Done pondering. Here's my musings.

Seems like everyone has finished their final assignment of writing about what they've learnt throughout the course. Well, I'm not graded, so I have the excuse not to do it, well at least in time. Then again, I was overwhelmed with so much work.

Anyway, after much pondering and thinking, I've finally decided what I wanted to write.

I looked back at my first entry to remind myself why I agreed to be one of the tutors for this course. The main reason, was for the experience.

What I didn't specify, was of course, what kind of experience. Contrary to popular belief, it's not for teaching experience. Being a tutor for a group of highly motivated and purposeful university students isn't exactly helpful to deal with teenagers. Rather, I did it for the CS3216 experience.

It's hard to locate or describe exactly what is the "CS3216 experience". Cause every year, it's different. And in each year, it is different for everyone. And for each person, I'm quite sure what you think it is at the end of the course is quite different from what you thought it would be before the start of the course.

When I joined CS3216 in 2008, I planned for it to be a course that pushed me into web programming. How naive. I remained firmly stuck as a designer for all my projects, so much so that I swore off Illustrator until I needed to use it to illustrate diagrams for teaching notes in July'08. As you can see, my web programming skills is still worse than a noob.

Although my CS3216 experience in 2008 is not what I planned for it to be, it was definitely better. I met great people who became great friends, who never fail to wow me constantly. I may have been stuck as a designer, but I learnt how to communicate design issues, or get others to communicate design demands. I didn't progress to a noob for web programming, but I did level up for my design and team management aspect.

Fast forward to end of 2009, I agreed to be the tutor of the course not knowing what I could contribute. Design? Got Su Yuen already. Web Programming? Siao ah. Frankly, the only reason why I said 'yes' was to go through the CS3216 experience for one last time. I just wanted to leech the energy and passion of the people that is put together for the course, to have the experience once more. Can't do anything, go there and leech, wah get paid some more. Good deal sia!

But well, life is not always as we planned. I was arrowed to do stuff also. The presentation thing? It wasn't planned at all, until I opened my big mouth to critique some ideas Prof Ben have about the application seminar. I was also arrowed to nag, and I've never nag so much over emails in my life. If I turn into an auntie, I have only Prof Ben to thank *rolls eyes*. And the leeching? It's way more than I expected. The dynamism, the passion, the synergy, the bonds, the *insert management jargon*, it brims over like a pot of boiled-over rice during Pongal. And the sincerity and genuity in the projects - it's infectious.

To say that I've taught something is a gross over-statement. What I did was just to share. And what I've shared, is nothing compared to what others in the course have shared, for I've learnt a lot more from them than what I have for them to learn. I wanted an experience to just have some fun and be energise. In the end, I got much more than that.

In every final entry, everyone had a list of things they've learnt from the course. I too, have a list of skills that I learnt. But I like to be different (Prof Ben can attest to that. Ask him about my final project report and statement to join CS3216). Base on my experience, I would say that, ultimately, among the long list of what's written, only one or two of them will remain in your heart, which you'll carry it for life and share with your kids. Why so? Cause they are the life lessons that you hold true to.

After all my lor-lee-lor-sor beating-around-the -bush, here's the life lesson I've hold true to, which my experiences in CS3216 made me realise and validated it. The life lesson, is like what Steve Jobs had said in his speech at Standford: "you can't connect the dots when you look forward, only when you look back"

There are times I got what I wanted. There are times I have to try it for a few times. There are times where I tried all I could, but just couldn't get what I wanted. But anyhow, I made the best out of it and when I look back, do I realise how the dots connected. In many ways, it made me glad that I didn't get what I wanted, for what I got was much better.

There are many instances in my life that happened (some are here, but for full details, ask me online lah!). In fact, some of the dots took 5 years to connect. In the case of CS3216, I didn't plan to be stuck as a designer for all my projects. But I did, and it honed my communication skills related to design. Believe it or not, but that experience had a spill-over effect on how I prepare my lessons. I didn't plan to be a tutor about presentation issues. But the arrow came and it made me consolidate my thoughts about presentations in preparation for the workshop. Believe it or not, but it has a spill-over effect on how I should communicate with my students, be it in the classroom or outside of it.

