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Do Giraffes Evolve by Neck Stretching? PDF Print
News
Written by Jeff Li   
Tuesday, 26 February 2013 10:31

At the Learn To Be House in Austin, I live with wonderful housemates and we have some of the most stimulating discussions. Gabe Earle is the LTB Math Consultant who famously embarked on a graduate math curriculum his freshman year in undergrad. He spends his free time immersed in NPR podcasts and drinking from the fire hose of knowledge using Wikipedia's random article feature. Syed Rizvi, a true interdisciplinarian, majors in Government and Economics and is a TIP Scholar and a member of the Bridging Disciplines Program who goes to UT Austin tuition-free as a Rapoport Service Scholar. His leisure consists of supporting new LTB chapter leaders and getting invited to the White House. Jeff Li, LTB Director of Admissions, is a Dean Scholar and a Business Honors student. Out of 35,000 undergrads at UT Austin you can probably count on one hand the absolute best and brightest who are selected for both of these most prestigious programs. This particular blog feature is from a conversation I had with Jeff, but look out for more from your resident LTB experts. – Jingshen, LTB Volunteer

 

The most cardinal thing you need to know to understand all of biology is evolution. Evolution is biology’s unifying concept. Everything we know today, and everything we know about life in the past comes from evolution – ancient organisms, dinosaurs, humans, modern disease. If you understand this, you can are on the right path to understanding it all.

Evolution is the change in inherited characteristics over the course of successive generations.

But what does this really mean? First, what it doesn’t mean.

The four most common misconceptions about evolution:

1. Evolution has a plan
2. Evolution is forward-thinking (plans ahead)
3. Evolution designs traits
4. Evolution acts on need

In actuality:

1. Evolution does not have a plan
2. Evolution is not forward-thinking
3. Evolution does not design traits
4. Evolution does not act based on need

Evolution occurs when selection acts on a preexisting characteristic in a population. Preexisting means selection does not change the organism. The variation was already there! Organisms don’t evolve wings, or evolve a thicker coat of hair, or opposable thumbs. That would mean that one minute they were wingless, thin-coated, and pawed, and all of a sudden grew wings, a bushy coat, and hands. That’s like you suddenly sprouting lobster claws from your forehead!

Organisms don’t evolve, populations do.

Now that we’ve established that individual organisms don't evolve, how does evolution happen? Evolution occurs by natural selection, an idea first coined by Charles Darwin. It acts on naturally-occurring variation in a population. And by variation, we mean different characteristics. The characteristics need to exist before the environmental change – the change does not cause the characteristic. A sudden ice age does not mean an animal suddenly starts growing a thick fur coat because they need to in order to survive. Instead, a population of wolves, through random mutation, may include some wolves that have thicker fur than others. The ones with thicker fur are more likely to survive a sudden change to colder weather and leave more offspring, filling the rest of the population with a higher percentage of thick-furred wolves.

Modern media often talks about evolution in the Lamarckian way, which may, at-a-glance, make sense, but it describes things in the need-it-grow-it way, which we’ve proven to be quite ludicrous.


It all comes down to which individuals, through a characteristic they already have, are able to produce more offspring. In the above example of giraffes, the ones with longer necks are able to get more nutrition, and can produce more offspring, passing this advantageous trait to a greater proportion of the next generation.

The differences between the true definition of evolution and the common misrepresentations are subtle, but significant. It frames everything we do, from the way cancer research is done with bacteria, to how we map out genetic trees and categorize the history of life on Earth.

 

 

Need more academic stimulation? Come see Jeff at ExploreUT Major Toss Up and SXSWedu Future Plans next week.

 
 
10 Online Tutoring Tips PDF Print
Resources
Friday, 03 April 2009 10:10

1. Take turns talking.

  • Because of possible delays in VoIP techonology, wait until a student is finished speaking before you talk to avoid interrupting the student.

