Lojban Class at Rice University

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djandus

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Apr 9, 2011, 4:30:53 PM4/9/11
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coi rodo

So, I am Joe Anderson, an undergraduate at Rice, and am planning on
teaching a class on Lojban in the fall.
(http://courses.rice.edu/admweb/swkscat.main?
p_action=COURSE&p_crn=16915&p_term=201210)

I know a lot about Lojban, but I'm going to have to work like crazy to
put this together, especially over the summer. I originally learned
Lojban through Lojban for Beginners, about 3 years ago. I have started
visiting the IRC only recently, learning a lot about how the language
has been changing in Lojbanistan since that teaching aid was created.
I've been playing around with many other teaching aids, especially
Anki, and have many ideas for how to structure the class. I've also
been working closely with a French professor here who studies teaching
languages in general. With her help, I've already made a pretty
accurate table of contents for the course, which I have uploaded here:
http://jandew.ersoft.org/lojban/contents.pdf
My main objectives are to teach proficiency in conversation and cover
the grammar of approximately half of Lojban for Beginners. From my
table of contents, you can note that this entails teaching everything
up to tenses, where including the last chapter in my lesson plans is
entirely up to how much lesson time I have. As for the time I have,
I'm given a one-hour class a week for 14 weeks. My plan is to have as
much talking as possible in class, with vocabulary and exercises being
covered outside of class. To do that, I'm wanting to write up
exercises that can be completed online (I'm currently investigating
how much I can do with Owlspace) and require students to use Anki and
somehow turn in their study results. (I know Anki keeps track of that
very well.) There's obviously a lot of parts to this, but with
everything so primordial, here's what I'd love to have help with:
Lesson plans:
The theory behind ordering the courses as I have, making sure
the general plans are good
What I'll be covering in class, how to keep students on their
toes
Exercises to give outside of class, creative assignments
The vocabulary I will cover -- how much per week, what order,
etc.
Any ideas about study materials -- I'm going to keep it simple,
with vocabulary in one place, (Anki,) and other exercises in another.
(online, probably Owlspace) If anyone has interesting ideas on cool
study materials I could put it, I'd love to try to fit it in
somewhere.
I also need support in teaching me -- I need to get more proficient
in speaking Lojban in the areas I will be teaching. I am not lacking
so much in the concepts as the vocabulary. I want to get the students
used to Lojban conversation, and I'm still not used to it, yet!
There is a strong possibility that I can organize one day to have a
computer lab trip for a videoconference with other Lojbanists! I think
this would be a really fun way to end things, making sure that the
students get connected with Lojbanistan. Any interested in helping
with that may need to do the same as I, practicing conversation with
the basic tools I will end up teaching over the semester.
One day must be spent "outside of class" as a requirement for
student-taught courses at Rice. Ideas for this are welcome -- right
now, the best I've got is something like a scavenger hunt on campus.
(note that with a videoconference and a day-outside-of-class, that
means I really only have 12 weeks of class that I can count on)
Any suggestions on communication. Right now, I'm only really
accustomed to email and the IRC. This is my first post on the mailing
list. I have browsed around a lot on lojban.org, but there's a lot of
information there, and if anyone recognizes some great online resource
for anything, even talking about this, (in case this discussion
clutters up the mailing list or something,) then feel free to speak up
about it.
I happen to know how to program in python, and I've been working on
a few study programs to help, say, learn the numbers. I'd love people
to help suggest improvements for those as well, as I write them.