I'm not saying that we should be fatalistic. I do subscribe to the "Brickwalls are there to show how much you want it" school of thought. But sometimes, the brickwalls are the linings of a well that we've fallen into. It's not favourable, it's not what we plan for it to be, but it's how we make use of whatever that's in it, and our time in it, to emerge out of it stronger and better, and thankful for that episode in the well.

It's quite surreal, kinda like "How I Met your Mother", when you see the dots connect (Gosh do I sound old). Like the theme of the sitcom, it's like every step you take aligns you slowly to the right place at the right time.

It is quite heartwarming to read the entries about how CS3216 changed your life (credits to the evil prof). But what I hope is that taking CS3216 is not just a results of other dots connecting to it. Rather, CS3216 is a dot in your life that goes on to connect to other dots, that make other dots in your life purposeful.

It's not enough to allow the course to change your life, or meet people that change your life. Rather, it should be the one, along with the other dots, that cause you to change others'.

a short presentation on presentation

some tips to take note of for printing posters

1) If your poster size is beyond A3 (which is the case for most poster presentation's posters......)
Please go to the shop and print it at least on the day before the presentation day. This is because beyond A3, laser printing cannot be done for most printing jobs that doesn't ask for much quantity. Most of the time, they have to use another process that is longer and more expensive.

So if you think that you can print it in the morning to present in the afternoon, I have to warn you that it will be more expensive and extremely risky

2) Which surface to use?
Gloss? Matte? Well, as Prof Ben would say, "I'm outsourcing this". I mean "IT DEPENDS!"

Glossy surfaces tend to make colours a little more contrasting, but the reflection will be a distraction and can make texts hard to read. So it depends on what you want lah.

3) Settings
Please make sure that you set your colour mode to CMYK for whatever programmes you're using! If not, your print out would usually be slightly darker and duller than what you see on screen.

That's all folks! All the best!

A quick note about presentation tomorrow

I haven't been blogging much, as I've been surrounding my mind with matters on sexuality and religion in Thailand, children geographies, water quality management, and new tourism issues to meet my deadlines.

But here's just a quick note about presentation tomorrow: Do remember that the screen resolution of the projector is 800 x 600.

What's so significant about this?

I observed and realise that many are working on a much higher resolution. It doesn't matter what resolution you work on when it comes to coding, but when it comes to design, many of you tend to view the page at full screen resolution.

Thus, things may look good, the UI elements may have enough breathing space, the text are in one-line etc... all these little little factors that make your UI look good, usuable and obvious might be partially due to your higher screen resolution.

But have you considered how it will look in smaller screen resolutions, like the projector?

With a smaller resolution, will your UI be just as intuitive with more scrolling involved, text broken up into multiple lines, breathing space compressed etc.?

I'm not saying that you should be designing for a 800 X 600 resolution, as I think that is very much old school. But what I'm saying is that you should visualise this for tomorrow's presentation, should you decide to make a live demo a part of your presentation.

If it looks bad, there's always screenshots, right?

For a quick visualisation of how your app might look like in a smaller resolution, do try http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/. Do note that it is more ideal to use the 95% range (800 X 430) as a guide instead of 800X 600, as usually, one would lose about 100+ pixel space to address bar tool bar, taskbar/dock etc.

feedback on feedback

as promised, I would respond to the mid-term survey. Since Prof Ben is responsible, and responded to the feedback about it, the larger meta-thingy for the whole course, I wouldn't be dealing with that. Rather, I'll just respond to the feedback about me lah, since that is the only thing he didn't publish.

The feedback were randomised in order. What I've done is to group that into themes to respond to them together. I did not leave out any comments (I think.)

Presentation workshop

1. I really will remember him for his presentations talk. It changed the way I always looked at presentations and I will try to be a good presenter. :)


2. awesome presentation on presentation. (Your ppt skills are awesome)


3. Conducted a very gd class on Myths on presentation.


4. Very good tutor. His workshops were all easy to understand and grasp. The workshop about presentation was truly great indeed, I have learnt many things from taht workshop. His comments on students' posts, blogs as well as project ideas were all nice as well. Great tutor in conclusion.


5. He's a big, friendly guy. He speaks a lot of sense and has much to learn from. He is very willing to argue and discuss and change his viewpoint against solid arguments. His presentation on presentations was enlightening (MESA has probably been drilled in me now. Every time I think of a presentation, I think of this and it all becomes clear why it was what it was, and how it could be improved). I certainly see a teacher in him. All the best!