2. Change pen colors.  

  • Use different colors on the whiteboard to help keep the work visually organized.

3. Use the red pointer as often as possible.  

  • Because the student cannot see the movements of your mouse or where on the whiteboard you are directing, use the pointer tool to guide the student to where he or she should be looking or working.

4. Have the student complete as much of the work as possible.

  • Guide the student through the process, but have the student do the actual writing, drawing, or reading.

5. Continuously provide the student with verbal feedback.

  • With online tutoring, students cannot receive visual feedback from you because they cannot see your body language or facial expressions.  Therefore, keep the student aware that you are attentive.

6. Continuously give positive feedback.  

  • Affirm the student both verbally (e.g. “that’s correct”, “good job”, “keep it up”, “uh-huh”) and visually (e.g. star correct answers, draw a smiley face on a completed worksheet).  Use the student’s name when giving positive feedback (e.g.  “Great job, William”, “Awesome, Samantha, I’ll bet you always pay attention in class.  That’s great!”).

7. Refrain from giving negative feedback.  

  • Avoid using phrases such as “that’s wrong”, “you’re incorrect”, etc.  Replace these negative comments with encouraging phrases such as  “let’s try that again”, etc.

8. Don’t be afraid to engage the student.

  • Talk about the student's interests and favorite subjects, books, etc.   However, be sure not to cross the line into personal or private information.

9. If you don’t know the answer, be honest with the student.  

  • Advise the student to ask a teacher, an adult or another student for help.  It is better to be unsure and give a right answer than to be sure and give a wrong answer.

10. Make use of your resources.  

  • Remember, you have the power of the Internet at your hands to find the correct answers.
 
September Member Highlights from UT Austin PDF Print
News
Written by Recruiter: Syed Rizvi   
Tuesday, 02 October 2012 19:32

 

Tutor of the Month

 

 

Ashley Ly was born and raised in Houston before coming to Austin to attend The University of Texas (UT), where she is currently a sophomore majoring in Biochemistry. While Ashley is a diehard Longhorn fan, her brothers are Aggies, which never fails to make the dinner table memorable.

During Ashley's free time, she enjoys playing volleyball and tennis. Ashley also loves cooking with her brother and baking sweets for her family and friends. From time to time, Ashley likes to dabble in arts and crafts as well.

After hearing about Learn To Be and its mission, Ashley knew she had to join. Since Ashley does not live on campus and also has to juggle a busy schedule, having the flexibility of Learn To Be's online tutoring model is invaluable. Ashley says "this program is wonderful because we can help out students who do not have the opportunity to attend tutoring programs. This program gives them a helping hand and a sense of hope. It shows that there are people out there who do care about their education and are willing to help them through their troubles to see that they succeed in their classes. Although we do not get to directly interact with the students, I'm happy that I can make a difference in someone's life."

Ashley consistently demonstrates her commitment to tutoring, as she is currently leading the pack in session pick-ups. The staff at the Learn To Be chapter at The University of Texas at Austin praise Ashley's accomplishment, and they recognize that tutors like Ashley move Learn To Be forward.

The Learn To Be Foundation would like to congratulate and thank Ashley Ly on becoming the UT Tutor of the Month for October.

 

Staff of the Month

 

 

Kevin Ma joined the Learn To Be Chapter at UT without making much noise. Jingshen Zhao, Director of Operations, has said that "Kevin was so quiet that [he] didn't think much of him." Of course, this was before Kevin started making big splashes. Soon after joining Learn To Be, Kevin established a partnership with the Harmony Science Academy, a charter school that is a part of the Harmony Public School system operated by the Cosmos Foundation. Kevin, who commutes about 15 miles to campus daily, also goes to work in conjunction with being a full time student. In addition to his already hectic life style, Kevin goes to Harmony nearly every day to make sure that everything runs smoothly. In part because of Kevin's hard work, the partnership with the Harmony Science Academy has expanded to the other four schools that are a part of the Harmony network in Austin. In addition, LTB UT members had the opportunity to serve as science fair judges, a result of a great relationship with the schools. We look forward to a blossoming relationship with Harmony, as we look to expand in the near future. Kevin may be quiet, but his accomplishments speak louder than any words could.

