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\begin{document}

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\title{Teaching Statement}
\author{Benjamin Mako Hill}
\date{}

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Graduating PhD students have spent most of their lives learning as
apprentices. From their first day of grade school to their
dissertation defense, students learn everything from reading and
arithmetic to sociological theory and multi-level statistical modeling
from teachers who use that knowledge themselves.  ``I know something
that I find useful,'' a teacher might say, ``and I want my student to
be like me.''

In much of higher education -- and in graduate and professional
teaching in particular -- this relationship breaks down. In business
schools, where I teach most often, lectures are given by professors
trained as academic sociologists, economists, and psychologists. Of
course, very few MBAs become social scientists. I have seen how a
failure to recognize this dynamic can lead to a lack of respect and
connection between teachers and students treated as, ``the folks who
pay the bills.''

Business school has also shown me that teaching that overcomes this
dynamic can lead to transformative learning. Teaching across
intellectual domains goes beyond the reproduction of skills and
knowledge and becomes the creation of new knowledge in the context of
students' personal experience. I understand that most of my students
will not become researchers like me. I believe that in spite of this
challenging relationship, and because of it, I can teach students in
ways that surprise, connect, and enrich. In my teaching, I address
this dynamic in three ways.

First, I strive to make my teaching relevant to my students
experiences and interests. I always seek to communicate why the
material I teach is relevant and how it will be useful. I have taught
similar concepts to engineers, MBAs, and executives and have worked
to refine and tailor my message for each audience.

Second, I attempt to involve students directly in learning. Even in
large lectures, I engage students interactively in the discussion of
examples from their experience and adapt my teaching to emphasize
material they respond to more positively. In assignments, I challenge
students to integrate course concepts with their experience and
interests.

Third, and most importantly, I structure my teaching around
explicit mutual respect. Before each lecture, I reflect on the total
student-hours my teaching will consume. I realize that in every class
meeting, my students give me dozens, even hundreds, of hours of their
attention. I strive never to waste it. I continually seek feedback
from my students so that my teaching is more relevant, useful, and
important to them.

\section{Teaching Experience}

Over the course of graduate school, I have learned to teach from my
mentors and have put this philosophy into practice in lectures and
seminars to MBAs, engineers, executives, undergraduates, and Masters
students.

Over the last three years, I have served as the teaching assistant for
Professor Eric von Hippel's lecture courses on innovation where I have
worked closely with students on the design and evaluation of their
course projects. In these classes, I have developed, delivered, and
refined a series of ninety-minute lectures as a guest lecturer. These
lectures include a session on online innovation communities, a case
study of consumer ``hacking'' of Canon cameras, and a practical
lecture on attracting participants to online communities.

After positive evaluations from students, I have been invited to give
regular lectures in MIT's Executive Education and Visiting MBA
programs. These lectures have focused on managing innovation, user
communities, and practical tools for innovating that include lead user
methods, innovation toolkits, and the construction of vibrant user
communities.

In addition to experience lecturing, I have also run a series of
seminars for smaller groups of graduate students. Working with
Professor Tom Malone, I coordinated an interdisciplinary seminar at
the Center for Collective Intelligence. Working with Chris
Csikszentmihályi, I organized and ran a graduate seminar on Free,
Libre and Open Source Software in the Media Arts and Sciences program.

Outside of organizing my own seminars, I have guest-taught in a number
of seminars at MIT Sloan, the MIT Media Lab, the MIT Program on
Comparative Media Studies, Harvard Law School, the Stanford Design
School, and elsewhere. Since 2011, I have also coordinated a seminar
on empirical research into online cooperation at the Berkman Center
for Internet and Society at Harvard.

\section{Mentoring}

Of course, not all of teaching is unlike apprenticeship and I have
enjoyed my experience as a mentor to developing scholars and
researchers. I have had the pleasure of mentoring several
undergraduates at MIT through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities
Program. These students worked with me on both a full-time basis over
the summer and in a part-time capacity over the academic year giving
me experience both in day-to-day management and more hands-off
relationships.

Additionally, I have served as an external advisor to two Masters
degree students. I evaluated one thesis on technology design and am
currently advising a second student in a social scientific analysis of
a large free software community. As an advisor, I have enjoyed meeting
regularly and engaging with the student over the course of his thesis
research.

\section{Example Courses}

Undergraduate ---

\begin{enumerate*}
\item \emph{Innovation in the Internet Age}: An introduction to the
  theory and practice of innovation management. Topics include
  traditional firm-based innovation as well innovation by users,
  hackers, user communities, and free and open source software
  developers.
\item \emph{Quantitative Research Methods}: An introductory class on
  applied statistics for social scientists. Topics include basic
  statistical methods up to, and including, linear regression with
  programming exercises using real data.
\item \emph{Computer Mediated Communication}: An overview of practical
  and theoretical issues related to computer-mediated
  communication. The class focuses on analyses of practice but also
  incorporates reading and lectures on theory, implementation, and
  design.
\end{enumerate*}

Graduate ---
\begin{enumerate*}
\item \emph{Topics in Peer Production}: Seminar on foundational work
  as well as recent advances in the study and support of free and open
  source software, wikis, and remixing communities.
\item \emph{Research Methods for ``Big Data''}: An introduction to
  statistical methods and tools for finding and manipulating very
  large datasets. Topics include network analysis, analysis of
  unstructured text, and programming for massively parallel computing
  systems.
\item \emph{Social Computing}: The theory, analysis, and design of
  large scale, computer-mediated social systems. Final projects will
  challenge students to execute a study of an existing community or to
  design or create a new system.
\end{enumerate*}

\end{document}

