New School New Syllabi

I will teach at a new school starting on January 27. I am going through and thinking about how I should change my syllabi to fit the student body at this new school. After I finish these syllabi I will post my latest syllabi and link it here.

Singing Songs

The Auditory portion of my brain seems to have taken over this blog. I would love to do this but I did not do well in Music.

Creating Audio Grading

I am tired of writing little comments on students' papers. I think they do not read my comments. And often those that do read my comments, tend to misunderstand. These misunderstandings can be attributed to the students poor reading skills or to my poor writing skills or a combination of both.
So my solution: record my comments, in a conversational manner, on a digital audio recorder.
This could also be done for course grading. I would explain (into my audio recorder) why the student received a certain grade and email it to them. I am already doing this using a grading rubric.

Bitesize at BBC

This is an interesting site that is operated by BBC I might have the students look at the cost section under production.

Ten Rules of Economic Thinking

I was preparing myself for an interview and started thinking about what are some economic rules (objectives) that the students should leave the class with. I thought of "there is no free lunch", "people try to maximize their utility and minimize their costs", and my ADHD took over.
My eyes went to a book on my bookshelf called "Sex Drugs & Economics" by Diane Coyle.
She has listed the following:

1. Everything has a cost
2. Things always change
3. There are no time bombs
4. People do what they want
5. Prices make the best incentives
6. Supply and Demand works
7. There is no easy profit
8. Always look up the evidence
9. Where common sense and economics conflict, common sense is wrong
10. Economics is about happiness

Does Education Corrupts?

I was reading on how Socrates taught his students. It seems that he started with figuring out his students’ beliefs. Next using the tools of dialogue and logic he would slowly pull them away from those beliefs. My classical training is not strong but wasn’t Socrates convicted of corrupting the youth? Is this what education supposed to do (corrupt or challenge our beliefs)?

Coincidence

Recently I applied for a position at a local community college. I have been invited to be interviewed. After the interview, I am to give a ten minute teaching demonstration. The topic of the teaching demonstration is Marginal Utility!

Cheat Sheet

Here is a link to a cheat sheet for how to find a human on various corporate sites. This site was created to deal with the frustration that customers feel.
This made me think how much of cheat sheets in any class is out of frustration and how much is out of not studying?

Diminishing Marginal Utility?

I had noticed that my dog tends to let his dogfood sit in the bowl for a long time. At first I thought he did not like his dog food. I bought another brand of dog food and noticed that he still lets the food sit there.
I though maybe I am giving him too much food. I started giving him half a cup of dog food in the mornings instead of his usual one cup of dog food. After a few days I noticed that he is eating everything in his bowl.
Next I noticed he is willing to roll over and do various tricks for his plain dog food. This would not have happened when he was getting one cup in the mornings.
He is getting one and one half a cup now, more than before, and he loves it more!
Is this Diminishing Marginal Utility of dog food or something else?
Is Diminishing Marginal Utility biological?

Choices

I saw this story on NPR. It reminded me of my dog. At home when there is only on ball and I throw him the tennis ball he brings it back. If there is more than one ball he does not bring the ball back. He seems to get confused as to which ball he is to bring back.
I have noticed that the link is not working so I am copying and pasting the story below:

November 19, 2005 · Medicare recipients can now sign up to get prescription drug insurance through Medicare. It's the biggest change since the government program started 40 years ago. Even government officials admit signing up for the program will take some effort.
At a flu vaccine clinic in Washington, D.C., Jean Meisel is like many other Medicare recipients. She's thinking about what to do about the new prescription program. She'd like to sign up before it begins Jan. 1. But she doesn't know what plan to pick. She's not computer savvy.
But she agrees to give it a try, so we log on together, and go to www.medicare.gov. She's particularly interested in finding a plan from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). After a brief delay, more than three dozen plans appear on the screen, AARP among them.
But the type is too small for Meisel to read easily. Together, we finally find AARP, and we can see that she could join an AARP plan, if she's willing to purchase her drugs at a large chain pharmacy instead of the neighborhood pharmacy, where she's been going for years and knows the pharmacist.
Across the room, 80-year-old Thelma Robinson and her 61-year-old son Charles Hall have just gotten their flu shots. Hall gets his mother her prescription drugs. She takes about six or seven pills a day. Hall, who pays for his mother's medication, spends about $100 a month on them.
Hall is computer savvy, but dealing with Social Security via computer has scared him off. His mother got a form in the mail from the government to apply for financial assistance. He mailed it back this week and they're waiting to hear before they sign up.
In Florida, 65-year-old Ed Rubiera wrote a letter to the Orlando Sentinel saying as someone in Mensa, and with an MBA, he figured he could work things out himself. But he had a hard time on the Internet site. He says it doesn't go deep enough. He had to go to individual company Web sites and make phone calls. He's not happy about the 64 choices he has. He says it's too complex. He is, though, happy about one thing. He figures he'll save about $700 nex year. So he's already signed up.
Some people have had very good experiences. Patricia Longenecker of Elizabethtown, Pa. attended a seminar put on by a consortium of state, federal and private groups. A state official worked the computer for her, and Longenecker feels like she understands her options. Longenecker's mother is only on a few drugs now. The cost of premiums for the new program and meeting the deductible would be more than what she's paying now. Nevertheless, Longenecker says, she's looking toward the future when her mother may need more drugs, and she's planning to sign her mother up for one of the plans.
The government doesn't have any sign-up figures yet. Benefits and charges for those who sign-up before the end of the year begin Jan. 1.

