The syllabus is not a contract, but rather a guide to what and how I teach.
After you read this page, move onto the general philosophical underpinnings of this course.
The complete syllabus is made up of these pages:
- General Philosophy : why this course looks the way it does
- Learning Outcomes & My Policies : what you’ll learn and how I handle that
- Official Carleton Policies : general policies germane to every course
- Assessment Pieces : what actually gets assessed
You Don’t Have To Be Techy!
I don’t even know what ’techy’ means. You just have to be curious. If you’re curious, you’ll be ok. The poet Allison Parrish once wrote,
[I] think a fundamental problem is that computers (especially tablets/phones) nowadays are designed to “de-skill,” because it’s much more difficult to monetize users who, like, actually know how their computers work and have the expectation that they should be able to independently control a computer’s function. the culture surrounding computation compounds the problem—I have students who don’t believe they CAN learn how computers work, because they’re not ‘that kind of person.’ (via aparrish@friend.camp 21 December 2024).
Just breathe, take it one step at a time, and you’ll be amazed at what you can do.
You Do Have To Read Carefully and Thoroughly!
Take your time. Read through something completely before clicking on a link or shifting to the lab bench or whatever. Automatically generated summaries miss important context. Instructions may be daunting on first glance, so read slowly, and contemplate, before you do anything.
Contacting Dr. Graham
My details are in the navigation bar above, but you can also find me in PA 406 (my office) or PA 435-439 (the XLab) or in the library coffee shop, especially on Wednesday mornings. You’ll know me: I’m the middle-aged bald guy sitting at the long table with a Mac air covered in stickers (you’ll know you’ve got the right guy if you see a sticker placed centrally with a stylized white ‘T’ in a blue circle.)
shawn dot graham at carleton dot ca
If you wish to email me, be warned that I get a lot of email, and have several filters in place in self-defense. To defeat my filters, please observe the following style:
- subject line: course code & concise description of the nature of your note
- salutation: ‘Dear Dr Graham’ or ‘Dear Prof. Graham’. Do not use my first name unless I invite you to do so.
- message: ‘I’m writing about’ :module, exercise, reading, issue, code problem, other.
- with regard to code problems, include screenshots, the full text of error messages, the thing you were trying to do, the expected outcome, the actual outcome. Give me sufficient detail that I can help you troubleshoot.
- also, if something code related doesn’t work within 30 minutes, it doesn’t matter how long you fight with it. I don’t want to hear that you struggled with something for 3 hours. The best thing you can do, after 30 minutes, is close the computer, walk away, come back later fresh. Then if it doesn’t come together, write to me, write to a friend, show the problem to someone on the street, whatever.
It’s ok to ask for help. I’m just asking you to help me help you more easily.