From: Benjamin Mako Hill <mako@atdot.cc>
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2012 02:38:26 +0000 (-0400)
Subject: updated statement after a paper read through
X-Git-Url: https://projects.mako.cc/source/bmh-teaching_statement/commitdiff_plain/0d3a78aa1d4a5dd7b0ec485297956423832f715c

updated statement after a paper read through
---

diff --git a/teaching_statement.tex b/teaching_statement.tex
index b049696..5178631 100644
--- a/teaching_statement.tex
+++ b/teaching_statement.tex
@@ -59,9 +59,9 @@
 
 \maketitle
 
-Graduating PhD students have spent most of their lives in
-apprenticeship relationships. From their first day of grade school to
-their dissertation defense, students learn everything from reading and
+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
@@ -80,29 +80,30 @@ 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 experiences. I understand that most of my students
-will not become a researcher like me. I believe that in spite of this
+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 different ways.
+this dynamic in three ways.
 
-First, I strive to make my teaching material relevant to my students
+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
-identical material to engineers, MBAs, and executives and have worked
+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 discussion of
+large lectures, I engage students interactively in the discussion of
 examples from their experience and adapt my teaching to emphasize
-relevant material. In assignments, I challenge students to integrate
-course concepts with their experience and interests.
+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 an
+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 to never waste it. I continually seek feedback
+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.
 
@@ -111,30 +112,30 @@ important to them.
 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
-of Science students.
+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
-include a lecture on online innovation communities using the case of
-consumer ``hacking'' of Canon cameras and a practical lecture on how
-to attract participants to online communities.
+lectures include a lecture 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 introducting concepts on
-management of innovation and user communities and on practical methods
-for putting these into action including lead user methods, broadcast
-search, and the construction of user communities.
+programs. These lectures have focused on managing innovation, user
+communities, and practical tools for innovating that include lead user
+methods, broadcast search, 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 Tom
-Malone at the Center for Collective Intelligence, I coordinated an
-interdisciplinary seminar on collective intelligence. Working with
-Chris Csikszentmihályi, I organized and ran a graduate seminar on
-Free, Libre and Open Source Software.
+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
@@ -146,7 +147,7 @@ Center for Internet and Society at Harvard.
 \section{Mentoring}
 
 Of course, not all of teaching is unlike apprenticeship and I have
-also enjoyed my experience as a mentor to developing scholars and
+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
@@ -156,10 +157,10 @@ relationships.
 
 Additionally, I have served as an external advisor to two Masters
 degree students. I advised and evaluated one thesis on technology
-design and in am currently advising a social scientific analysis of a
+design and am currently advising a social scientific analysis of a
 large free software community. In both cases, I have enjoyed meeting
-regularly and engaging with students over the course of their research
-projects.
+regularly and engaging with students over the course of their thesis
+research.
 
 \section{Example Courses}
 
@@ -168,16 +169,16 @@ 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 hackers,
-  user communities, free and open source software, and lead users.
+  traditional firm-based innovation as well innovation by users,
+  hackers, user communities, and free and open source software.
 \item \emph{Quantitative Research Methods}: An introductory class on
-  applied statistics. Topics include basic statistical methods up to,
-  and including, linear regression with programming exercises using
-  real data.
+  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 readings and lectures on system implementation and
+  incorporates readings and lectures on theory, implementation, and
   design.
 \end{enumerate*}
 
@@ -193,8 +194,8 @@ Graduate ---
   systems.
 \item \emph{Social Computing}: The theory, analysis, and design of
   large scale, computer-mediated social systems. Final projects will
-  challenge students to create a new systems or execute a study of an
-  existing community.
+  challenge students execute a study of an existing community or to
+  design or create a new systems.
 \end{enumerate*}