The Hurricane of Excuses

The students come up with all sort of excuses for not doing their homework. Is this good practice for the real world? I am thinking of playing this story for them to show them how to make excuses.

An Interesting Question

The following is my reply to a questionair for a position. It is not my usuall first draft posting. The question was:
5. Describe how you would use real life experiences in order to help students learn the abstract concepts in economics.
I agree that using real life experiences is a valuable learning tool, and I have developed methodology to help the students make these connections between real life experiences and abstract concepts.

One of the most effective methods of teaching economics is the use of classroom exercises that insert students directly into the economic environments being studied. For example, in Microeconomics using playing cards I divide the class into two groups. Students with red suits are buyers and students with black suits are sellers. I ask them to trade and I make a prediction as to the price. After a few rounds of trading they end up at the predicted price. They want to know how I was able to predict the price and they quickly discover the concepts of supply, demand and equilibrium. I like to think that I am providing my microeconomic students with a lab component where they can experiment with the concept being studied. Wherever I do not have an experiment I ask them to discuss and connect concepts to “reality”, before I give them any examples.

In Macroeconomic the experimental component is more difficult to produce and I mostly rely on developing the students’ observational skill. I assign students to find news articles, or a story that illustrates the given concept being studied. The process of searching for the news story makes them think, and I hope looking at the world as an economist will becomes a habit for them.

How did I do? We will find out soon enough.

What did the Fed chief Say?

This weekend I was listening to the Motely fool show on NPR. They play this game called "What Did The Fed chief Say?"
They play a section of Greenspan testimony and ask the contestants (playing for fool caps) to translate his testimony into plain English.
I am doing something similar with Newspaper articles, but I think this method of playing testimonies and asking for translation will be better. Radio is a little old fashioned for this generation. This generation respond better to Television. So if I use video it might be easier for them to make the connection between what they are studying and the real world.
As a CSPAN junky I can record and edit for in class conversation.

Thinking of what is taught in a Macro class

What do most Macroeconomics classes cover?

Here is a list of items that I believe every macroeconomics course should cover:

• National Income Accounting

GDP vs GNP

No Double Counting
Income = Expenditure
GDP is a flow concept not a stock concept (this one is my own pet peeve)

• The Real vs. Nominal Concepts (price levels)
• 
  Redistribution effects of inflation
  
  
• Using the Aggregate supply Aggregate model
  

To explain change in output
To explain change in prices
Shapes of the aggregate supply and the policy implications

• Money
  

Functions of money
Forms of money

• Policy
  
• Monetary
  Fractional Reserve banking
  The Fed
  
• Fiscal
  Deficit
  1. crowding out
  Debt
  1. internal debt
  2. external debt
  3. redistribution effects of govt. debt
  
• International (this one is new to me but I cover the following)
  

Exchange rates
Exports vs. Imports

International trade good absolute comparitively sucks

This is an interesting discussion starter on the show Market place. According to this report Trade makes poor bettter off in absolute terms but creates a big gulf between rich and poor. However most people judge their standard of living in comparative terms.

The Federal Budget Calculator

The Brady Bunch and the AMT

A funny way to explain AMT. I have to sit down and think of other ways to bring popular culture into the Econ class.

Productivity and Standard Living

Productivity is defined as how much output we can get from each unit of input or as the BLS puts it:

Productivity
A measure of economic efficiency that shows how effectively economic inputs
are converted into output. Productivity is measured by comparing the amount of
goods and services produced with the inputs that were used in
production.

A question that should be posed to the students is the following:

If Productivity is increasing thereby you get more per unit of input are you better off or worst off?

Outlining and Student Praise

This last few weeks, I have been busy writing cover letters, rewriting my resume, and working on supplemental questionnaire. I was applying for two full-time positions with health insurance. These last few weeks, I felt my lectures were unsatisfactory. I was not preparing as usual, so I was surprised that a student in macroeconomics came up and asked me if I would be teaching microeconomics next semester.
I said "yes" and made a joke "Are you sure you want to take me again?"
She replied "You are a good teacher. I like the way you explain things."
I said "Thank you"
She said "You do a great job outlining the reading and telling us what to look for( in the reading)"
I had never thought of what I do as outlining their reading but that is a good way to think about it.

Drinking with El Doctor again...

