Conversation

Cedric Chin
@ejames_c
Replying to
@ejames_c
A month or so ago, I agreed to mentor
@jurvistan
in writing for 4 weeks. He wanted to get better at writing. I wanted to test my theory that tacit knowledge could be transferred via simulation — if he could watch me verbalise what I'm thinking as I edit, he would learn.
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Cedric Chin
@ejames_c
It worked! I've seen a HUGE improvement in
@jurvistan
's writing in just 2 weeks. (The recorded session, above was our 3rd session; I exclaim multiple times about how much better the piece was compared to our prior sessions).
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Cedric Chin
@ejames_c
One example: Jurvis had a problem with run-on sentences in our first piece. I didn't really tell him what that was, or why it was bad — I just said "I don't like this; I'm going to write it differently" — and then the number of run-on sentences went way down the very next week!
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Cedric Chin
@ejames_c
I'm really pleased by this. I didn't actually do much teaching. No long lectures, no slides, no prepared pedagogy. Of course, one problem with this is that it isn't likely to scale — but that's what the YouTube recording was for!
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Cedric Chin
@ejames_c
If you're good at something, consider recording it and then putting it up on YouTube! Some kid in a developing country might thank you for it in the future.
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Cedric Chin
@ejames_c
Clarification: I WAS a kid in a developing country; Jurvis grew up in Singapore, and Singapore's not really a developing country any more. 😅
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