In working through this, I will for certain be able to have the
resources associated with Owlspace, which basically entails easy
communication with students and ability to have assignments on there,
in a variety of ways. I will be investigating its capabilities as soon
as possible. I probably will have access to it after Fall
Registration, which begins tomorrow. I will also start getting numbers
of people signed up for the course then. For those eager to learn more
about that resource:
https://owlspace-ccm.rice.edu/portal/site/!gateway/page/!gateway-300
I may end up also having access to the the Language Resource Center on
campus, which means computer lab access with built-in speaking
capabilities and any associated online resources. This means I could
give assignments with audio or video interaction -- things which may
not exist yet for Lojban. (These resources are normally used in ways
like having a test with the last question being "Speak for at least
one minute about {your family..., what you do on the weekend...,
etc.}" or giving an assignment where students watch a video of a
weatherman speaking and then answer questions about the weather.)
These sorts of assignments/tests can be given online, if necessary. I
might be able to have Anki installed in the lab in a lojban folder, so
that students have access to it there, etc.

Oh, and I need to explain student-taught courses! So, at Rice, they
work like this: it's counted as a one-credit course, as well as being
a special type of pass-fail, called satisfactory-unsatisfactory, where
the difference is in how GPA is calculated. Basically, this all means
that even though I will have to have grades and whatnot, the grade
will be rather unimportant. As a con, students will be rather
unmotivated by bad grades. As a pro, the students who sign up will
probably be extremely motivated by desire to learn the language
itself. So, I can actually put very little focus on grading. (Also,
note that at Rice it's really common for students to change around
their schedule quite a lot for the first two weeks. I've been
factoring that in to exactly how my lesson plans will work.)

Many of my plans are very flexible, so I'm welcoming as many
criticisms and new ideas as possible right now. For now, I think
that's best done through this mailing list, but I'm sure people will
eventually need my direct email address:
jandew...@gmail.com
(don't worry about cluttering my email -- gmail will tag anything you
send to the "+lojban" email address)

Also, I will probably be on the IRC almost all the time after school's
out, around May 4th. Thanks to the awesome Lojbanists who have already
helped me so much, and to the help I know I'll get in the future!
(This community is pretty excellent, in my opinion.)

co'o
djandus

Jonathan Jones

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Apr 10, 2011, 3:11:47 AM4/10/11
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Well, I can only think of two things to say: First, Right On! That's just freaking awesome that someone going to be teaching Lojban at a university. Second, I humbly request that you make as much of the materials you use available to non-Rice Lojban students as well, because the more good learning resources our nintadni have, the better.


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mu'o mi'e .aionys.

.i.a'o.e'e ko cmima le bende pe lo pilno be denpa bu .i doi.luk. mi patfu do zo'o
(Come to the Dot Side! Luke, I am your father. :D )

djandus

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Apr 10, 2011, 1:24:56 PM4/10/11
to lojban
I happen to have a number of friends who have already requested the
same thing, which is partly why I want to have everything done online.
(The other reason being: who likes all that paper stuff anyway?) So,
as it stands, I would have everything that would be covered in class
available online for anyone for certain. The exercises that would be
completed through Owlspace I will have to put a little extra effort
into releasing on a schedule, but I'm sure I can work it out. (It's
not that I'm afraid of students knowing how to do assignments before
they have to do them -- as I mentioned before, the grades don't matter
very much. Really, I'm afraid of students being scared off by seeing a
huge document of assignments.)

I certainly want this to be something that others can study along with
from anywhere, following along as it continues in the fall. (I've
already started typing up a bit of an introduction, where I explain
how if you're reading this info and you're not in my class, try to
keep to a 14-week schedule, and try to get a partner to learn with, to
practice conversation.)

Exactly where all this information will reside is a little up in the
air, but I'm fairly certain I get a webpage as a Rice student that I
can use for this purpose. Basically, I'll just double all of the
information online as it runs in the classroom.

Speaking of all of this, I forgot to mention that I am relatively
proficient in typing with LaTeX, (through LyX, with some direct TeX
code experience) as one maybe can tell from the Table of Contents I
linked to. So, I hope to have all of my lesson plans detailed in there
in a way that as I teach a class, anyone can go straight to a document
and read what I taught.