I was drinking with El Doctor again watching the game. After the game I told him about the guy at the dog park and his statement of "that aint right!"
El Doctor got angry and gave me the following speech. "It is not a questions of wrong or right. It is not a question of how things should be.. It is a question how things are..."
That was followed with how he dislikes Republicans who moralize economics in their speeches while ignoring most basic economic rules. He pointed out these people usually talk about frugality and paying for what one uses. Yet at they don't see the immorality of borrowing and passing the bill to the next generation. He pointed out that most of these Republican Economist don't understand Scarcity. I am a moderate republican and an economist, and I have to say he is right. Actually I have written about this on September 2.

"It aint right that comparative something or another"

I have been talking with some older people down at the dog park. I made the mistake of letting them know that I teach economics, and got dragged into is outsourcing good or bad, and is trade good or bad? I explained the concept of comparative advantage and they understood specialization. They accepted the economics of trade and how it makes us better off. One gentleman actually said "that is true! We are much better off then back in the 1970(the year he got married). You know we had more room but... “
Another gentleman jumped in with "that is because of the Arabs and the inflation."
But then one of them said: "what he says makes sense and I've seen it like you (the guy talking about 70s) but there is something wrong with loosing your livelihood." and with a look of disgust "it aint right to be told what you did is done more Comparatively something or another somewhere else."
I was surprised to hear this in Orange County from a guy who has a Bush sticker and other Republican memorabilia on his car.

Got an atta-boy for my syllabus

I got an atta-boy today for my syllabus today. I had never thought of it as anything special but it seems that my syllabi have an impact. The praise I received has to do with the visuals in my syllabus. I use Microsoft Puplisher to create my syllabi. This is the program used to make brochures and pamphlets. I know there is an Apple version of this program called iWork .
I include lots of pictures in my syllabi to capture the students' attention.
But the real reason I am writing this post is that someone noticed my brilliance before I did! Being recognized felt good and now I have a smile on my face.

Fed Blog

Interesting post on this site regarding money and the idea of money.

Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic

Sunday afternoon at Barnes and Nobel looking at various titles, reading a bit here, reading a bit there, hoping to find an interesting book. Nothing new in the economics, business, marketing, how to make a million section, so I started going down isles at random. I looked at some travel books, but decided against it, and moved on to the psychology/ Self help section. I picked up a book titled: "how to make people like you in 90 seconds or less".
The authors thesis was that people decide if they like you and thereby listen to you or hate you and not listen to you in the first 90 seconds of your meeting.
I thought to myself I could use some of this in class, so I read more. He had the standard copy the body language of whoever you want to communicate with and other standard self help stuff.
He covered the idea of different people thinking differently because they communicate using different senses. He broke them down into 3 groups Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic. The author advised the reader to create a message tailored to the target. I was familiar with this concept, but he had a way of figuring out anyone in a few second, which I like to test.
The following is his method of classifying people into one of the three groups:

1. Visual people Speak fast are sharp dressers. Visuals are very meticulous and impatient with long explanations that Kinesthetic people tend to provide.
2. Kinesthetic people speak slow. They try to explain feelings which they fail at and tend to drive visual people nuts. They dress for comfort in loose fitting clothing. Most Kinesthetic men have facial hair.
3. Auditory people speak in a moderate speed and change the tone and speed of their voice to fit the situation. They try to make a statement in the way they dress but they don't always succeed.

He also had a long written test, I came out somewhere between Visual and Kinesthetic. I have not an ounce of Auditory in me! I fit the profile I like to dress up and look good but deep down I am a slob when it comes to dressing. When talking about something that requires logic I am ultra visual and draw maps in my mind, but when it comes to any kind of relationships I rely more on my feelings and intuition.

Malthus, Gluts and Keynes

Reading the article in Wikipidia, I ran across the following:

"Here, he developed a theory of demand supply mismatches which he called gluts. Considered ridiculous at the time, his theory was later confirmed by the Great Depression and works of John Maynard Keynes."

I am rusty on my economic history. I have to check this out!

Keeping It Real

Previously I had thought about the fact that each class needs a theme that one comes back to over and over again.
For Micro the "theme" is cost benefit analysis and welfare maximization. It all comes down to Marginal cost Marginal benefit.
For Macro I was not sure what could be a theme.
As I was teaching the Social Security debate and clarifying the difference between financial problems and the real demographic problems, it hit me!
The idea (theme) that I was looking for is: "Keep it Real"
Both economist and students tend to forget the ultimate scarcity. We use technical vocabulary to describe it: Long Run Aggregate Supply and the Production Possibility Frontier.
believe when we talk about Real output we should stress the reality of the Real. We should stress that Nominal numbers are just that Nominal. We should talk actual standards of living (real) in a way that fits their (students) experiences.
If and when the discussion turns to distribution of income it should be connected to Real per capita output and distribution of real output!
I think this will answer the question most asked by the average student: "Who Gives a Da..?"

