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I've noticed the best "online" teachers excel in predicting what questions students will have and addressing them preemptively. I think the person behind 3Brown

I've noticed the best "online" teachers excel in predicting what questions students will have and addressing them preemptively. I think the person behind 3Brown1Blue on YouTube does a fantastic job doing this. Throughout their explanations, they interject with things such as "Now, you might ask why I did it this way... well here is that reasoning" and then "but you also may have observed this and here's why you did". In some ways, I feel like the ability to anticipate student's questions and hangups and respond to them is a far better predictor of their efficacy as an instructor than how well they understand the material or the quality of the lecturing.

thewarrior 8y ago
3Blue1Brown is the rare exception to most online video stuff I’ve seen. It’s quite good. But even then it doesn’t mean I’m actually doing the math like if a real person were on the other side expecting an answer.
sametmax 8y ago
It's not anticipation. It's experience, either from questions you received during lectures you gave, questions you asked yourself in lectures you attented to, or just road blocks you encountered while learning it on your own. Every time I get a question about something in a training I give, I make sure people will never have to ask me again (unless it's part of the flow of the lecture). Every time I asked myself something, or blocked on something, I make a mental note of it, whatever the subject is. Sometimes, years later, I just happen to teach that subject, and it comes back to me. I don't know why good teachers do that. Personnally, I started to do it out of anger. I felt like it was so unfair somebody failed to understand something because of a missing piece of information. I found it infuriating, it's a pain that has no reason to exist. We have been teaching things for centuries, why do we keep not communicating knowledge correctly ? Eventually I made peace with human imperfection, as I battled too much with my own, but the habit remains. Maybe obsession is what makes anybody great. It's not sane, but it's a hell of a motivation.
anonymous5133 8y ago
There is software being developed that does the same thing though. I've seen a technology being demoed where the student is basically able to ask questions to the instructor (which is just an algorithm). As more and more students use the software...a database of questions gets created which is then used to modify the course and to also create new answers to the question. Overtime, the course gets better and better through a sort of continuous improvement system.

thewarrior 8y ago

3Blue1Brown is the rare exception to most online video stuff I’ve seen. It’s quite good. But even then it doesn’t mean I’m actually doing the math like if a real person were on the other side expecting an answer.

sametmax 8y ago

It's not anticipation. It's experience, either from questions you received during lectures you gave, questions you asked yourself in lectures you attented to, or just road blocks you encountered while learning it on your own. Every time I get a question about something in a training I give, I make sure people will never have to ask me again (unless it's part of the flow of the lecture). Every time I asked myself something, or blocked on something, I make a mental note of it, whatever the subject is. Sometimes, years later, I just happen to teach that subject, and it comes back to me. I don't know why good teachers do that. Personnally, I started to do it out of anger. I felt like it was so unfair somebody failed to understand something because of a missing piece of information. I found it infuriating, it's a pain that has no reason to exist. We have been teaching things for centuries, why do we keep not communicating knowledge correctly ? Eventually I made peace with human imperfection, as I battled too much with my own, but the habit remains. Maybe obsession is what makes anybody great. It's not sane, but it's a hell of a motivation.

anonymous5133 8y ago

There is software being developed that does the same thing though. I've seen a technology being demoed where the student is basically able to ask questions to the instructor (which is just an algorithm). As more and more students use the software...a database of questions gets created which is then used to modify the course and to also create new answers to the question. Overtime, the course gets better and better through a sort of continuous improvement system.