Uechi-Ryu.com

Confused and Distracted

Earlier today I was "called on the carpet" by a student for the way I have been feeding lectures to you, and for "changing the rules in midstream" which temporarily stopped me in my tracks from sending out any more lectures.

If anyone else is of the opinion that I have been less than responsible and less than honest with youse guys, and you are unhappy with the way I've been conducting classes, let me know now before we continue with another lecture, and I'll address the issue in a way I see fit!

In the beginning I stated in the forums that this course was not for those with prior c/c++ skills. In another post, I can't find it right now, I mentioned this course was not for the experienced programmer. I let at least one in who, today, professes to be experienced in a number of computer languages, etc.

Also elsewhere I wrote that I expected youse guys to do the assignments. Experience does not preclude doing assignments and sending me the results.

Also I wrote that I was developing this course as we were doing it and wrote words to that effect.

I also wrote somewhere that I expect youse guys to do the work.

I began emailing lectures directly, well ahead of my schedule of posting one per week intentions ,because due to the positive feedback I had been receiving, some were working very hard at doing the assignments and feeding their results back to me just as fast as I could write new lectures, so I started sending the new lectures well in advance..

The checkbook program has been on hold for awhile because I realized after the way some of youse got hung up on it, that it was much too early in the course to present it, and was not part of this original course anyway.

Some students wrote both email and in the forums about the dizzying pace at which I am announcing that I have prepared lessons. I wrote, more than once, that this is a self-paced course. That means do the lectures when you can and send in the results when completed. I can go back and No big deal. At least I thought it was no big deal until today.

I need your response at your earliest convenience, but if it turns out to be a flame-thrower post, I'll dump it!!!!

Thanks.

Allen




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Allen Moulton from Uechi-ryu Etcetera

Allen this course is everything you said it would be. Yes It's hard,but you said it would be.

You've been very up front and I've no problem with the pace you post lectures. I'll move on to the next section when I've completed the last one. I'll complete the course when I'm done.

It doesn't matter if you have 25 lessons posted or 50.

The fact that you've offered to teach this and invest all this time and effort on our behalf is admirable.

I would not dream of making any demands upon you,you've done enough already. I am comfortable in the knowledge that your help is available when I get stuck.

I've got too do the work!

I like the idea of a course that runs at our own pace. We all have different amounts of time to invest, and we will all learn at different rates.

We were all aware that this is a work in progress,so If things change every now and then it's no surprise. I think it's gone very well ,you have done a lot of preplanning I suspect.

As they say down under,

No Worries Mate!

Laird(Two thumbs up)

Dear all,

I think the first think that everyone needs to be clear on is that Allen is doing everyone a huge favour by running this course and has absolutely no obligations to do so. He has obviously put a huge amount of thought and effort into this course and is running it with seemingly no reward for his effort. This last point is especially relevant to me as I've never met Allen, don't practise Uechi-ryu and live on the opposite side of the Atlantic to you guys but yet was accepted on the course without a second thought.

I think it is natural that people are going to progress at different rates as everyone is different, has different backgrounds, differing amounts of time to devout etc.

I personally like the fact that I can work on the course at my own rate. I tried to turn the assignments over as quick as I could because I'm enjoying the course and am keen to learn more.

Having re-read the posts concerning this course, it was repeatedly stated that this was a practial course and that regular assignments were expected to be completed. It was also spelled out that this course was for the absolute begineer.

Having said that, even though I have had prior experience programming (which I declared when I initially contacted Allen), I have already learnt a great deal from the course and look forward to continuing to do so.

Rik

Allen sensei,
You are doing an amazing job. Are there issues? Certainly. That is to be expected, as this is a new course, and you are dealing with students from vastly differing backgrounds. IMHO, you are doing a really incredible job of designing and teaching this course, while at the same time designing the programs used to illustrate the lectures. The way you have dealt with my confusion on certain issues is commendable. I am learning an amazing amount, and the more I learn, the more it all makes sense.

When I started, I had a grasp of the syntax of the C language, but little understanding of how to design an application. I am learning how to approach design, and how to implement that design. Once again, the more I learn, the more everything I have learned previously makes sense. I am looking forward to the rest of what you have in store for us in this course.

Arnie

I have been holding off response on the forum, hoping to snag a few replies. I certainly didn't expect all the kudos, probably because I was shell-shocked at several emails I received.

The following is something which Rik wrote and stuck to my mind:


"He has obviously put a huge amount of thought and effort into this course and is running it with seemingly no reward for his effort. "

To that I respond in the following manner:

I like to teach and I like to write. The events of 9-11 depressed my ability to do so and I no longer wanted to write about martial arts skills, fact my entire creativity was dampened and I didn't want to write anything at all -- except for who I am as an American.

As the depression lifted, I wanted to write again, however still not about pugilistic stuff, currently I prefer to keep those thigs to myself and share them with my students; hopefuly it'll pass too.

The idea of an on-line C course hit me. I could continue cyber-instructions and along the lines of something else I also know very well, as well. I thought myself into a frenzy and made a few announcements on GEM's forums as a fishing expedition and ended up catching myself, albeit knowingly and willingly.


The data that I am writing about is all from inside my head and is much more voluminous than I ever expected it would be -- how simple it must be to write a checkbook program; make a few entries, hit enter a few times, and voila! Right? Oh yeah, right.


But it's a little fun and a lot hard work for me too. I don't simply give my knowledge away, and like my own Uechi-ryu dojo I don't charge my students money and teach them everything I know a little at the time when I know they are ready to receive new information, but not before.


There is a price I demand of them or they can no longer continue as my students. I am not a tough over-demanding taskmaster, but I expect to see the sweat on their brows and the fruits of my labors by watching them get better and more confident in their abilities as the days, weeks, months, and years go by. The price I need to extract from my cyber C students is the same, although the computer course is much shorter then my Karate courses, but I need feedback to check their progress.

So here I was, feeling figuratively knocked down and kicked in the ribs when I wasn't looking. I got up, brushed myself off and figured I'd try to find out what was on others' minds, wanting to extract from the more pen-vocal thoughts I was doing the right thing or not, whether I should change the direction of this class or not, etc.

My class is not a democratic class, nor do I turn the other cheek, but I still listen.

Thanx and C-ya

Allen

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Allen Moulton from Uechi-ryu Etcetera