Anger

Today I became very angry and had to physicaly bite my tongue. A student in my 10:30 class received a call on his cell phone and he answered it. I looked at him shocked but he just raised his voice. I gave him an awful stare and bit my tongue so I would not use the m...f... word and much worst on him. He calmly stood up and anounced to the class that he has to get to work.
I finished my lecture and got ready for my class at noon. The Dean came to evaluate my noon class and I was still shook up. I think I did allright but I know I was not spectacular (there is too many I in that sentence).
I believe there is something wrong with this student, he is the same student I wrote about on September 16 . He lacks impulse control. I have not seen anything like him since I left my job as a special education teacher in LAUSD.
I have to break out my special education teacher training and explain this young man that his behavior will not be tolerated in my class.

OJ simpson and Teaching

Watching PBS again! O.J. The Verdict on Frontline topic got me thinking. The main thesis of the show was that African Americans viewed the trial differently from how the white population viewed the trial.
Most African Americans believed that O.J. was framed by the police and thereby had reasonable doubt.
White viewers, not having experienced police brutality saw him as guilty.
This made me think about how an economic lecture is viewed by people with different backgrounds. How can this be used to create a classroom discussion? Or is this an obstacle to learning? Do white students see things differently then let say a Hispanic student? Does a well to do student have more difficulty with Scarcity than a less fortunate student?

It is not the Economics but the Vocabulary

Today I gave one of my midterms. The midterm contained Multiple choice questions, Short answers and Graphing problems. My multiple choice questions come from the text book publishers. The students tend to read the textbook if they know the questions are written by the author. Also I find it difficult to create the wrong answers for multiple choice questions. Before using any question I go through and edit them for accuracy. I create my own short answer and graphing questions based on what was covered in class.
I had known that some students have difficulty with the English language, but I did not know the extent. Today a few students asked me the meaning of the following words:

zeal

unexpected

(they knew expected, it was the Un that confused them!)

ambiguous

repeal

and the one that really hurt my feelings:

Dismal

Note: My English grammar is not that great either.

Scary October 5, 2005 Talk of the nation

I am scared by the "so called" conservatives in Washington. These ideological yahoos do not think about the consequences of their actions. These guys are not conservative but radicals. I have posted my opinion on this topic back on June 2 posting !
Here is a link to the NPR show Talk of Nation where they discussed the following topic:

Republicans in Congress are calling for an Academic Bill of Rights that would
require dissenting viewpoints be heard in college classrooms. They say it
would correct a long-standing lean to the left on American college
campuses.

Quotes

The following are Galbraith Quotes.
I should look into how I can incorporate famous quotes into my lectures.
"The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events."
"In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone."
"Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything."

Wall Street Journal On Econ Education

Physic Teacher

I watched the class for a popular physic teacher. Economist try to be physicist with the various laws (such as Law of Demand etc.) that sound similar to various Laws in physic. So I decided to see how she makes physic interesting and maybe I can steal some of her ideas. She uses a method called "Peer Instruction". She starts out with putting up her learning objective for the day. She starts what seems like a standard lecture except that after every learning objective she puts up a difficult multiple choice question on the screen. She has the class divided into four sections. Each section correspond to a choice on the screen. The students will have to decide on the correct answer and move to the corresponding section. The students are given 5-10 minutes to discuss , come up with the correct answer and move to the correct section of the room for the question.
This was very fun but I noticed a problem with this technique is that prepared students build a reputation and quickly get a following. Unprepared students just wait and follow the well prepared students.

Preachers and Teachers

Watching a T.V. show recommended by one of my good students. The student is a believer and a bit of a missionary. After every class I listen politely and try to listen her beliefs. I was bored and decided to check out her television viewing recommendation. This guy was boring but as the camera went to the audience one could see the fascination in the believers' eyes.
I began to wonder how much of what the crowd hears is retained?
I wondered how many of them had read the BOOK before coming to the sermon?
I believe that their fascination was with the topic and not with the preacher. Unless I missed something!
Finally I started to ask all these questions about my own classes!
How much of my lectures is retained by the students?
How many read before coming to class?
How much of that retention is due to me and how much due to their study skills?
How much of their fascination is with the myth of money and Economics? And how much of their fascination is created by me?

The Invisible Heart

Thinking about my last post I remembered the novel Invisible Heart by Russel Roberts with a teacher guide to teach Econ.

Thematic Approach

Talking to a humanity teacher I was envious of how much flexibility they have in what they cover. After feeling sorry for myself I started to think we can do the same in Econ. Lets call it the novelist's approach to setting up a class. Or to make it sound more formal "The Thematic Approach to Economics".
This is a simple idea and probably some education book has this:

1. Picking a main theme for the semester such as growth or in Micro Incentives vs. Costs.
2. Within this theme or framework chose the chapters to be taught

This is how economics textbook authors write! The idea are the same in most textbooks. How it is presented and what is stressed or is not stressed is where the differences among textbook and teachers come to the surface. (this last sentence is really long)

Team teaching with Fine Arts

Write a play (or find a play) that illustrates concepts from economics. This Play should not have any Economic lingo nor any graphs!