--djandus
> > jandew+loj...@gmail.com

Jonathan Jones

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Apr 10, 2011, 3:19:28 PM4/10/11
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Ah, I did think of one suggestion: record the lectures and post them on YouTube. I'm certain the in-class videos would be useful to others.

As for a place to put stuff, lojban.org is an obvious choice. You can either use the wiki, which can be modified by anyone, or if you want some other interface, you can talk to Robin about the details.

doi Robin, you are still the one that maintains lojban.org, yes?

.alyn.post.

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Apr 10, 2011, 11:51:24 PM4/10/11
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On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 10:24:56AM -0700, djandus wrote:
> Speaking of all of this, I forgot to mention that I am relatively
> proficient in typing with LaTeX, (through LyX, with some direct TeX
> code experience) as one maybe can tell from the Table of Contents I
> linked to. So, I hope to have all of my lesson plans detailed in there
> in a way that as I teach a class, anyone can go straight to a document
> and read what I taught.
>
> --djandus
>

.i ji'a mi kakne la tex to u'isai vlabacru dei toi .igo ko cpedu lo
lerfu platu mi gi do nitcu

(I'm also proficient at TeX and LaTeX. Please ask for help if I can
do any typesetting work for you.)

.i mu'o mi'e .alyn.
--
.i ma'a lo bradi ku penmi gi'e du

Seth

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Apr 11, 2011, 1:22:05 AM4/11/11
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what is your plan for books? just rely on electronic? you can always use that 24 page word list as your dictionary, since it is cheap to print, or you can use the dictionary I designed for print. I use it for all of my translation and stuff. http://www.lojban.org/tiki/Books


seth (aka seryf)

Ian Johnson

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Apr 11, 2011, 8:51:32 AM4/11/11
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Doesn't that also say "but don't ask if you don't need it", since it's iff?

mu'o mi'e .latros.


--

.alyn.post.

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Apr 11, 2011, 11:02:33 AM4/11/11
to loj...@googlegroups.com
I do think that is what I was trying to express, yes. There isn't
any point in asking for help if you don't need help, no?

I might misunderstand the implication of your question; if it
appears that way will you explicitely state it?

-Alan

On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 08:51:32AM -0400, Ian Johnson wrote:
> Doesn't that also say "but don't ask if you don't need it", since it's
> iff?
>
> mu'o mi'e .latros.
>
> On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 11:51 PM, .alyn.post.
> <[1]alyn...@lodockikumazvati.org> wrote:
>
> On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 10:24:56AM -0700, djandus wrote:
> > Speaking of all of this, I forgot to mention that I am relatively
> > proficient in typing with LaTeX, (through LyX, with some direct TeX
> > code experience) as one maybe can tell from the Table of Contents I
> > linked to. So, I hope to have all of my lesson plans detailed in there
> > in a way that as I teach a class, anyone can go straight to a document
> > and read what I taught.
> >
> > --djandus
> >
>
> .i ji'a mi kakne la tex to u'isai vlabacru dei toi .igo ko cpedu lo
> lerfu platu mi gi do nitcu
>
> (I'm also proficient at TeX and LaTeX. Please ask for help if I can
> do any typesetting work for you.)
>
> .i mu'o mi'e .alyn.
> --
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>
> Visible links
> 1. mailto:alyn...@lodockikumazvati.org
> 2. mailto:loj...@googlegroups.com
> 3. mailto:lojban%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com
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Ian Johnson

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Apr 11, 2011, 1:36:27 PM4/11/11
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Well, you might not need help to get your task done, but want it anyway to make the task easier?


mu'o mi'e .latros.

.alyn.post.

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Apr 11, 2011, 1:47:50 PM4/11/11
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Ah, indeed.

if djandus doesn't need help he really shouldn't ask me, I'm already
overcommitted with projects.

Yet I've written enough TeX to have worked with custom page output
macros and other low-level finicky details--skills that are relatively
rare to find yet useful for producing high-quality results with TeX
or LaTeX. I will help because of the rarity of this skill coupled
with my desire to see this be a high-quality resource.

