some other table also talked about this too; I must say I was pleasantly surprised that more instructors and employers are thoughtful and considerate of these challenges that people from other cultures might face going into international education and business.

A participant in my table told us another story that exemplifies the same issue. She asked one of the employers what makes the difference between the interns that eventually got a job offer from them and those that didn’t. The employer said that those who asked questions about their assignment got the job offer, and those who didn’t ask questions didn’t. This was stunning to me (it wasn’t even about participating in discussion!) and makes me sad for people who didn’t get the job. In my culture, if you are an intern you will try to understand the assignment as much as possible by only listening to the supervisor’s directions and you will try NOT to bother the supervisor unless you really have to. Asking questions about the assignment might come across as not paying attention or not having the ability to comprehend very well, so generally it should be avoided as much as you can. Of course you should ask questions if there are things that the supervisors didn’t explain, etc. but that would be after you made sure that you weren’t told about this; only then you are ‘entitled’ to ask the question. While I understand that in this culture asking questions might show that you are interested in and enthusiastic about the task at hand, if those unsuccessful interns didn’t ask questions because they didn’t feel ‘entitled’ to and they were in fact trying their best to behave themselves, that makes me sad.

It is a huge task to facilitate the understanding of these issues for everyone (students, instructors and business leaders), but I will continue thinking about how to achieve this and what I can do, as someone familiar with both cultures, to help achieve this.

Filed Under: Baruch College, ESL, Interpersonal Communication, Oral Communication, Symposium

The Question of Critical Thinking

April 27, 2007 By 2 Comments

In my current work as a Fellow at Baruch, I’ve been encouraging students to formulate questions as they begin to work on research papers. The idea, in part, is that it’s a whole lot easier digging through the literature on a given subject when you know what you’re looking for. The process of coming up with appropriate questions, however, has been more difficult for the students than I thought it would be.

While pondering why this might be so, I stumbled on an article that may or may not be relevant (to the question of why questioning well is hard). In Critical Thinking Development: A Stage Theory, Linda Elder and Richard Paul detail, among other things, some of the traits and implications for instruction of what they call “The Practicing Thinker.” In order for students to become practicing thinkers, they argue, teachers must help them understand that “thinking is inevitably driven by the questions, that we seek answers to questions for some purpose, that to answer questions, we need information, that to use information we must interpret it (i.e., by making inferences), and that our inferences, in turn, are based on assumptions, and have implications, all of which involves ideas or concepts within some point of view.”

The rub is that “The Practicing Thinker” is stage four in what Elder and Paul put forth as a six-stage process through which “every person who develops as a critical thinker passes.” The stages range from “The Unreflective Thinker” (stage one) to “The Master Thinker” (stage six). If there is any connection between this theory and my question, then the students who are having difficulty formulating good questions might be “Unreflective,” “Challenged” (stage two), or “Beginning” (stage three) thinkers, and my job is to move them in the direction of becoming “Practicing” thinkers.

Part of Elder and Paul’s project is to highlight what all of this means for the educational process. I have to admit that I hadn’t thought about teaching in these terms, though I have sometimes wondered whether the seeming lack of critical thinking abilities in some of my students is connected to stages of cognitive development. Any cognitive psychologists or education specialists out there care to weigh in on this?

Filed Under: Baruch College, Higher Education, Pedagogy, Process, Writing Instruction

Is PowerPoint Evil?

April 23, 2007 By 2 Comments

Just recently, each of us at the Communication Institute has been granted a copy of Edward Tufte’s slim and visually appealing manifesto against PowerPoint, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within. [PowerPoint from here on out is referred to as PP.] I am about three-quarters of the way through this nifty subway read, and so far find it thought-provoking as anything. Although one of his main complaints is that PP dumbs down detailed and dense arguments, he himself does a nice job of making a pretty strong argument in thirty-one 8 1/2 X 11 pages. I am in the process of compiling my list of Agreements/Disagreements, and I promise not to publish them later here in bullet format.