Have a drama class read or act out the play. Ask the actors or the class to analyze the characters and/or the play. This way we have a drama class where actors learn Economics through researching their characters.
The trick is finding or writing a play that illustrates various Economics concepts.

Federal Reserve blog on Econ Education

P. Chidambaram Interview

On September 21st Charlie Rose interviewed the finance minister of India, P Chidambaram. I realized to late that I should be recording this interview. Chidambaram explained GDP and GDP per capita. He explained to Charlie that India will become the 3rd or 4th largest economy in the world but it will not have the GDP per capita of U.S.
Also he talked about Purchasing power parity when Charlie brought up cost of living.
This interview followed the outline in Colander Macroeconomics textbook.

Sentimentalists

Back in the mid to late 1980s, when I was a college student, I was a big fan of any music with depressing lyrics. It should be no surprise I was depressed a lot! Sometime around 1989 I put all of my music with depressing lyrics in a box and never listened to them again.
Fast forward to today!(actually yesterday)
Yesterday I found the box in my parents garage and I remembered why I put all my depressing music in that box.
My economics professor praised my curiosity , intelligence and taste in music but he also pointed out that I should enjoy life and stop listening to depressing music.

What I have in common with Jay Gould

The Dark Genius of Wall Street by Edward J., Jr. Renehan is the biography of Jay Gould.
He (Gould) would let his staff use his library. They were to use the library at anytime, even when he was in there himself.
He would secretly watch and would offer to finance the college education of the staff who showed a proclivity for learning. The author said he found 12 documented cases.
This is what I do with blackboard and WebCT. I am monitoring their usage and give those that spend lots of time and check various document the benefit of the doubt when they are on the border between two grades.
Now I am not a robber Barron and I am not hated like Gould but I have something in common with this bearded guy.
I liked the way Renehan put it: "He ran a triage in that library". I like to think that I am running an electronic triage.

Rounding the Corners

John Berendt author of Midnight in the Garden of good and evil said that he used fiction to "round the corners" in a true story.
Is this a useful tool in Econ to grab attention?
Should we tell tall tales to get their attention?
Should we tell tall tales to illustrate a point?
Bad side: Might lose credibility.
Gain: more interest in the material.
If you do it with a wink will it be ok?

Super Hero of Econ?

On Friday September 16 there was an interesting interview on Science Fridayy They interviewed James Kakalios author of The Physics of Superheroes.
This made me ask: could something similar be done for Economics?
Could there be a class like classes taught by Prof. Kakalios for survey of Econ course?


I got the cartoon above from Cartoon site Perfect world

Ok I am Sold!

Tried out experiment in my micro class and did an excellent lecture in the other. The class with the experiment did better on the supply and demand exam.
I could not figure out why did better so I asked my class on Friday. They told me that they were motivated to read because of the exam. Few of them reported that they were confused when we did the experiment, and they made the connection as they read to the confusion in class.
So it appears that experiments alone are not enough. There is a need for some old fashion reading too.
I used Charles Holt design, so he gets a link on my tiny blog.

The Macroeconomics Textbook Manifesto

An interesting manifesto by Dr DeLong at U.C. Berkeley.

Getting Soft!

Yesterday for the first time since leaving L.A.U.S.D.(L.A. Unified School District), I had to ask a student to stop talking. I usually encourage talking that is related to the subject. However this student was making funny remarks every chance he got. I did not mind his first joke (Big Mistake! I should have cut him off there) was a bit annoyed at his second joke and gave him my dirty look! On his third time I gave him another dirty look which he did not notice or ignored.
I decided to be patient and pull him aside after class, so I would not have to embarrass him in front of his classmates.
On his fourth joke one of his classmates told him to grow up. At this point I asked him to please stop his commentaries.
He asked me: "Why don you say something earlier?"
I replied with "I assumed that we were all grown ups here."
One of his friends said "Burn..."
After class I tried to stop him so I could talk to him but he was the first one out the door. Other students came up and thanked the young lady who told him to grow up.
It made me realize that I am out of practice when it comes to discipline of problem students. I have to be more ready for such students and cut them off at their first digression.

Too Expensive to Cheat

In my online class, I assign due dates and keep reminding the students that my class is not a self-paced class!
One student has asked: "why do u have this rule?"
I replied with "to ensure you and your classmates success in learning. If you study over a period of time the material will stay with you longer than if you crammed it all in one night. Finally it helps me to have everyone on the same general page. "
There is one more reason, which I did not share with this student. The secret reason is to make it too expensive for anyone to cheat by paying someone to do their online homework. A student can afford to pay someone to take an online exam for them, but having to login and complete weekly quizzes is going to be very expensive. Also the weekly assignments and quizzes are useful in making cheaters stand out. If a students weekly assignments and quizzes are consistently horrible and their midterm is outstanding something is rotten in .... (wherever they be logging in from)

Figuring out my X-Periment!?

I gave my midterm yesterday. There were 30 multiple choice questions and one short answer question on the exam. The students were told if you do not know the answer you have two options:

1. write something and hope for the best
2. Write I don't know!