-Alan

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> > References
> >
> > Visible links
> > 1. mailto:[9]alyn...@lodockikumazvati.org
> > 2. mailto:[10]loj...@googlegroups.com
> > 3. mailto:[11]lojban%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com
> > 4. [12]http://groups.google.com/group/lojban?hl=en


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> Visible links
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> 2. mailto:alyn...@lodockikumazvati.org
> 3. mailto:loj...@googlegroups.com
> 4. mailto:lojban%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com
> 5. http://groups.google.com/group/lojban?hl=en
> 6. mailto:loj...@googlegroups.com
> 7. mailto:lojban%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com
> 8. http://groups.google.com/group/lojban?hl=en
> 9. mailto:alyn...@lodockikumazvati.org
> 10. mailto:loj...@googlegroups.com
> 11. mailto:lojban%252Buns...@googlegroups.com
> 12. http://groups.google.com/group/lojban?hl=en
> 13. mailto:loj...@googlegroups.com
> 14. mailto:lojban%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com
> 15. http://groups.google.com/group/lojban?hl=en

djandus

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Apr 11, 2011, 2:37:58 PM4/11/11
to lojban
doi seth, I don't have any plans currently to print anything off...
I'm not sure how necessary any of it would be. I know that I find
electronic resources much easier to use, and I could list all of the
printable resources at the beginning and allow students to acquire a
copy. (If I do things right, I could submit such documents in a few
weeks, and they would be available for purchase as a simply bound
text.)
Help me think through this because every item requires a different
analysis -- for instance, for a dictionary, I find the use of ctrl-f
essential for ease of use, but if a student wants a print copy, I
could manage that. For lessons, however, at best I would require
exercises to be printed out, but it's very likely that my lesson plans
will have to be extremely flexible to follow the students. This
doesn't preclude the use of a print version, but certainly undermines
its usefulness.
Also also, although I have some sort of a budget, it makes things
incredibly simple if I don't have to buy anything :) However, please
tell me if you think of something essential to be in print!

doi .alyn, I'm not sure how much assistance I will need... I should be
able to handle things, but I'm certainly not an expert in LaTeX, so I
may run some things by you, eventually. (With the options for study
materials left to "anything," there's always the unforeseeable!)

On Apr 11, 1:22 am, Seth <thirderivat...@aol.com> wrote:
> what is your plan for books? just rely on electronic? you can always use that 24 page word list as your dictionary, since it is cheap to print, or you can use the dictionary I designed for print. I use it for all of my translation and stuff.http://www.lojban.org/tiki/Books
>
> seth (aka seryf)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ...
>
> read more »

djandus

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Apr 11, 2011, 2:40:51 PM4/11/11
to lojban
doi Jonathan,
I'm going to look into video equipment... that would be very
excellent, if I could get it set up! Very excellent idea :)

And of course I'd overlook the obvious choice! I'll definitely use
lojban.org for the course materials!
> ...
>
> read more »

Robin Lee Powell

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Apr 11, 2011, 6:11:26 PM4/11/11
to loj...@googlegroups.com
On Sat, Apr 09, 2011 at 01:30:53PM -0700, djandus wrote:
> So, I am Joe Anderson, an undergraduate at Rice, and am planning
> on teaching a class on Lojban in the fall.

That's really very cool; I hope it's very successful!

I'm the secretary/treasurer of the LLG, and also one of the prime
decision makers around here. I just wanted to let you know that
while I won't be following the mailing list thread much because I'm
personally very busy, I've asked Alan to keep me up to day with
anything that comes up with this class where the LLG can help or
support you. I'd also really love it if your lessons and
experiences got rolled back into teaching material for the whole
community.

In particular, once you have a headcount, I bet we could arrange to
pay for free copies of the CLL or something; it's not a great
teaching text bet it might still be useful.

-Robin

.alyn.post.

