NTLF Vol. 13 No. 2 2004 - Editor's Note

Volume 13 Number 2

Editor's Note

I'm a talker. There's never been any doubt about that. Whether it has been a good thing or not has often been in doubt. Listeners have to do less backing and filling than I do, less apologizing, and they may learn more in an average day. On the other hand, while we learn a lot from observation and listening, we also learn things from speaking our thoughts out loud that I don't think we can learn any other way. Mano Singham's cover story on a successful experiment in having students identify themselves as "listeners" or "talkers" and then try for a balance in their class participation is one of the best, most square on approaches I've ever read to dealing with this reality of the discussion classroom we often, mistakenly, treat as a problem.

Because of my big mouth, it's hard to say whether the balance between talking and listening or the "content dilemma" looms larger in any teaching I do. One feeds the other: fellows like me want to tell it all. Everyone has content problems at one time or other. Ed Nuhfer's DEVELOPER'S DIARY deals with these problems by offering one of the best applications of his "fractal" philosophy we've published. The fight Ed and I got into over the piece led to my trying out his approach on a course I'm developing, and I must say when I read his feedback, I had a lot of backing and filling to do.

That we learn from experience is a truism impressed by every flip of the calendar. And what we learn in one area usually informs what we know in another. Libby Jones has learned a great deal about teaching from her life as a writer. Her ten points feel like more than ten; each reaches so broadly into the teaching life. What Libby Jones learned, she learned from noticing and reflecting, and since we've written a fair amount about reflecting, it's only appropriate that we single out "noticing," that we almost literally stop and smell the lilac with Melissa Ballard's short piece on the topic.

Not everything faculty notice is pleasant. At times, and always unhappily, faculty must be policemen. When "something stinks" about a student paper, it's frequently plagiarism these days. The Internet makes wrongdoing in the intellectual realm easier than it's ever been. Librarian Connie Ury, who's written on detecting plagiarism before in these pages, offers further advice on stopping and detecting what many students profess not to see as wrong. With semester-end pressures building, teachable moments undoubtedly approach. Ury's piece offers tools for teaching and catching plagiarists.

Linc. Fisch's AD REM . . . (like Libby Jones's piece) offers some more positive thoughts on ending a course, constructing a positive last class session and generally shaping an upbeat ending. (I like to think it's because they both live in Kentucky, my home state, but that's just my big mouth not knowing when to rest.)

"Rest" (to grab another ready transition) has not played a big part in this issue. You'll notice it's the biggest ever. It includes a BOOK REVIEW section that spills over into the "sales wrap" that surrounds the issue proper. I hope to do this twice a year. The reviews are by reader volunteers and, thus, reflect the FORUM idea of peers talking to peers. The FORUM has long tried to give subscribers as much as possible for your money. Usually, each issue has supplemental materials posted on our web site — www.ntlf.com. (With this issue we post some humor. Look for Eula Ewing Monroe and Robert Panchyshyn's "Research? In the Ivory Tower?" among the "curiosities" section of Special Features. Nobody sees the value of our time and our work the way we do!)

"Rest?" There just is none for the wicked. My big mouth again.

-- James Rhem

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