I offered the ones who admit not knowing the answer 1 point for honesty, and would give zero to those who try to B** S**! This was mainly done to save my eyes.

The results for both classes are different and confusing to me. The large lecture hall with 111 students had only 2 students admitted not knowing. There were 11 other students who tried to write something long (on a short answer question!) hoping for the best.

My smaller class with 47 students had 7.5 students admitting their lack of knowledge. There was one student in this class who wrote out bunch of stuff and at the end admitted that she did not know the answer.

In the small class 100 percent of the students confessed their lack of knowledge but in the large lecture they still tried to get away with B**S**

Do they feel that anonymous in those large lecture halls? The safety in number (herd) mentality?

Midterm exam

Midterm Exam I have one short answer question on the midterm.
I tell the students if they know the answer and can get it they will get 4 points. However if they do not know the answer they have two options:

1. Try to B**S** and get Zero
2. Write I don't know and get one point for honesty

I wonder what the results will be? And if I could I would like to have a punitive point for B#**S**. I have to check with the Dean first!

Last night on Charlie Rose one of the guest was CHRIS WHITTLE. He is the entrepreneur slash educator who started the Edison Schools. He was there to sell his new book "Crash Course: Imagining a Better Future For Public Education"
His main thesis was that we are using a 19th century model for education. He wants us to think of new ways of running schools. One example he gave was hiring half as many teachers and paying them twice as much as they are now. He argued having the school day divided into 6 periods is a waste. He envisions students studying a few hours a day with higher paid and more talented and more motivated teachers and the rest of the day the students would run the school.
How about higher education? How would higher education reform itself?

Excellent Program on PBS

I watched this on the local PBS station and found it very accurate. The program is called Declining by Degrees!

Are all Fixed Costs Sunk?

Drinking again with El Doctor, but this time closer to home. I had sent him my last(Sept 9th) post, and asked him what he be thinking.
He criticized my post for not including the idea of short-run long-run fallacy. He asked: What is a Short-run today? The network effects, technology and a global market for goods and labor puts us in the long run. We get our goods from China. We get services from India. So where is the fixed resources to cause diminishing returns?.

So El Doctor argues for the long-run flat to a downward sloping supply curve! He pointed to the telecom industry as soon as they laid down their lines the price for their lines fell. As they increased quantity supplied (in the long-run) the price were going down. For those who have forgotten this supply curve, it is usually taught in the chapter on perfect competition under the long-run senario.
My contribution to this discussion of ours was the following jingo: all fixed costs sink fast.

Diminishing Marginal Productivity

While drinking down at the cowboy bar in San Juan, I confessed my doubts about some of the materials in Microeconomics! My confessor, El Doctor,absolved me of my sin by pointing out that some of my doubts have a basis in fact.

The idea he attacked most eloquently was the idea of Diminishing Marginal Productivity. He argued that some ideas in principal courses are obselete.
Is Diminishing Marginal Productivity an old obselete idea?
I was a little intoxicated but his argument in a nutshell was Microeconomics as taught in Principal courses is just mental gymnastics, but he also argued that there is a value in having students practicing a bit of logic.
Some of the ideas that we agreed were accurately portrayed in Micro were:

• Cost Benefit analysis
• Incentives
• Game Theory

Discussion Board

The guy who got me excited about Econ is using an online discussion board to generate in class discussion. Using Blackboard course management system he has students post to the discussion board, and later in class he uses their posts to generate in class discussion.
I like this idea very much! The semester has already started so it is too late to change my syllabus, and I hate extra credit.
Taking the Doctor's idea, I made a forum for the students on blackboard called:
"I did not get what ...... you be talking about?"
I am hoping that students will ask online what they are embarrassed to ask in front of their classmates. However most students will not do this till it becomes mandatory or becomes extra credit.

Rock and Roll to Motivate

I was at the library looking through the education section for some books on teaching. I had no idea what I was looking for and was letting the moment guide me.
I picked up a book from 1983 and it was about how music in the background can affect the mood of the students.
There was some stuff on Alpha Beta and Delta waves created with different type of music.
Now as a dismal scientist I am not into New Age stuff but what about using rock and roll.
Here is one that is not fully cooked:

• Marginal Cost vs Marginal Benefit of selling and moving could be taught with the Clash in the background singing "should I stay or should I go?"

If you can think of any other songs let me know. I will add some as I come up with them.

Working family

Irvine California Dog park. I am watching my dog chase some other dog and my ears are scanning the conversations taking place around me. One of these conversation caught my attention today.
There are these women who baby sit busy peoples' dogs. They work on an hourly basis for some dog sitting company. These women were talkin about getting a 10 cent/ hour raise and how she was making $9/hour. This also caught the ear of an engineer who makes 85k a year and drives the latest BMW with a "W" (Bush election sticker) on the back.
He was astounded that these ladies were only making $9/hour. He could not figure out how someone can live on $300 (after taxes) a week. He admitted that he spends that much in one night eating out.
This did not go down well with the dog sitters. To ease his conscious he offers free advice to the ladies.
"Be more entrepreneurial! You should do this as business not hourly work!"
I wonder if he is on the right track? Or is he full of it?
It is very easy to give advice, when your stomach is full and you are comfortable.