It is particularly interesting to think about his argument in light of the work that those of us who support communication intensive Business Policy Courses do. We work with students who are required to incorporate a PP presentation into their final analysis of a company’s strategies, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and position in the industry. I expect to write more on how I think Tufte’s problems with the so-called ‘cognitive style’ of PP relate to our work with students. But in the meantime, check out these nifty links:

PowerPoint Remix

Learning to Love PowerPoint

PowerPoint Is Evil

Filed Under: Communication Intensive Courses (CICs), Oral Communication, Pedagogy, Powerpoint and Presentations

Web 2.0 technologies overview

April 19, 2007 By 7 Comments

I know that I’d be preaching to the converted if I tried to persuade you that most emerging web 2.0 technologies could be used to engage students in the learning process and spark their creativity. But I still think that this neat resource that I have come across might be useful, if not to you, then to some of your professor colleagues that might not know the full potential of web 2.0

The 2007 Horizon Report, a product of collaboration between the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative gives an overview of various technologies that can be used by students and teachers. What’s good about this report, which has been published for the fourth time in 2007 is that it gives a description of each new (or relatively new) technology, then a specific section on its “Relevance for teaching, learning and creative expression” and a section with links to examples of the ways this technologies is being used in education. The report covers user-created content, social networking, mobile phones, virtual worlds, new scholarship and educational gaming.

The 2007 Horizon report can be accessed at www.nmc.org/horizon I think this is a very well-organized resource that I wouldn’t mind sharing even with a conservative professor.

Filed Under: Pedagogy, Technology, Web 2.0

Listening as Communication, or Why I’d Rather Be Knitting

April 19, 2007 By 5 Comments

Mikhail’s post about the ability of a blog to provide static and interactive content in the same post, complete with a playable Space Invaders, reminded me of a photo I saw recently on a favorite site.

Space Invaders Socks

That’s as good an introduction as I’m going to get to discuss knitting in academic settings. Some may find it rude when someone is knitting while listening to a keynote speaker at a conference, or to a lecture in a large class. Most knitters (and crocheters, too) find that working on a simple pattern helps them focus on what they’re listening to, rather than distracting them. I find it particularly useful to knit or crochet when I’m listening to something that doesn’t have a visual element, because my eyes don’t wander in search of something to focus on, which would in turn distract me from listening. Others find doodling helpful to occupy themselves visually while they focus on listening. We acknowledge the benefit of white noise to drown out ambient noise when we need to focus. If we occupy our ears with the sound of a fan, for instance, when we need to concentrate visually, why not focus our eyes and hands on something when we need to concentrate aurally? These posts on knitting and public politics and knitting in class provide interesting insights to the issue, as well as readers’ reactions.

I suppose the other message of my post is to encourage speakers to incorporate visuals into their presentations such that the audience becomes engaged both aurally and visually. I have just received a copy of Edward R. Tufte’s The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within and am encouraged that PowerPoint might, in skilled hands, be reclaimed as a tool for visually engaging listeners.

Filed Under: Asides, Audience, Oral Communication, Powerpoint and Presentations

Syncretism and Web 2.0

April 18, 2007 By 4 Comments

Next academic year, we hope to help students produce more broadly through the Web, particularly via videos and audio podcasts. The Web is replete with “one-world” examples of cultural syncretism, and the word “mashup” is itself a product of Web 2.0. Here’s an example I stumbled upon while surfing last night. This video features the Dvinks Clan, a parkour/free running group based, I think, in Latvia. Parkour was invented in the French suburbs, and inspired by the moves in 1970s Kung Fu flicks. This video echoes French New Wave cinema, draws upon the California skater videos of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and uses French hip-hop as its soundtrack.