6. Great lesson on presentation and simplicity


7. really interesting tutor, he often spurs discussion and is a rather fun person... he gives rather interesting and constructive comments as well... his lessons are well planed and interesting~


8. AWESOME SLIDES LA. And greater presenter for the Presentation workshop too!

Wow. I'm taken aback. Thank you very much for your encouragement and affirmation. To be frank, from the time I ended the workshop, till about the time I saw the feedback, I thought that the workshop was a failure.

Why do I think so?

First, other than a a few, there is generally very little response on the blog posts about what was shared in the workshop. Next, there was a lack of response during and right after the workshop. So I thought, damn, I must have shared something so "duh" that no one is talking about it.

That was why i was taken aback by the comments, in a good way. Thank you very much!

General Teaching

1. Knowledgeable and contribute good ideas. Objective.


2. - very helpful and friendly - but i haven't really had a good chat with him yet


3. Pleasant, enthusiastic and fun! Good presentation!


4. Out-going tutor with a lot of experience


5. It is great that he is keen to share his expertise in photoshop.


6. Gave me some very good advise and some constructive feedback. Good teaching!


7. can see the halo of wisdom glowing around him.


8. Has a lot to share, dedicated and does more than what is required of him such as organizing extra sessions.


9. I feel that Yanjie is very helpful and approachable. While I find that his lessons are clear, it might be good if he could also provide a review of what he teaches during the workshop. This is as the presentation slides used, while great for teaching during lessons, are very lacking in detail and do not make a good reference.
   

Thanks for the feedback. Again, I didn't think what I shared was useful, nor did I think that I was outgoing. I hardly mingled around!

Specifically, I would like to address to 2 of the comments
comment 9) I have to agree with that, because the slides weren't meant to be a reference in the first place. The slides were meant to be a guide, not a document. It is a crutch, not to replace your leg for walking.

Frankly, I used to scream murder when lecturers don't upload their slides. That all changed when I took a introductory module. What the lecturers do is to upload a one page document with key words. That's all. Before we could scream murder, they said it in the first lecture "It's to sharpen your note taking skills".

Now it's no joke not to have notes in a arts lecture. There is so much content, so much jargon, so many authors with years and page number for citation purposes. Wah lao, want me to type until I die ah?

But after my 2nd lecture, I found enlightenment when it comes to notes and understood where the lecturers were coming from. I found myself listening more, understanding more, synthesising more, and writing less. My notes became shorter, but I find that most of the words are my own, not the lecturer's. I find myself being able to explain the concepts better.

So try it. You'll find that you're find zen in note taking. :)

As for providing a review, I thought about it while preparing for the workshop. In the end, I decided that it's pointless.

Why is that so? At the end of the day, for the photoshop workshop, the web has much better resources in the form of a video. As for the presentation workshop, I find that as long as the MESA is gotten across, that's all that matter - what's before that was just to set the stage for MESA to come.

comment 7) Serious boh? Macham Beyoncé's song sia. :P

Debates

1. A very interesting addition to the teaching staff, providing view points from an arts student. Makes for very good debates!


2. (from previous comment)"…He is very willing to argue and discuss and change his viewpoint against solid arguments…."


3. (from previous comment)"...His comments on students' posts, blogs as well as project ideas were all nice as well. Great tutor in conclusion."


4. Good tutor. But have very strong views and like to debate too much.

So should I debate I don't debate? :P

In response to comment 4, you have to understand why I debate. I don't debate to defend pride or ego. I don't debate to save face. I debate to distill the best arguments. That was how many of what I thought to be strong arguments got overturned - through the distillation process of debate. That is the understanding I have with people I argue with - we argue to strengthen our arguments, or throw it out if it didn't stand the test of debates. We argue to change our point of view. It only becomes more stubborn because it stood the tests of many arguments. So unless an equally strong argument, or stronger argument, is thrown against it, it wouldn't move for a very good reason. But it doesn't mean it wouldn't move. :)

Some other comments that I cannot group

• Good designer and good teacher material. Would be good if he can publish more design insights and resources. Hope that he can share some viewpoints from the viewpoint of the education system. Might help some people to think of ideas or projects to help improve education.