Economist and Scarcity

This post relates to my recent post on Opportunity Costs. I thought of another simple concepts that big name economist forget. The concept of scarcity is one that Presidents Council of Economic Advisors seem to have forgotten. War in Iraq and tax cuts? Guns and Butter?! Wait but isn't that Opportunity Cost again! So again I am not surprised by economist not knowing our own rhetoric.

Iowa Electronic Markets

http://www.biz.uiowa.edu/iem/classroom/

Using the site for Econ class

Opportunity Cost

Here is an interesting result. A shameful result according to Marginal Revolution?
But is it surprising? When I was in graduate school my girl friend and classmate got upset at our micro teacher because I got a higher score on the midterm exam then her. As an undergrad she was a math major and she was helping me with the math. I confess I am at best average when it comes to math. She was mad because my math on the exam was all wrong and yet I scored a higher grade then her. She wanted to know why?
Dr. S. (the teacher I try to copy when I teach micro) told her "Mike screwed up in the mechanics of the math but his economic reasoning is sound." He continued after thinking for a moment "Your math is flawless and the proof you provided is wonderful but how does it work in Economics."
She could not answer him.
In case you are wondering the question was about cost. She had calculated all the explicit costs accurately but had overlooked what she angrily called "B**L S*** Cost" !
I do not find this surprising at all. If you want the finance version of this read Financial Rounds.

Springsteen Seminar

This is a seminar but I would love to design a fun class like this! Maybe a class on economics of changing your name "P Diddy"! Oh! he dropped the "P" he is just "diddy" now! Don't believe me? Here is CNN Don't believe CNN here is MSNBC

Small Class Large Class & Outliers

I have noticed a strange thing. I am teaching a class with 21 students another 4 classes with 50 or so students, and a class with 110 students.
The classes with 50 students are going well, I get the "I want to sleep but I got to fake interest" faces, as well as truly interested students. I started teaching classes of 45-50 so I find having a few sleepy heads normal.
My class with 110 students is in a large auditorium and I feel that I am doing great in this class. I get lots of laughter and actually one or two students in the back try to get my attention to ask questions. This could be an illusion, since I can not see their faces and I only think they love my lecture.
The small class of 21 students has one tired student and the rest are actually interested. They just maybe good actors.
This made me wonder how much of this difference is due to the students?
How much is due to change in my behavior toward classes of differing sizes?
How much is just statistic? The probability of having a sleepy head in a class of 50 is higher than in a class of 21 students. Or in a class of 110 there is a higher probability of having interested students that have read compared to a class of 50 students. This was my favorite explanation till I noticed that both proportional and in absolute numbers I have more well prepared interested students in my class of 21!
Is this an Outlier?

UHaul Pricing

Interesting post on Marginal Revolution

hypothetical bias

Interesting site.
Like the setup of the blog.

Libertarian & Academic Freedom

I have noticed that some of my students are swinging to the left, so I have been reading a little bit of Free market, laissez fair, libertarian material to challenge their idealism.
However it got me thinking could free markets protect Academic Freedom?
Lets look at the public school. Government funding means government oversite. Government oversite means politics. Government monopoly leads to textbook committees. And next what you can and can not teach committees?
I do not buy this argument but should I?
Would letting markets dictate what is to be taught lead to an overly commercialized educational system?
I am just thinking outloud!

Salt and wealth

George Bush is reading the book Salt: a world history by Mark Kurlansky and the author is quoted as saying: "he reads books?"
I was surprised to learn that you can write a whole book about salt. I was further surprised by Kurlansky arguments. According to this book, Salt was as valuable as gold mainly for its preservative qualities. Therefore, International trade could not take place without salt before refrigeration.
It got me thinking could this be used to illustrate shift in Supply and Demand?
Why is salt not valuable in the 20th century?
According to this book Salt in the 2oth century became abundant because of drilling technology. (Change or shift in supply)
Also refrigeration seems to have reduced the need for salt. (Change or shift in Demand)
As Salt becomes abundant Diminishing Marginal utility sets in? Similar to the Diamond water paradox? ( I have not worked this out completely)

Obsession with Pricing for Necessities

What would make someone drive across town to save 20 cents a gallon on gasoline. This is only a saving of 2 dollars on a 10 gallon tank or 4 dollars on a twenty gallon tank. The same person would not drive across town to save 2 dollars or 4 dollars on a computer or some other item.
Is this illustrating the percent change in price idea or is there something else in the psyche of the consumer? I am thinking when we believe something is a necessity we get more obsessive about the price of it.

