Faculty Excellence at UMUC

Interviewer:

Please tell us about yourself—what made you decide to teach at UMUC? What kind of work do you do when you are not teaching at UMUC? Are there any life experiences that have influenced your teaching at UMUC? If so, please share one story.

Robert Finkelstein

Unlike my wife, I never intended to become a teacher. The tendency just grew over the decades into a major avocation. Starting with a teaching fellowship in physics, I ended up teaching a wide range of subjects (physics, astronomy, mathematics, business, management, technology) over many decades to many different kinds of students (public school, community college, undergraduate and graduate school). I never gave up my day job, but usually taught as adjunct faculty.

UMUC offered a combination of intelligent, experienced graduate students and the convenience of asynchronous online instruction (as the CEO of a company for more than 25 years, I have little time to waste commuting around the congealed beltway to bricks and mortar classes). Having taught some of the same classes online and conventionally, I know that I am missing the emotional “high” a teacher experiences when interacting face-to-face with a lively class. However, the realities of time and traffic increasingly mandate the online format for me, just as the demands of life mandate it for the busy adult graduate students that I teach.

I am president of Robotic Technology Inc., a Maryland company focused on robotics, unmanned vehicles, and intelligent machines for military and civil applications.

I try (perhaps excessively) to be interesting to students.  I recall my acoustics professor, ancient as the hills and covered in chalk dust, mumbling into the blackboard while writing equations from one side of the room to the other, then erasing it all (hence the chalk dust) – and starting over. A light touch is essential, but without sacrificing knowledge. Humor makes learning palatable. (My funniest teacher was an ROTC major who taught the hard lessons of warfare while we students rolled in the aisles). Graduate students are better able to pick and choose what they want (or need) to learn, so I offer them more than they might care to know, presenting the big picture along with the details, the theoretical along with the practical. (One definition of wisdom is being able to see both the forest and the trees).    

Interviewer:

How would you describe your teaching style or philosophy? What experiences or person(s) have influenced your style or philosophy?

Robert Finkelstein

I believe learning is best accomplished by providing the student with a theoretical and historical basis for the course and the ability to explore and experiment with real-world problems or cases. There is a natural progression in a hierarchy of knowing: 

• DATA * ORDER = FACTS
• FACTS * CONTEXT = INFORMATION
• INFORMATION * SYNTHESIS = KNOWLEDGE
• KNOWLEDGE * PERSPECTIVE = EXPERIENCE
• EXPERIENCE * UNIFYING PRINCIPLES = SHARED VISION
• SHARED VISION * METALOGIC = EPHIPHANIES

The greatest joy for a teacher is when a student achieves an epiphany, a level of perception beyond logic and intuition, a display of rare creative brilliance.

The most important thing a student can learn from me is that the need to learn does not cease until the last breath.  The most important thing I can learn from a student is a new perspective or perception of the world, whether from younger eyes or a different culture or a unique mind. The worst criticism a student could give me was that my class was uninteresting and a complete waste of time.

I had teachers who were entertaining while they taught, including high school and college physics teachers who specialized in magic-show style demonstrations of the laws of physics. I also had graduate professors who, while not entertainers per se, always managed to provide clear presentations filled with fascinating information that was easily remembered and often useful in my profession (albeit, there were many others who did just the opposite). 

Interviewer:

Please explain if you do something special or unique in your teaching and what made you develop this.

Robert Finkelstein

Over the years I have added more and more graphics to my presentation, to illustrate the words explicitly, implicitly, or even abstractly. I try to include multiple graphics on every page of text to ease information transfer into the mind of the student, because humans are visually oriented. It also makes otherwise dull-looking pages of text more attractive to read and study.  The graphics can also provide humor in contrast to the words. Internet technology evolved to allow rapid retrieval of all sorts of imagery, for illustration and art. Why not take advantage of it?

Interviewer:

What do you think it is about your teaching style that appeals to students?

Robert Finkelstein

I try to provide the big picture, as well as the details, with wit and humor.

Interviewer:

Do you teach face-to-face, online, or both? Do you have a preference between teaching face-to-face and online? If so, please explain.