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Apr 11, 2011, 6:50:14 PM4/11/11
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And after Robin asked me, I take back my if-and-only-if clause in my
offer to help. I'll arrange for getting any needed donations to get
your students copies of the CLL as part of Robin's above offer, I'll
be happy to proofread or edit material you've developed (something I
think there is a lot of community support for doing, actually), and will
also be more than happy to convert, upload, or translate material you
develop to get it online at lojban.org.

I've also spent a fair bit of time working on a pedagogy for
teaching Lojban. If you reach a point where you're not sure what
your best teaching order is I'm happy to relate my own experience in
the hope that it helps.

I would love it if you would keep track of what works and what
doesn't, and generally what your experience teaching Lojban is like.
Help us get better at teaching ourselves.

-Alan

Robin Lee Powell

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Apr 11, 2011, 6:57:53 PM4/11/11
to loj...@googlegroups.com
On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 04:50:14PM -0600, .alyn.post. wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 03:11:26PM -0700, Robin Lee Powell wrote:
> > On Sat, Apr 09, 2011 at 01:30:53PM -0700, djandus wrote:
> > > So, I am Joe Anderson, an undergraduate at Rice, and am
> > > planning on teaching a class on Lojban in the fall.
> >
> > That's really very cool; I hope it's very successful!
> >
> > I'm the secretary/treasurer of the LLG, and also one of the
> > prime decision makers around here. I just wanted to let you
> > know that while I won't be following the mailing list thread
> > much because I'm personally very busy, I've asked Alan to keep
> > me up to day with anything that comes up with this class where
> > the LLG can help or support you. I'd also really love it if
> > your lessons and experiences got rolled back into teaching
> > material for the whole community.
> >
> > In particular, once you have a headcount, I bet we could arrange
> > to pay for free copies of the CLL or something; it's not a great
> > teaching text bet it might still be useful.
>
> And after Robin asked me, I take back my if-and-only-if clause in my
> offer to help. I'll arrange for getting any needed donations to get
> your students copies of the CLL as part of Robin's above offer,

Not necessary; the LLG can easily cover it.

-Robin

--
http://singinst.org/ : Our last, best hope for a fantastic future.
Lojban (http://www.lojban.org/): The language in which "this parrot
is dead" is "ti poi spitaki cu morsi", but "this sentence is false"
is "na nei". My personal page: http://www.digitalkingdom.org/rlp/

djandus

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Apr 11, 2011, 8:11:49 PM4/11/11
to lojban
Thanks all! I was wondering if obtaining copies of the CLL would be
possible! I don't have a final head count, but I already have 11+
students signed up. I put a limit on the class of 15 people, so there
will be no more than that. So, I know for certain that 16 copies of
the CLL would be sufficient. (including one for myself)

I will keep very thorough records of the successes and failures in
teaching different areas -- Alan, I feel like I could have a very long
discussion with you about what you've learned :) I definitely need as
much info as possible about what works before I dive in, though I will
be diving in regardless! (I'm getting more and more excited over
teaching Lojban!)

On Apr 11, 5:57 pm, Robin Lee Powell <rlpow...@digitalkingdom.org>
wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 04:50:14PM -0600, .alyn.post. wrote:
> > On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 03:11:26PM -0700, Robin Lee Powell wrote:
> > > On Sat, Apr 09, 2011 at 01:30:53PM -0700, djandus wrote:
> > > > So, I am Joe Anderson, an undergraduate at Rice, and am
> > > > planning on teaching a class on Lojban in the fall.
>
> > > That's really very cool; I hope it's very successful!
>
> > > I'm the secretary/treasurer of the LLG, and also one of the
> > > prime decision makers around here.  I just wanted to let you
> > > know that while I won't be following the mailing list thread
> > > much because I'm personally very busy, I've asked Alan to keep
> > > me up to day with anything that comes up with this class where
> > > the LLG can help or support you.  I'd also really love it if
> > > your lessons and experiences got rolled back into teaching
> > > material for the whole community.
>
> > > In particular, once you have a headcount, I bet we could arrange
> > > to pay for free copies of the CLL or something; it's not a great
> > > teaching text bet it might still be useful.
>
> > And after Robin asked me, I take back my if-and-only-if clause in my
> > offer to help.  I'll arrange for getting any needed donations to get
> > your students copies of the CLL as part of Robin's above offer,
>
> Not necessary; the LLG can easily cover it.
>
> -Robin
>
> --http://singinst.org/:  Our last, best hope for a fantastic future.