Guilt of Blogging

I was feeling guilty for not keeping up with my goal of blogging everyday. And when I did keep up I felt it was horrible writing.
I was listening to an interview with Charles Murray and the interviewer asked why Charles Murray does not blog?
He replied blogers are good at writing first drafts, whereas he is more of a rewriter.
Could this be my excuse? Come to think of it I started this blog because I was too cheap to buy a notebook.

Got Googled And found an Agent in Beverly Hills

I got googled by a student. She was a student of mine and needed a letter of recommendation. I agreed to help her out. This got me to google myself. I could not believe how many different places I have been mentioned.
I got a big head for a second but after a few minutes, I realized this is due to information storage being cheap! Nothing special about me!
Also I found a real estate agent with my name in Beverly Hills.

Draft of my teaching philosophy

My teaching philosophy can be broken down into a few unified uncomplicated points.
1. Teachers can only motivate the students and it is the student who learns.
2. Success in learning or any enterprise demands hard work and persistence.
3. An interested student will work harder than a student who is forced to be there
My belief in these three points drives me to make economics interesting and create a sense of passion for the material in the students psyche. An interested student will learn more than I or any other instructor could teach them.

Competition Discussion Starter????

Globalization faces more of a challenge in the developed world from the middle class. Globalization would face less of a challenge in the developing world.
Why?
Competition eliminates economic profits.
Monopoly has economic profits.
Econ profits come at the expense of someone else.
Sure the pie grows but the winners have to give up (in short run) more than they recieve, and even if they can make it again is doubtful. Bird in the hand worth two in the bush.

Cooperative learning and wining on reality T.V.

I have been watching lots of T.V. lately. I should say too much T.V.! There are many Reality T.V. shows on the air. There is the Apprentice with Don Trump (don’t get me started on that loser), Big Brother 9999, Survivor (somewhere new but same old show), I want to be a Hilton and The Law Firm. All of these show have wannabe famous contestants with a mediocre intellect with high opinion of their own intellect.
Another common theme is in these contests and the topic of this post is: they all do things that the Co-operative learning literature talks about. The teams, tribes and inmates are put or form their own groups, and compete to complete a task. After completing the task they themselves or Donald grades them. This is similar to how group activities work in the classroom. I know there are some students who hate cooperative learning and group work, but I think now I can sell this cooperative learning (group activities) more easily to such students. I would make a T.V. show called the Economist where two groups the Dismalist and the Marginalist compete for _____ and I can tell one student each week “You have failed!”

Diversity

I saw an interview on Charlie Rose with Kim Clark Dean of Harvard Business School. On Diversity at Harvard he said (paraphrased): Overt Racism is over but we have to fight against the implicit prejudices. These are more dangerous because most of us are not aware that we carry these prejudices around with us. This is where education can bring awareness.
Is this an accurate statement? Is overt racism over?
What are these implicit prejudices and how do we fight them?

Older students

It has been hot lately and to fight the heat I have been drinking beer. I don’t like to drink alone so I have been going out with friends to drink. The other night I drank with a friend who is a freeway flier (part-time faculty who teach at 2 or 3 schools) like me. He was complaining about night classes. I told him I love night classes. The students in night classes are usually older and thereby better students. This started the question of why are older students better. Is it because older students have more life experience to draw upon? Is it their discipline? Or is it that their basic skills (3R) are ahead of the more recent high school graduates?

Dancing Rabbit Assignment

As I was writing the last entry I started looking at the website for the Dancing Rabbit commune. I found an interesting page in their website that could be used in an econ class.
I was surprised that they have an Economy page and they have created and issue their own currency.
I have to think of an assignment for this idea of mine.
Here is the page that got me looking titled bunny money

12 Planets

Insomnia again. I was watching the show 30 Days on the FX channel last night, and the topic was taking two average American consumers from New York City to a commune that is off the grid. They were to live on a commune called Dancing Rabbit for 30 days. Before they went to the commune they were followed by some environmental consultant who watched their behavior. The analyst told them that if everyone on the planet lived as they did we would need 12 and half planets. The above statement got my attention.
Since last night I have been thinking about how one would explain this using economics?
If we accept the consultants claim that we would need 12 planets to sustain the lifestyle of the two volunteers, could this explain unequal distribution of resources?
Or is our current structure a temporary outlier that will be corrected by the market forces?
What will be the effect of these market forces on our standard of living?
Or is this what economist call tragedy of commons?

Does Student Dissent Promote Learning?

All Social Science instructors have experience with an outspoken student. And in the days of 24 hour cable news with shows like Crossfire most students believe that yelling is debate. I have observed students that could not separate the theory from the instructor (see my June 2nd posting "My Letter To The Editor"). I am fortunate that I have not had such students. This is due to me playing both sides of the debate in a very obvious way by using outrageous arguments from both sides. Students are never sure about my political leanings and see me as a fair moderator. However, I have had experiences where the discussion goes into the FOX zone. When do you stop the discussion and get them back to the topic? Do you stop them or allow them or allow them to make mistakes? When do you stop the crazy ranting and raving of some students with strong opinions? Yes, but how would one do that without being accused of being a pinko liberal or a right wing nut?