The Learn To Be Foundation would like to congratulate and thank Kevin Ma on becoming the UT Staff of the Month for October.
 
Online Safety Tips for Students PDF Print
Resources
Wednesday, 01 April 2009 11:04

1. Do not share personal or private information.

2. Do not share personal pictures or videos.

3. Use computers that are in open or public spaces.

4. Do not agree to meet in person people who you befriend online.

5. Be aware of communications from unfamiliar persons.

6. Always report to an adult any suspicious activities or unfamiliar solicitations.

Learn To Be tutors will NEVER ask you for private information nor will they ever ask to meet or speak with you outside the online classroom.  Tutors may ask you about your hobbies, interests, or favorite things, but tutors will not ask you about private information.  When in doubt, tell your tutor that you are uncomfortable sharing information with him or her.  If you ever feel uncomfortable with the information you or your tutor has shared or requested, immediately report this to an adult.

Learn To Be reminds you to have a fun and safe online learning experience!

 
 
Technology that Levels the Playing Field PDF Print
News
Written by Jingshen Zhao   
Monday, 09 July 2012 01:00

 

2008-11 Statistics

 

We must focus on investing in technology improvements.

Learn To Be exists to level the playing field. We believe that there are enough volunteers out there willing to give the gift of knowledge and inspiration to all those students who desire individualized academic support but can't afford it.


With an increasing number of public tools like Khan Academy and Wolfram Alpha, the standard of resources available on the "playing field" is being set higher and higher. Paid tutoring companies and course companion online subscription sites are dishing out even more premium content on top of the free technology out there.

For underprivileged students to continue to compete with those who can afford paid educational assistance, we at Learn To Be must continue to enhance our services so we can act as a more efficient bridge between tutors and students. If we do not continually focus on making our technology more useful and user-friendly, we will become obsolete, we will have failed the students who depend on us to reach their potential, and we will have failed to level the playing field.


Some of our current undertakings:

1. Mentorship matching and appointment scheduling

Lots of tutors report that they stop tutoring not because they've lost interest, but simply due to a lack of self-discipline to make more meaningful use of their free time. Currently, LTB students request sessions on-demand and tutors don't show up because they think that there are always others on-call. We want to help our volunteers stay accountable to whatever they set as their LTB time commitment, and reduce the waiting time for our students.

We want to increase tutor/student retention by pairing up tutors with students who anticipate a need for repeated assistance, and by subsequently facilitating helpful relationships through regular appointments. We learned a lot through our mentorship trial (semi-manually facilitated through Google Spreadsheets), and we are ready to build an automated mentorship facilitator module.

2. Student profile records and parent/teacher involvement

Our on-demand system is conceptually similar to the live chat support embedded into modern websites. Even though we have many returning students and veteran LTB tutors, the tutoring sessions are still mostly first-time experiences between specific student and tutor pairs. A commenting system, or in essence a "file" on each student, would allow a tutor to access the collective experience of tutors who have previously tutored that specific child. Parents and teachers can get involved in similar ways, adding learning style comments, and making notes on academic strengths/weaknesses so that the tutors can see.
We currently have a limited statistical dashboard for each of our most active school partnerships. We'd like to make available to all our partners a panel of student files, progress reports, and links to recordings.

3. Permission-based session facilitation system

When working with kids, privacy and safety are of utmost priority. Depending on district policies and agreements with parents, a lot of our partners do their own background checks on a specific subset of tutors, who end up having access to specific partnership students. Currently, access permission configurations for all restrictive partnerships are manually hard-coded. We'd like to have a scalable system of session permission tags where our partners are free to designate access tags for students and tutors, meaning each session that the student requests is tagged based on the student's profile, and only tutors who match one of the session's tags can get access to pick up that session.

