4 ms·

Steve Wozniak to teach at University of Technology, Sydney

75 points by femto 12y ago

GuiA 12y ago
> The stint will include two to three annual visits – Wozniak is due for his second trip to UTS in December – and interactive telepresence sessions with research groups and student projects. > Students will also be permitted to interact with Wozniak on a one-to-one basis via telepresence, dependent on his availability upon request. I had a class in grad school that was taught by 3-4 different professors (it was HPC, and each of them was highly knowledgeable in a particular subfield). One of them did the whole thing by telepresence, and it was far from a great experience. I don't think there's a single factor I can neatly describe - it's just that tele-presence is everything BUT presence. You don't get the micro interactions with the students, you don't get the professor pacing back and forth and scribbling things on the board on the fly, you just lack all those subtle things that you expect from a live lecture. It's closer to watching a pre-recorded video than to the real thing. Maybe this was particularly apparent because this was a graduate level class, with only a dozen or so students, but still.
- 13 12y ago
  Yes, I had the same experience with "remote" teaching. Seen from both sides it's very taxing for everybody involved. It's extremely hard for the teacher because they have no interaction with their students, and the students have an experience which can best be described as yelling into cotton wool. If there's an option for some interaction between parties it's often very difficult to get a technical question across a lossy and high latency feed. In one case it turned out the "remote" teacher was in the next room across from where the class was sitting, which made the experience all the more insulting.
Jedd 12y ago
A story about Woz teaching at UTS in Sydney - and the focus of the picture is Jobs (with a little bit of out-of-focus Woz on the side). A small insight into what ARN thinks of its readers.
knope 12y ago
lol
knope 12y ago
lol... http://www.phonearena.com/news/Steve-Wozniak-has-a-few-things-to-say-about-Jobs-biopic-posts-his-review-of-the-movie_id46486 http://www.phonearena.com/news/Steve-Wozniak-has-a-few-thing...
knope 12y ago
http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-jerk-2011-10?op=1 http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-jerk-2011-10?op=1 steve jobs was an asshole.\
Mandatum 12y ago
lol
acd 12y ago
Hope he would give an online course in electronics. Steve Wozniak is as much hero as Steve Jobs are for creating apple and Wozniak is much nicer as a person. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were both hackers and phone phreakers. Plus Jobs smoked a whole lot of mind altering drugs in India something that I think gave his mind a different perspective.
netcan 12y ago
I think teaching is one of those things where you need to either follow a formula that works or become obsessed and blaze your own path. Figuring out how to teach using tools that aren't really understood yet is blazing your own path. Making teaching non-reliant on a teacher's presence, improved by the possibilities of digital communication, interaction and teaching tools is trying to write a revolution of sorts. You can't dabble in revolution.
Communitivity 12y ago
I am so jealous. Being his student would be an amazing learning experience. I suspect this will be a major trend - and that we'll see more and more remote teaching resources. A possible opportunity for YC16.
mathattack 12y ago
While I believe that class with Woz is awesome, I wonder if the video-lectures is the worst of both worlds. It lacks the interactive in-person presence of real classes (teachers making eye contact with all the students to understand who is following) and lacks the trial and error ("Pick the best of the 10 times you video it") of a MOOC. That said, the 1 on 1 telepresence sessions with Woz would make the class worth it no matter what other challenges are included.
astrodust 12y ago
I can't be the only one disappointed that the legacy ".oz" domain for Australia is defunct because he could get "w.oz" otherwise.

75 points by femto 12y ago

GuiA 12y ago

> The stint will include two to three annual visits – Wozniak is due for his second trip to UTS in December – and interactive telepresence sessions with research groups and student projects. > Students will also be permitted to interact with Wozniak on a one-to-one basis via telepresence, dependent on his availability upon request. I had a class in grad school that was taught by 3-4 different professors (it was HPC, and each of them was highly knowledgeable in a particular subfield). One of them did the whole thing by telepresence, and it was far from a great experience. I don't think there's a single factor I can neatly describe - it's just that tele-presence is everything BUT presence. You don't get the micro interactions with the students, you don't get the professor pacing back and forth and scribbling things on the board on the fly, you just lack all those subtle things that you expect from a live lecture. It's closer to watching a pre-recorded video than to the real thing. Maybe this was particularly apparent because this was a graduate level class, with only a dozen or so students, but still.

13 12y ago
Yes, I had the same experience with "remote" teaching. Seen from both sides it's very taxing for everybody involved. It's extremely hard for the teacher because they have no interaction with their students, and the students have an experience which can best be described as yelling into cotton wool. If there's an option for some interaction between parties it's often very difficult to get a technical question across a lossy and high latency feed. In one case it turned out the "remote" teacher was in the next room across from where the class was sitting, which made the experience all the more insulting.

Jedd 12y ago

A story about Woz teaching at UTS in Sydney - and the focus of the picture is Jobs (with a little bit of out-of-focus Woz on the side). A small insight into what ARN thinks of its readers.

knope 12y ago

lol

knope 12y ago

lol... http://www.phonearena.com/news/Steve-Wozniak-has-a-few-things-to-say-about-Jobs-biopic-posts-his-review-of-the-movie_id46486 http://www.phonearena.com/news/Steve-Wozniak-has-a-few-thing...

knope 12y ago

http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-jerk-2011-10?op=1 http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-jerk-2011-10?op=1 steve jobs was an asshole.\

Mandatum 12y ago

lol

acd 12y ago

Hope he would give an online course in electronics. Steve Wozniak is as much hero as Steve Jobs are for creating apple and Wozniak is much nicer as a person. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were both hackers and phone phreakers. Plus Jobs smoked a whole lot of mind altering drugs in India something that I think gave his mind a different perspective.

netcan 12y ago

I think teaching is one of those things where you need to either follow a formula that works or become obsessed and blaze your own path. Figuring out how to teach using tools that aren't really understood yet is blazing your own path. Making teaching non-reliant on a teacher's presence, improved by the possibilities of digital communication, interaction and teaching tools is trying to write a revolution of sorts. You can't dabble in revolution.

Communitivity 12y ago

I am so jealous. Being his student would be an amazing learning experience. I suspect this will be a major trend - and that we'll see more and more remote teaching resources. A possible opportunity for YC16.

mathattack 12y ago

While I believe that class with Woz is awesome, I wonder if the video-lectures is the worst of both worlds. It lacks the interactive in-person presence of real classes (teachers making eye contact with all the students to understand who is following) and lacks the trial and error ("Pick the best of the 10 times you video it") of a MOOC. That said, the 1 on 1 telepresence sessions with Woz would make the class worth it no matter what other challenges are included.

astrodust 12y ago

I can't be the only one disappointed that the legacy ".oz" domain for Australia is defunct because he could get "w.oz" otherwise.