[Themaintainers] Thanks for advice on my skills syllabus

Sun Oct 30 14:22:59 EDT 2016

I heard from several people with lots of good advice  and lots of
enthusiasm, both here and on twitter. I'll be adding more readings to my
syllabus. Thanks very much to those who responded here and on twitter.

Here's some of the readings recommended:

Mark Rose, Mind at Work
Jennifer ALexander, Mantra of Efficiency
Amy Slayton, chapter on building trades in Reinforced Concrete and the
Modernization of American Building
A fascinating master's thesis on AV repair shops
<https://idea.library.drexel.edu/islandora/search/*%3A*?f%5B0%5D=name_browse%3A%22Carone%2C%20Justin%20Nathaniel%20Charles%22>
Brian Frehner, *Finding Oil: The Nature of Petroleum Geology* on the skill
of prospecting
More on medical and laboratory skills - Stephen R Barley; Julian E Orr,
eds., Between craft and science : technical work in U.S. settings
Anne Phillips and Barbara Taylor, Sex and Skill: Notes towards a Feminist
Economics" *Feminist Review *No. 6 (1980), pp. 79-88
Robert B. Gordon, "Who Turned the Mechanical Ideal into Mechanical
Reality?," Technology and Culture Vol. 29, No. 4, Special Issue: Labor
History and the History of Technology (Oct., 1988), pp. 744-778

And some of the ideas:

have students keep a diary
have students do some exercises more than once,so they can see improvement
- practice is important
visits to workplaces

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions!

Steve

On Sat, Oct 29, 2016 at 7:00 AM <themaintainers-request at lists.stevens.edu>
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Today's Topics:

   1. Asking advice for a new course on skills (Steven Lubar)
   2. Re: Asking advice for a new course on skills (Melinda Hodkiewicz)

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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2016 17:29:04 +0000
From: Steven Lubar <steven_lubar at brown.edu>
To: themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu
Subject: [Themaintainers] Asking advice for a new course on skills
Message-ID:
        <CABQgGBbEATGdpXV4j81rO8JeERp97aA7eSWMzQz4-wqTqOV04A at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Dear maintainers,

     I'm starting work on a new course for next year, on the politics and
poetics of skill. It's a first-year seminar, with a good bit of hands-on
work, from lock-picking to welding, as well as a good bit of historical
reading.

The syllabus is here.
<
https://www.scribd.com/document/329252885/Syllabus-Lubar-Skills-and-Making-Class-DRAFT-OCTOBER-2016
>

I'd much appreciate any advice on this. I've never taught a course anything
like this before. Other readings to recommend? Things to leave out? How
much instruction is useful for some of the projects? Anyone who's taught a
course like this I should get in touch with?

Thanks,

Steve
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Message: 2
Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2016 17:23:50 +0800
From: Melinda Hodkiewicz <melinda.hodkiewicz at uwa.edu.au>
To: Steven Lubar <steven_lubar at brown.edu>,
        "themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu"      <
themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu>
Subject: Re: [Themaintainers] Asking advice for a new course on skills
Message-ID:
        <
BEDFF31A400F8748A1ABD140CDF21832035568825BFF at IS-WIN-417.staffad.uwa.edu.au>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Dear Steve
What an interesting course and thanks for sharing this. As a maintenance
engineer I was delighted to see the practical components in your class.
Without these I think it would be like trying to describe what it?s like to
ride a bicycle to someone who has never done so.

I would offer one suggestion and that is for one of your practical
exercises, get the students to do it twice. This way they will appreciate
the concepts of reflection and improvement that are integral to skill
development. If you only do something once you don?t get that opportunity.
It?s what you do the second, third, fourth time that differentiates those
that will become competent than those that won?t.

The concept of ?practice? is very important. My dentist who has been a
dentist for over 30 years explained to me that she?s practices every day
(on us!), and reflects on her work after each patient. Good mechanics will
say the same thing.

Welding is a great idea. It looks so easy but isn?t. And you can really see
the difference between a good welder and a beginner. Woodwork is another
potential choice.

It sounds like a great class. Are you going get the students to keep a
diary and/ or survey them after? It would be useful to know more about the
range of backgrounds of the students and how they deal with the class.
Best wishes
Melinda

Professor Melinda Hodkiewicz
BHP Billiton Fellow for Engineering for Remote Operations
BA(Hons) Oxon, PhD (Eng), CEng, MIMMM, AIMM
School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering
University of Western Australia
M050, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Australia 6009
Tel: +61 8 6488 7911 <+61%208%206488%207911>; Fax: +61 8 6488 1024
<+61%208%206488%201024>

From: themaintainers-bounces at lists.stevens.edu [mailto:
themaintainers-bounces at lists.stevens.edu] On Behalf Of Steven Lubar
Sent: Saturday, 29 October 2016 1:29 AM
To: themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu
Subject: [Themaintainers] Asking advice for a new course on skills

Dear maintainers,

     I'm starting work on a new course for next year, on the politics and
poetics of skill. It's a first-year seminar, with a good bit of hands-on
work, from lock-picking to welding, as well as a good bit of historical
reading.

The syllabus is here.<
https://www.scribd.com/document/329252885/Syllabus-Lubar-Skills-and-Making-Class-DRAFT-OCTOBER-2016
>

I'd much appreciate any advice on this. I've never taught a course anything
like this before. Other readings to recommend? Things to leave out? How
much instruction is useful for some of the projects? Anyone who's taught a
course like this I should get in touch with?

Thanks,

Steve
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