4. New customized interactive whiteboard

Our current whiteboard is hosted through a third party API called WiZiQ. Our functionalities are limited to WiZiQ features and our subscription level. For example, we are currently limited in the number of session recordings we can generate, but we want to be able to record all sessions and make recordings downloadable. Overall, we'd like to have more control on what to push out to the students during the sessions, and to collect as much useful data as we can from the interactive sessions. Right now, we are building a LTB-specific e-classroom interface based on the BigBlueButton open source project.

5. Single Sign On

We serve kids of all levels of technical competency, and thus we want to make the process of getting to a free tutoring session as fluid as possible. In the next iteration of our website which is currently being built, there will be a prominent option to register and sign-in via Facebook or Google. Potential Facebook social graph integration and associated wall postings would be an invaluable marketing avenue for us, but we will definitely need some expert help on making this a reality.

6. Desktop notifications for Windows and Mac

For on-call tutors to promptly receive tutoring requests, we currently have a basic, non-configurable bouncing dock icon for Mac. We are finalizing the Windows equivalent. With the mentorship session pre-scheduling and permission-based session access (instead of blanket notifications), many customizable menu options are needed and we need to build capacity for different streams of activity between our server and user desktops.

7. Short-code text messaging API

In addition to desktop notifications, tutors who submit a cell phone number during the application process can sign up to receive text message notifications during time slots of their choosing. It would be ideal if we can enable two-way messaging between mentors and mentees. Both parties should be able to check and send messages via learntobe.org and via their cell phone (if they have one). Actual cell phone numbers remain private as messages are to be routed through LTB numbers.

8. Fully in-house tutor application, vetting, and certification process

Our tutor induction process is currently conducted on a third-party community management website that we have tuned for the purposes of step-by-step evaluation. As the software is not specifically made for our purpose, there is a great number of manual workarounds and manually customized email notifications that our recruiters have to work through for each candidate. We are looking for a more integrated experience to reduce confusion for candidates, increase consistency, and minimize man-hours spent by recruiters on processes that can be automated.

Taking this a step further, we often look up to Wikipedia for its sustainable model of community management for its editors. We want for our tutors to be able to rise through the ranks by earning badges of experience, and eventually nominate themselves and each other to become admissions committee members, and eventually online tutoring instructional coaches. Such a cycle of excellence building, peer teaching and community recognition should be very attractive to good citizens who feel a moral responsibility to help younger kids. This process of personal advancement to self-actualization has to be based on a solid technical framework.

9. Priority hours service center

During the long semesters, we have squads of tutors available every day in the after-school hours. There is enough manpower to provide live support / a lobby environment for students who are waiting in line, we just need the technical setup. In the past, we coordinate daily with our partners via phone or email in order to provide the optimum number of tutors at certain priority hour slots, and we certainly want to move this load scheduling process into an online calendaring system. Live monitoring and intervention is currently only available to LTB administrators, and it would make sense for authenticated teachers and parents to have that ability, too.

Currently, sessions are all student-initiated on-demand, but we want for our tutors to be able to host open classrooms / office hours for students as well. Moreover, LTB volunteers and special guests would love to host after-school webinars such as for college advising, virtual career days, and presenting useful online resources.


Financial contributions are essential.

Computer programming is expensive and time-consuming. Good product development also involves frequent trips to consult our tutoring deployment partners, and participating in conferences and conventions. Our operation almost entirely consists of volunteers, with the very occasional exception when outsourcing the most difficult programming modules.

We would like to compensate our volunteers for their LTB-related expenses and give out the occasional reward and recognition. Our overhead so far has been less than 50 cents per tutoring session. Will you give the kids a chance by making a contribution of $20 toward improving their free tutoring resource?

 
 
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