Group items tagged

How can we encourage students to take their time with serious study instead of rushing through reading and assignments?

Our discussions about writing often come around to whether students actually read (and internalize) the comments. Sometimes we hear about students not knowing how to turn on Track Changes or the GradeMark panel in Turnitin, so at the most basic level electronic comments do introduce friction for some students. What do you think of the research project proposed here - do students actually approach electronic feedback differently?

James Lang offers a set of strategies to get students to read the syllabus, and to actually internalize the information in it. I've recommended syllabus quizzes to many faculty members, but I'm intrigued by the way Lang suggests personalizing them with open-ended questions.

How do you read and respond to your course evaluations?

Asking students to do work in public can lead to powerful learning, but we should talk to students about how it impacts their work and public identity. In this blog post, Jade Davis gives a description of the readings and release forms she uses in her classes with digital media projects.

Lynn Gillette uses a definitional grading system to prioritize meaningful preparation for class. His Class Preparation Assignments (don't call them homework!) help students learn to read disciplinary material, serve as a structure for better note taking, and allow for more discussion and active learning in his classes.

A challenging list, but worth deep consideration. The reading list at the end might be good sources for future CIP book clubs.

Even when a discussion of evidentiary standards or fallacious reasoning is beyond the scope of a course, the occasional introduction of relevant articles from responsible journalistic sources can help contribute to a student's information literacy.

If groupwork is worth doing, it's worth teaching students how to do it well. I wish some of my teachers had read this book.

Good principles to help you make your Moodle page easier and more pleasant to read, from Jedidiah Rex at Lawrence University.

This is about as honest an assessment of MOOCs as I've seen. Read between the lines and you'll see the promise and potential failings of this grand educational experiment.

This is described as "a work in progress" and "current status: brain dump" (6/24 3PM), and as such there are a couple head-scratchers on this reading list. At the same time, it's a fascinating example of digital collaboration as teachers work toward classroom discussions of current events.

Might be some good tips in here as we close in on the end of the year.

A well-done overview of screencasting that covers the pedagogical benefits of screencasts, strategies for using them effectively, a review of tools and techniques for producing them and useful links for further reading.

An intriguing description of using Google Forms as a writing rubric (or more general marking guide). I like the goal of "reduc(ing) the amount of time that I have to spend on administrative grading-related tasks, so that I can really focus my attention on reading and responding to students' work." I can see how electronic rubrics could be a time-saver, and Google Forms are dead easy to set up.

Six tips for good professional email style, framed in a kindly "dear student" letter. I've heard plenty of complaints about 2 AM emails consisting only of "hey, what's the reading for tomorrow?"... perhaps circulating this essay might help.

An interesting description of the "peer instruction" model used to achieve active learning in large lecture classes by Eric Mazur.

First, the title of this article caught my eye. Then the "new" definition of Digital Humanites caught my attention. Finally the author's comments caught me off-guard. I think people should read this for the initial content (what's promised by the title and the leading question). Also people might want to think about whether some of Sathian's remarks cross a line into stereotyping and racism.

Written for school teachers (as in grade school, middle school, etc.), this article is not 100% relevant to pedagogical discussions in higher ed. However, the article got me thinking about how I still learn; what gets me intellectually excited; and what diverts me away from other activities in the interest of pursuing an idea. Could I turn one of these instances into an example for my students in order to show them my thought processes and how I go about exploring new pedagogical possibilities? Just et al. (2014) (http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0102976) shook the biology/paleobiology world when the discovery of two strange deep-sea species hinted at the possibility of a new phylum. I spent hours reading various accounts of this discovery, including a number of trusted blogs. I compared the article's figures of these enigmatic organisms with other figures in old references I pulled old off my shelves. I referred to dusty old descriptive texts to refresh my memory of basic taxonomic classifications. I drew diagrams. Letting my students see this process could be beneficial. Developing a project that might force them to perform similar procedures and then defend their actions, might be difficult, but it could teach them quite a lot about how learning continues.

This episode of NPR's Planet Money presents a good case study in applying the 4-factor fair use test. The topic is web sites which present song lyrics. In specific, they look at a site called RapGenius, which makes a "transformative use" case by providing a site where users can annotate and explicate lyrics. (Despite the name, the site includes any genre of music as well as poetry, prose, and news.) RapGenius also has an education program for faculty who want to use it as a classroom tool for close reading exercises.