While I am not always contributing to the discussions, I am reading a lot of them. There are some great conversations happening. Hopefully, this is thought-provoking (and fun) for you. These first few discussions tend to be a little more philosophical than once we get to more technical material later.
(I think Chih-Ching will also be reading and contributing more in the future – after the qualifying exam Monday).
But something that I see over and over (and I remember from last time as well):
A lot of the readings are book chapters. They aren’t stand alone articles. I forget how much of a difference this makes. For example, the Munzner reading for this week is the first chapter of a textbook – it is meant to read like a textbook. Cairo and Tufte are book chapters as well. I think you miss out when you see a chapter from a book without seeing the whole book.
We’ll be tweaking the groups next week, now that the class enrollment has settled. Then we’ll probably try to keep the same groups for a few weeks (there’s a tradeoff – you get know people, which helps for discussions, but it’s good to mix things up every once in a while).
Also, I note that not everyone is contributing to discussions. The discussions are an important part of the class. If you’re having technical problems that are preventing you from contributing, talk to Chih-Ching or me.