Robert Finkelstein

I teach online, but I taught face-to-face previously. Face-to-face teaching, with its live interaction with students (especially graduate students), can provide an emotional satisfaction that online teaching does not. However, the far greater efficiency of online teaching (e.g., avoiding hours commuting on a clogged beltway, or not having to be in a specific place for a specific three-hour duration) more than compensates for its disadvantages. It also provides an opportunity to teach a wider variety of students from all over the U.S. – or the world. The asynchronous environment of online instruction allows instructors, as well as students, to participate in the virtual classroom where they are otherwise unable to participate in the physical classroom.

Interviewer:

Please tell us about your chosen discipline-i.e., what made you interested in the area initially? What do you do to stay current in your discipline? What do you like best about teaching in your discipline?

Robert Finkelstein

I have many chosen disciplines, having adapted over the years to changes in my professional environment. I have degrees covering physics, operations research, law, systems theory, cybernetics, and the management of technology and innovation.  I was interested in physics because it tries to explain the fundamentals of the universe. Operations research provides the tools for decision-making and optimizing scarce resources. The law encompasses real-world human behavior, both rational and irrational. Systems theory tries to explain how the universe works at more complex levels than the underlying physics.  Cybernetics examines the control of complex systems and the development of machine intelligence. Management of technology and innovation is fundamental to almost any enterprise, especially if one wants to start a high-tech company.  Having this multi-faceted background, I am able to teach – and develop – a variety of courses for UMUC, and I have the flexibility and availability to adapt to UMUC’s course needs. 

I belong to a dozen or so professional societies, including a few outside my academic fields (e.g., anthropology), reading their publications and attending several conferences each year. I also organize and moderate conferences from time to time.  The preparation of course materials also helps me stay current.

In teaching about technology and its management, the variety of technology is seemingly infinite and its management is applicable and critical to all organizations – government and industry, military and civilian. It is fascinating to me and most students.

Interviewer:

What is the most challenging to you in teaching in this area? What teaching strategy do you use when you encounter the challenge? Are there any special challenges in teaching this subject matter online?  If yes, please explain what could be done to meet the challenges.

Robert Finkelstein

There are too many graduate students who lack the ability to think critically. Students should know how to think and behave in the workplace – and the world at large. So in all of my technology courses I include lessons on critical thinking and how it can be used to evaluate the validity all of the claims and assertions that one encounters in life, and how to distinguish science from pseudo science and fact from myth..  

Since, in the 21st century, the only constant is change, it is fortunate learning enables adaptation. The lifetime student will likely change careers several times, sometimes into adjacent disciplines, but perhaps entering completely new fields. Teaching about the forest as well as the trees gives the student crucial glimpses into alternative fields of knowledge – and careers. Because life (as well as a professional’s career) is short, the teaching of theory should be tightly couple with practical applications and the workplace realities of the profession. 

Interviewer:

What suggestion would you give to students who are interested in majoring or working in your discipline?

Robert Finkelstein

Become multi-disciplined; learn about the nature of technology in all of its manifestations, from the prehistoric flint cutting tool to the iPad, from products to processes. Also, writing well is important whatever the student’s profession or the project. Whatever their major, I would advise students to take several courses in English literature and creative writing so that the inevitable proposals and reports can be written (or managed) by them professionally and coherently.

Interviewer:

In your opinion, what makes UMUC the college of choice for students?

Robert Finkelstein

UMUC is a well-established, not-for-profit member of a respected state university system and focuses on the educational needs of adult students. It offers a broad array of undergraduate and graduate courses either in conventional classrooms or, globally, via virtual classrooms over the Internet. UMUC provides a convenient, inexpensive, and thorough education for busy, working adults, including military personnel on active duty stationed anywhere on Earth. Nearly all of the faculty have doctorates and are accomplished academics and members of their professions.

Interviewer:

In your opinion, what makes UMUC the employer of choice for future faculty members?

Robert Finkelstein

UMUC faculty can choose to teach a broad variety of undergraduate or graduate courses in conventional classrooms or over the Internet.  The UMUC online, virtual classroom environment is easy to use and helpful technical support is available 24/7.  Because most of the students are working adults with real-world experience, they are serious students with insightful commentary to offer in response to class lessons. So the instructor learns along with the students. The compensation for part-time faculty is more than competitive with other academic institutions.

Interviewer:

What suggestion would you give to new faculty who are interested in teaching in your discipline at UMUC?

Robert Finkelstein

Be multi-disciplined. Learn the art of preparing knowledge-filled, yet entertaining, presentations. Have a light touch with the students, but avoid grade inflation.