New CSE 471 lecture format

I'll be updating the CSE 471 lecture format to the newer format I started using last year in CSE 473 (then CSE 491). For many years I have used the traditional bullet slide format that everyone seems to recommend. But, then I read some research that argues that that's not a good choice, that slides should have more complete information on them including blocks of readable text and that a slide should contain a balance of content on each side rather than the left-to-right reading format of bullet points. So, I've adopted a new slide format that I think is better and I rarely use bullets anymore in new content, though it may take a few years to flush many of them out of the older material. I do think the bright white background and minimalist look works pretty well. It's especially important that the slides be more complete, since there's no textbook in this course.

The semester will soon begin...

It's almost that time again, when the trees start to turn and the students all arrive in droves. I'm experimenting this fall with the use of a facebook group and a blog as new ways to communicate with students. Hopefully it will be useful. I find it handy to have a place to drop the occasional suggestion. We'll see how useful it turned out to be.