What I want you to know about me as your professor.
I’m at Bucknell because I care about teaching and students.
Carrying a Ph.D. in Computer Science opens many doors to many jobs in many places all over the world. It means that all your CS professors probably chose this job over far more lucrative positions. I chose Bucknell because I care about teaching and I care about students. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have come here. If I still didn’t feel that way, I wouldn’t be here either. But I do.
I care about this field both in and outside the classroom.
- I advocate for more ethical, socially-aware approaches to technology through education — here at Bucknell, nationally through grant programs, and internationally by running workshops and tutorials.
- I research how to communicate data to people in ways that empower their everyday life. You can read about my recent work, hear me talk about it, or even read what other people have to say about it. You can also take a look at my full list of research projects.
- I promote undergraduate students both at Bucknell and in my professional community. I include students in my research, write about promoting undergraduates in my research community, and publish workshops and papers about the value of liberal arts schools for technology.
You can see me engaging with these ideas (and more) with people from all over the world on my Twitter feed.
I want to you to come to my office (Dana 334).
I want to get to know you — both as a student and as a person. One of the primarily benefits of a school like Bucknell is that we create an environment where you can get to know your professors. You aren’t in a class of 100 or 200 students. You’re in a class of 20 or 30. Getting to know my students is the part of the job I like the most. I want to know what ideas you’re wrestling with in class. I want to know what you care about outside of class. Don’t miss that opportunity because you think you’re an inconvenience. You’re not.
I didn’t know how to code when I started undergrad.
I chose to study Computer Science without knowing much about it. And if I’m being honest, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life for most of my life (do I now?). This aimlessness feels intimidating in undergrad… but over a lot of time and through many conversations, I’ve found that not knowing and having no background is normal. I’m not just saying it because it sounds nice… it’s because many successful people in my field have the same story.
Not knowing how to program doesn’t mean you’re behind, it means that you’re normal. The point here is that I don’t expect you to have answers or experience yet. I expect you to work hard, reflect on what you know and don’t know, and engage with the class. That’s it.
I want to see you even more when you’re lost.
As a student, I felt ashamed when I wasn’t keeping up. The professor was the last person I wanted to admit that failure to. But as a prof, you should know that asking me questions when you’re lost will impress me a lot more than trying to pretend like you understand. In fact, it’s a quality I often point to in recommendation letters… overcoming fears to ask questions is one of the strongest indicators I’ve seen of future success.
It’s hard, but don’t avoid me if you’re struggling. I’m there to help, and it’s a lot easier to get help when problems first emerge than scrambling to catch up many weeks later.
I care about your learning. Sometimes, you might not like that.
You should also know that I pay attention to, read, and adjust my courses in response to the most recent research in CS education. I will use anything that is effective to help you learn. There are reasons behind the assignments and policies in my courses. Feel free to ask me about them if you don’t understand why we’re doing something.
This also means that on occasion, I make decisions that aren’t popular (and I know it). But I do it because the research and/or my experience shows that you learn more. Sometimes, I have to suck it up and realize that it’s more important to be a good professor than your favorite professor.
I have high expectations for classroom culture.
You’ll find that students who have had me in class before often describe my personality as “laid back”. While that’s generally true, I don’t have any tolerance for attitudes or behavior that contribute to a negative learning environment. All my courses have a code of conduct in the syllabus that I expect you to abide by. Just as importantly, I expect you to call out (and tell me) if you see any behavior that belittles another person.
Why is this so important to me? Well, CS classrooms have a bad history of fostering a defensive social climate. They can be intimidating, unfriendly, and downright hostile for some students. For whatever reason, CS students can feel the need to foster competitive behavior by telegraphing their expertise to other students, trivializing their own struggles, and fabricating how easy they perceive the course to be.
This is bad.
It’s bad because making the people around you feel stupid or unwelcome is toxic. It disintegrates trust among all the people who should be working together towards a common goal. You need those people to accomplish anything important in technology.
It’s also bad because it drives diverse groups of people out of the major… and the tech industry desperately needs all of our perspectives to prevent repeating the ethical messes of recent years.
You share a classroom with motivated, brilliant, and diverse students. Do not undermine that unique and powerful aspect of your education.
- Email me at evan.peck@bucknell.edu
- Visit my office at Dana 334
- Visit my website at http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~emp017/
- Find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/EvanMPeck