Thanks for the kind words.
a) Publish design insights: got what! Hardly anyone read this after I wrote it leh.
b) Education
I'm not comfortable with writing about education, cause my perspective is very limited to my experience. So unless you understand the context I'm coming from, it's best that we don't argue about education.

Besides, I doubt that any improvement to education is scalable. So I think it is quite pointless to debate on it at a system-wide level. :P


• I may be biased, but I chat more with Yanjie than with all the other tutors combined. I just don't see him much on campus. I think Yanjie is a good teacher. He cares for his students - even if that means 40 of us, who aren't exactly high school kids - and he cares about what we learn. One day, there will be a batch of NUS students who will take up Geography and think back to their high school teacher, and thank him for making a difference in their lives. (Or whatever subject la - you know what I'm saying no?)

I get what you're saying, and very much appreciative of your words. Frankly, I don't care what my kids do, as long as they do what they love. It doesn't matter if it is Geography - I would have failed if my kids do Geography just because of what I did, but not because of what they love. And quite frankly, I don't believe I have that kind of effect. :P


• Shld be quite fun.

Sounds quite wrong? :P

Again, I'm really appreciative of the kind words and comments. I myself am the one who have to be thankful to have the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people.

All the best for your final projects!

quick note

I'm currently very much zoned-out, as I have slept at a rate of 2-3 hours per day for the past week as I was rushing the programme booklet for my hall production Thus I may not make sense, but this is the only time I can blog for this week.

1) Consultation: I had the good fortune to kay-poh a few groups' consultation with Prof Ben. Note that I didn't cherry-pick sessions to kaypoh base on personal preference or if I know the group or not. Neither does kaypohing your session means that I like your group or that your group's project has huge problems that require additional tutor to comment.

It's just that it fits into my schedule lah. And I'm a kaypoh.

2) UI - a persistent issue I have from the groups i have met so far is UI. I will write a blog that details it further, but just a quick point - if you don't know what is the purpose of that page, how do you expect the users to know then? And when the purpose of the page is unclear, how do you add elements to interact and get things done at all?

And be more forgiving with yourself with regards to UI design. It takes time to know it better. :)

2) Mid-term Feedback: I had a quick glance over it and is taken aback, in a good way. Thank you very much for your feedback. As Prof Ben have addressed most of the comments, other than the one about the tutors, I'll respond to the comments specific to me in another blog post.

because common sense is not common

In some of our discussions/debates/arguments/bitching sessions about education, Prof Ben/overlord/slave-driver supremo/Dr. Obvious would ask this question "how do we teach common sense?"

My reply will always be "Whose common sense?"

I'm sure most of you would have heard him say something like this to death - Common sense is not common. That is why it needs to be taught.

Truthfully, that quote came from the field of anthropology. It is rather, a way of saying that different cultures have different psyche and mindsets. What is common sense to them is not common sense to us or other cultures. Chewy's talk has shown: What's common sense to the Indian family featured is not common sense to us. What's common sense to me about the origin of the burning smell in the air these days is not common sense to other people (it's not from Indonesia by the way).

That is why my reply to him is always as such - whose common sense? After all, when faced with criticisms about his theory of relativity not makeing sense to common sense, Einstein would respond by saying if we all lived in space and travelled at the speed of light for the first 10 years of our lives, the theory of relativity will make perfect sense, and what we understand to be common sense now will be senseless.

Thus, the question should not be "how do we teach common sense", but rather, "how do we teach what is common sense to me/us?" And given that it is not as common as what we think, should we drop the term "common" then?

I'm not suggesting that there are no set of "sense" (which usually consist of norms, practices, values and mindsets) that is common in a given society. But this is where we have to make the distinction: is it common sense only to me, or to the society as well?

If it is not as common, why do we still attach "common" to "sense" then? Is it because it legitimise our "sense" over others to over-ride theirs? If our "sense" should reign over others', why can't we do it base on its own merit, and need to claim its apparent common-ness to convince others?

That is why I cringe sometimes, when people say "it's common sense what!". I think "it is better sense what!" would be better.

PS: I'm rambling. Don't take it too seriously, but my rough point is there lah. It's partly about UI design too!