This video, beyond showing off the amazing ability of practitioners of parkour, also reflects the multiple literacies of its producers and their familiarity with a variety of cultural forms. It was produced with practically no budget. We all are concerned about the writing and speaking ability of our students, and we should be. But we also, I think, should realize that students have other languages through which they can express themselves and generate knowledge, and most of them don’t think that they’re allowed to draw upon these forms at college. I think they should be, as long as it’s in the right pedagogical setting. We can help make this happen. I’d love to see Baruch students use the aural and the visual to explore themselves and each other, and to present their explorations to a broader audience. I have no doubt we’d all be impressed with the product. That, to me, is what teaching through Web 2.0 is all about, and it’s the perfect use of these new technologies at the most culturally diverse college in the country.

Filed Under: Literacy, Technology, Web 2.0

Behold the Power of the Blog

April 17, 2007 By Leave a Comment

From the Look-What-We-Can-Do department at the cac.ophony.org Home Office comes this. Look what we can do now! I kind of feel like making astute connections between this little diversion and the tremendous pedagogical potential of blogs as a means of delivering all sorts of content static and interactive, but nah. I’ll play Space Invaders.

Many thanks to Jim at bavatuesdays for the find (visit the bavarcade).

Filed Under: Blogs and Blogging, Technology, Web 2.0

Conservatism of Style

April 17, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I have been thinking along the following lines in the run-up to the New Rules Symposium:

It can be difficult to keep up with the evolving etiquette of smiley faces, exclamation points, or appropriate 21st-century saluations and signoffs — something might not have been acceptable a year ago but is commonplace today. I would propose however, that there are two rules that always remain relevant, rules that will point any writer in the right direction whether in 1807 or 2007. Those are: clarity and correct perception of context. Is my meaning transparent? Is what I am writing likely to distract or offend the reader?

If those are the questions we ask each time we hit “send” then we will tend to phrase our writing conservatively, which is a good thing. No boss who receives your memo is going to care if you’re the very last person to employ emoticons, but he sure might if you’ve chosen to be part of the emoticon avant garde. This of course does not mean conservative thinking. The idea is only to decrease the chance that your style distracts from the thought you wish to convey.

Filed Under: Language, Non-Standard English, Symposium

How to explain RSS the Oprah Way

April 17, 2007 By Leave a Comment

One thing about the web is that you often find yourself somehow pointed toward a particularly interesting or useful article on a blog you’d never otherwise read. An example: someone pointed me to a Really Simple Explanation (RSE) of RSS feeds and how they work. It’s on a blog called “Back in Skinny Jeans,” and is entitled “How to explain RSS the Oprah Way.” “The Oprah way” is apparently cute, simple, and to the point.

Why, you ask, do I need RSS feeds? Well, they’re useful in all kinds of ways, for students doing research, employees keeping up with issues, classes keeping their collective eye on something in the news. They can be delivered to your web browser, to a feed reader, or to the sidebar of your course blog.

Now you may not like Oprah, but chances are you know someone who could use the simple explanation of RSS feeds, and why to use them, and how to use them.

That said, this article might never have come across my radar. It’s from a blog about celebrities and makeup and not really my scene. I was aghast when I saw another recent article, “What? Prince William and Kate Middleton broke up?!?” (I only care ’cause they went to my Alma Mater, honest.) And effegies of Richard Gere are being burned in India?!? Oh dear.

Anyway, I am spending too much time on my work, clearly, and not enough on media-watching.

But maybe the best media-watching is done effortlessly, via RSS, and is stored securely somehow until you go to access it.

So next time you’re trying to explain that to someone blissfully not geeky, try sharing this link.

Filed Under: Blogs and Blogging, RSS, Syndicated Content, Technology, Web 2.0

Communicating with Congress

April 16, 2007 By 1 Comment

I read this morning that Atty. General Gonzales prepapred in mock questioning sessions from Monday to Saturday for his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday this week. Call me crazy, but you don’t need to spend over a hundred hours preparing just to tell the truth or remind people of earlier truths you’ve told. Poor guy — he’s going to have to respond to a interrogation as intense and long as Justices Roberts and Alito did, except without the communicative skill or clear conscience that served those two so well in their performances.

Filed Under: Politics
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