This handout is also available in PDF.
Welcome to the Spring 2013 session of Grinnell College's CSC 295.02,
a special topics course entitled Thinking Beyond Grinnell - Learning
from Alumni. In this course, we will meet (often virtually) with
alumni with careers related to computer science who will talk about their
life and career paths, and will provide advice for students on things to
learn and things to do.
You can read the offical blurb for more details.
The focus of the class is the visits by alumni. While some of these
visits will involve alumni coming directly to campus, the majority of
the visits will be virtual
Participants in the course (students, faculty, alumni, other visitors) are
expected to use the Color Q personality assessment to identify some
of your important characteristics and how they may be channeled into a
rewarding life and career.
The Web site for the course is
http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~rebelsky/Courses/CSC295/2013S.02/.
You can find all sorts of interesting things on the course web, and I'd
encourage you to look there.
This is an experimental course. Among other things, this means that I
expect to be updating the syllabus as the semester goes on.
Meets: Mondays, 2:15-4:05 p.m., Science 3821.
Instructor:
Samuel A. Rebelsky,
Science 3824. 269-4410 (office). 236-7445 (home).
Office hours: Wednesday 10:00-11:00, Thursday 2:15-3:05, Friday 10:00-11:00.
I tend to follow an open door policy: Feel free to stop by when my
door is open or to make an appointment for another time. I have children,
so please do not call my house before 7 a.m. or after 10 p.m.
This course is offered for one credit or two credits and is graded as
S/D/F. All students who take the course are expected to
- attend at least eleven of the thirteen class meetings;
- do all assigned readings;
- facilitiate (or co-facilitate) approximately two physical or virtual
alumni visits (the precise number depends on the number of students
enrolled);
- write a short reflective piece on each alumni visit; and
- write a short reflective piece at the end of the semester.
The students in this course are responsible for hosting and facilitating
the visits of the alumni. (Practice with organizing visits is one of the
learning goals of the course.) At the start of the semester, and again
halfway through the semester, registered students will sign up in groups
to facilitate alumni visits (see the
schedule for details of particular visits).
As the facilitator for a visit, you are expected to work with the alumnus
or alumna on the following in advance of the visit.
- Develop a structure for their visit. While most visits will involve a
moderate-length lecture (say 45 minutes) and a follow-up question and
answer (or discussion) session, some alumni might want to consider other
approaches.
- Identify any resources that they would like students to read or explore
before their talk.
- Write a short biographical sketch that can be distributed to the class
before the class meeting.
- Write a short abstract for the lecture that can be distributed to the class
before the class meeting.
- Work out any technological issues for their visit. For in-class visits,
that means making sure that we have the resources (Internet, projection,
etc.) that they need for the visit. For remote visits, that means making
sure that Skype (or whatever communication system they suggest) works
appropriately.
Your work also continues into the class session. During the class session
you facilitate, you should do the following:
- Arrive early to set up technologies.
- Introduce the alumna or alumnus.
- Continue to monitor technologies during class.
- Facilitate discussion.
- Be ready to ask a wide variety of questions.
This reading list is tentative. It is currently based closely on the
books Doug Caulkins uses for his course.
Zichy, Shoya and Bidou, Ann (2007). Career Match: Connecting Who You Are With What You'll Love to Do AMACOM 2007
Career Match helps you explore some possible directions for someone with your personality profile.
We will also encourage alumni to suggest short readings that can help you
build skills and perspectives.
Monday, 3 September 2012 [Samuel A. Rebelsky]
;
;