attunezero

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Apr 12, 2011, 1:49:04 PM4/12/11
to lojban
Having your lectures on youtube would be incredibly helpful! That is
exactly the kind of learning resource that I (and I assume others as
well) have been looking for since I discovered that Lojban existed. I
really hope that you are successful in this project!
> > > > > unmotivated by bad grades. As a pro, the students who sign up will...
>
> read more »

djandus

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Apr 15, 2011, 12:32:50 AM4/15/11
to lojban
Excellent news! I am definitely able to record the lectures! So,
that's all set :)

Also, I happened to meet one of my future students while looking
around for a video camera I could use, and he'll help out with any of
that as needed!

Also also, expect me on the IRC sometime over the weekend...

.uicai .i co'o
> ...
>
> read more »

Jonathan Jones

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Apr 15, 2011, 12:42:18 AM4/15/11
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Sweet!

> ...
>
> read more »

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djandus

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Apr 18, 2011, 2:50:11 PM4/18/11
to lojban
If anyone willing to discuss the structure/pedagogy of the course
could email me at <jandew...@gmail.com>, that'd be fantastic. I'd
definitely like to be bouncing ideas around for that as soon as
possible.

Also, another idea to bounce around is this: I was thinking about
whether this would be an interesting opportunity for seeing how
quickly people pick up on the vocabulary. I was already planning on
gathering weekly stats from my students so that I could emphasize
trouble words in class, but if every lojbanist following along kept
track as well, the total data might be useful... somehow...
Thoughts?

djandus
> ...
>
> read more »

Robin Lee Powell

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Apr 18, 2011, 3:06:09 PM4/18/11
to loj...@googlegroups.com
On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 11:50:11AM -0700, djandus wrote:
> If anyone willing to discuss the structure/pedagogy of the course
> could email me at <jandew...@gmail.com>, that'd be fantastic.
> I'd definitely like to be bouncing ideas around for that as soon
> as possible.

IRC, being real time, might be really good for this;
http://www.lojban.org/tiki/Lojbanic+Forums

Also, we have voice chat servers; you could probably get people on
IRC to jump on for this.

> Also, another idea to bounce around is this: I was thinking about
> whether this would be an interesting opportunity for seeing how
> quickly people pick up on the vocabulary. I was already planning
> on gathering weekly stats from my students so that I could
> emphasize trouble words in class, but if every lojbanist following
> along kept track as well, the total data might be useful...
> somehow... Thoughts?

Spaced repitition flashcard programs are your only friend in this
context.

-Robin

--

djandus

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Apr 19, 2011, 5:29:04 PM4/19/11
to lojban
Well, I won't be able to really schedule any event like that until the
weekend, and then I could probably have a few somewhere between this
Saturday and Tuesday of next week. Of all that time, I can guarantee
that I want to talk about this Saturday, if possible. (I happen to be
in the hell week of Rice University right now...)

Until then, though, I'm curious how all that works best -- does voice
chat require one-on-one? It is best if I can schedule some time,
right?

I throwing out emailing me as a way to allow me to recognize lojban
nicks and already get a basis of things to discuss when I do have the
time for live conversation. (For the former, I merely have this
mailing list, and for the latter, I have only what questions I think
of, not any of the pedagogy many of you have already thought of.)
Given, having a basis of topics doesn't /have/ to be created until the
time of conversation, but I tend to overthink things, so...
('Course, people who have already read this would keep an eye out for
my nick, now that I think about it, so I guess neither of those ideas
were particularly necessary...)

