Issue 10, Fall 1995

William A. McEachern, Editor

Grapevine

• Jerry Evensky of Syracuse University has passed along a paper he has written entitled "Enhancing Student Learning: The Lecture." In it he shares his teaching philosophy and offers many good suggestions about how to lecture more effectively. His topics include dealings with students (foster mutual respect and courtesy, expect an appropriate level of maturity, believe in your students), the challenge and an opportunity of diversity, how to create an active learning environment (establish and maintain lines of communication, pace your lecture, energize your lectures with enthusiasm, be yourself, try innovation, don't be afraid to make mistakes); and how to find your own voice. You can get an electronic copy of the 22-page paper off the Internet at web site: http://syllabus.syr.edu/ECN/JEVENSKY/ECN203/lecture/lectur11.htm. Or you can write him at the Department of Economics, Maxwell School, Syracuse University, 110 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244-1090.

• David H. Gillette, of Northeast Missouri State in Kirksville, poses the following question to students. Suppose you have just inserted a dollar in a vending machine, selected a 50 cent item, and your selection has dropped to the bin below. Your 50 cents in change has also dropped to the coin return. For some reason, you are able to retrieve only one of the two items — your purchase or your change. Which do you choose and why? Decisions, decisions. You have already revealed a preference for the item; that preference should not have changed (unless we quibble about income effects). The 50 cents already spent is a sunk cost. Marginal analysis focuses on the additional cost and additional benefits of the decision.

• Is a weak dollar good or bad? Eric K. Steger of East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, says that when students ask that question he tells them the answer depends on their perspective. For example, if they are resource suppliers, a weak dollar will reduce the price of their products to foreigners and thereby stimulate foreign sales. If they are consumers, a weak dollar means higher prices for imported goods and for trips abroad. So they consume less of these foreign products. Steger goes on to note other considerations such as the trade balance in evaluating whether a weak dollar is good or bad.

• David Boldt and Leland Gustafson of West Georgia College in Carrollton have been using Internet resources in their courses for the past two years. Students are required to submit some assignments via e-mail, e-mail an opinion essay to the President or some other elected official, summarize a discussion "thread" appearing in an economic Usenet group, and get economic information from the Internet for use in class or for a take-home project. Students are given enough information to get them started. For example, in connection with each Internet question, students are provided with a gopher address that will point them in the general direction. Boldt and Gustafson have written their experience in a paper entitled "Using the Internet in Economic Education," which they sent me. To request an electronic copy of the latest version, e-mail Boldt at dboldt@sbf.bus.westga.edu. If that's not convenient, you can request a hard copy by writing to him at the Department of Economics, West Georgia College, Carrollton, GA 30118.

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