On Multitasking, Courses for Winter!
Thoughts on Multitasking
It's hard for me to believe, but I'm now about halfway through the Programming Languages course that I've been teaching at Brown this fall.
When initially planning for this course, I thought that I might try to teach some of my own courses at the same time--maybe offering some one day courses interspersed here and there throughout the fall. In the end, I decided against it figuring that it would be too much of a distraction to try and multitask like that. I think this has proven to be the correct decision. The Brown course is intense and has required a lot of focus. It's nice to not have other things going on.
It's actually made me think about the format of my own courses. 2023 has been a year of experimentation with course formats. For example, I offered some of my project courses in a month-long format, split my Advanced Programming course into one-day courses, and so forth. In the end, I think I still prefer the week-long immersion format. To be sure it's an intense amount of work (probably more than anyone is normally used to), but in some sense, it's also the opposite of multitasking. There is a certain flow to being there for the week, thinking about the topic, building something, and working with others in the moment. I've written some general thoughts about it here.
Courses for Winter
The Brown course concludes in early December. I'm offering all of my usual courses after that:
- Advanced Programming with Python, December 18-22, 2023.
- Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP), January 8-12, 2024.
- Write a Compiler, January 15-19, 2024.
- Rafting Trip, January 22-26, 2024.
If you REALLY wanted to go full immersion, you can take advantage of the rare alignment of SICP, Compilers, and Raft in back-to-back weeks.
At some point, I will probably unpack the Brown course into some kind of course offering for later in the year. Stay tuned.
Cheers,
Dave