Also, I have this problem that even though I really shouldn't spend
too much time thinking about Lojban this week, I still end up spending
time on it at random, odd hours as I suddenly nerd snipe myself with
some idea. I figured moments like that are more suited for email,
since I could satiate the snipe by sending an email while restricting
myself to one email. (I tend to want to spend way too much time on the
IRC, when I do...)

Also also, for bit about flashcard programs, I was mainly curious if
anyone had ideas for the statistics. In other words, if I see myself
as being the only one interested in those, then I'd just have everyone
send the data to me directly; if others want it, then it could be
conglomerated onto lojban.org in some way, methinks. Also, I am a
little curious what ideas people might have for using the data.
I was planning on using Anki for such a task.

-djandus

On Apr 18, 2:06 pm, Robin Lee Powell <rlpow...@digitalkingdom.org>
wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 11:50:11AM -0700, djandus wrote:
> > If anyone willing to discuss the structure/pedagogy of the course
> > could email me at <jandew+loj...@gmail.com>, that'd be fantastic.
> > I'd definitely like to be bouncing ideas around for that as soon
> > as possible.
>
> IRC, being real time, might be really good for this;http://www.lojban.org/tiki/Lojbanic+Forums
>
> Also, we have voice chat servers; you could probably get people on
> IRC to jump on for this.
>
> > Also, another idea to bounce around is this: I was thinking about
> > whether this would be an interesting opportunity for seeing how
> > quickly people pick up on the vocabulary. I was already planning
> > on gathering weekly stats from my students so that I could
> > emphasize trouble words in class, but if every lojbanist following
> > along kept track as well, the total data might be useful...
> > somehow... Thoughts?
>
> Spaced repitition flashcard programs are your only friend in this
> context.
>
> -Robin
>
> --http://singinst.org/:  Our last, best hope for a fantastic future.

Robin Lee Powell

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Apr 19, 2011, 5:57:53 PM4/19/11
to loj...@googlegroups.com
On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 02:29:04PM -0700, djandus wrote:
> Until then, though, I'm curious how all that works best -- does
> voice chat require one-on-one?

Definitely not; these are multi-user chat servers.

> It is best if I can schedule some time, right?

Enh. My thought was you come hang out on IRC and if there are
enough people around, maybe do some chatting.

-Robin

--

djandus

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Aug 23, 2011, 2:36:11 PM8/23/11
to loj...@googlegroups.com
.uisai coi rodo

Tonight I am teaching my first class! This means that over the course of the day, I will have many things available for all to see! (Sorry for exclaims, but I am rather excited.)

As it happens, I cannot give access to my owlspace page for anyone, but I did make it available to anyone with a Rice NetID, so I'm still putting that link on the wiki page.

On that note -- There's a wiki page! I'm going to add a notification about that on lojban.org news once I have the first assignments, etc. online. I will try to post every single useful thing I can.
I will also try to communicate on that page what should be there, so when things aren't there, keep me posted. Also, I am not particularly experienced with wiki editing, so if there's anything anyone notices I could do to make my page better, please email me about that as well. One thing I'd like to discuss here as time goes on, is whether I can/should make my page as a subcategory under Learning, along with Books, etc. I don't want to clutter the left pane or anything.
(I was going to link to the page here, but it seems lojban.org is down, so I didn't get a chance to actually create the page. Once it exists, I'll have it linked from the Learning page. It'll be really obvious.)

As for the class material itself, it is organized a little interestingly, as I am teaching not the basics of Lojban today, but important things that are not usually taught first. This is because the first class is usually bored with syllabus/class info and Rice is known to have huge fluctuations in attendance in the first week or two.

One last random comment: Has anyone else noticed lojban.org being a little slow? I'm just curious if the servers are getting a little too overworked or if it was just me. (As I was putting this together, I ended up getting an error trying to load any page on lojban.org, so I guess it's not just me?)

--Joe

Jonathan Jones

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Aug 23, 2011, 3:51:15 PM8/23/11
to loj...@googlegroups.com
Congratulations! I am eager to hear how the class goes. I am a bit disappointed about the owl thing, but oh well.

lojban.org occasionally goes down. I have no idea why, but I do know that if you think it's behaving oddly, the thing to do is to join #lojban on irc.freenode.net and say something. There's always at least one person that can fix the problem on there.

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--
mu'o mi'e .aionys.

.i.e'ucai ko cmima lo pilno be denpa bu .i doi.luk. mi patfu do zo'o

Robin Lee Powell

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Aug 23, 2011, 5:33:26 PM8/23/11
to loj...@googlegroups.com

I'm hoping to move lojban.org to a new server over the next few
weeks; hopefully that'll help.

-Robin

On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 01:51:15PM -0600, Jonathan Jones wrote:
> Congratulations! I am eager to hear how the class goes. I am a bit
> disappointed about the owl thing, but oh well.
>
> lojban.org occasionally goes down. I have no idea why, but I do know that if
> you think it's behaving oddly, the thing to do is to join #lojban on
> irc.freenode.net and say something. There's always at least one person that
> can fix the problem on there.
>
> On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 12:36 PM, djandus <jan...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > .uisai coi rodo
> >
> > Tonight I am teaching my first class! This means that over the course of
> > the day, I will have many things available for all to see! (Sorry for
> > exclaims, but I am rather excited.)
> >
> > As it happens, I cannot give access to my owlspace page for anyone, but I
> > did make it available to anyone with a Rice NetID, so I'm still putting that
> > link on the wiki page.
> >
> > On that note -- There's a wiki page! I'm going to add a notification about
> > that on lojban.org news once I have the first assignments, etc. online. I
> > will try to post every single useful thing I can.

> > I will also try to communicate on that page what *should* be there, so


> > when things aren't there, keep me posted. Also, I am not particularly
> > experienced with wiki editing, so if there's anything anyone notices I could
> > do to make my page better, please email me about that as well. One thing I'd
> > like to discuss here as time goes on, is whether I can/should make my page
> > as a subcategory under Learning, along with Books, etc. I don't want to
> > clutter the left pane or anything.
> > (I was going to link to the page here, but it seems lojban.org is down, so
> > I didn't get a chance to actually create the page. Once it exists, I'll have
> > it linked from the Learning page. It'll be really obvious.)
> >
> > As for the class material itself, it is organized a little interestingly,

> > as I am teaching *not* the basics of Lojban today, but important things

--

djandus

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Sep 28, 2011, 2:57:24 PM9/28/11
to loj...@googlegroups.com
Just to let everyone know what the heck I'm doing right now: I'm busy.

I've realized a few things:
it takes a fair amount of time and effort just to get raw video into a useful format/container and even more to get it online
an online hour-long file is not particularly useful to too many people

Thus, I'm planning on giving up on having all of the lessons posted on lojban.org for this semester. (It should be easier over breaks/next semester.)
Next, when I do get around to messing with this in more detail, I plan on looking over the video as a reference for myself to make new, short video segments that explain specific topic/sections with references to each other and the CLL, somewhat inspired by khanacademy.com

I'm pretty sure everyone will agree with me that the lessons would be much more effective online in the form of short, well-documented, cross-referenced videos. I'll probably start structuring it (which means making some sort of online hierarchy with titles waiting to have videos) towards the end of the semester. When I get something worth looking over, I'll ping everyone here once again, but under a new topic so that we can actually discuss the material.

Anyway, that's why the wiki page is stagnant, and look forward to more awesome things in the future!

mu'o mi'e djandus.
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