In the schools, too, there is no reward for helping others (indeed, it is heavily penalized). Suppose educational achievement was measured at least partially according to how much (and how well) you helped others. The value of the achievement would increase if the person is a stranger (and conversely, decrease to zero if it's just a small clique helping each other) and would be in proportion to the timeliness and utility of the assistance (both of which can be measured).
Suppose instead students were rewarded for cooperation. Not collaboration; this is just the school-level emulation of the creation of cliques and corporations. Cooperation, which is a common and ad hoc creation of interactions and exchanges for mutual value. Cooperative behaviours include exchanges of goods and services, agreement on open standards and protocols, sharing of resources in common (and open) pools, and similar behaviours.
Imagine receiving academic credit for contributing well-received resources into open source repositories, whether as software, art, photography, or educational resources. Imagine receiving credit for long-lasting additions to Wikipedia or similar online resources (we would have to fix Wikipedia, as it is now run by a gang of thugs known as 'Wikipedia editors'). We can have wide-ranging and nuanced evaluations of such contributions, not simple grades, but something based on how the content contributed is used and reused across the net (this would have the interesting result that your assessment could continue to go up over time).
There is, again, no reason why public service cannot be incorporated into individual assessment. Adding value to fire and police services by means of monitoring and reporting (not the piece-work model of something like CrimeStoppers, but actual prevention), supporting environment by counting birds, sampling water, servicing sports events by acting as a timer or umpire - all these can add to a person's assessment.
I'm not thinking of the simple sort of tasks grade school students can perform. Indeed, a person hoping to attain a higher level qualification would need to contribute to the public good in a substantial and tangible way. Offering open online courses (that are well-subscribed and positively reviewed by the community) should be a requirement for any graduate-level recognition. The PhD used to be about offering a unique research contribution to the field; now it's about paying tuition and being exploited as a TA.
These three things - helping others, being cooperative, contributing to the public good - are obviously not easy to assess. To be sure, it's far easier to ask students simple questions and grade the number of correct responses. But assessing students in this way, far from measuring putative 'content knowledge', is really an exercise in counting without any real interest in what is being counted. It acts as an invitation to cheat, as it places self-interest ahead of the values it is actually trying to measure.
Change to the following:
In addition to the exciting talks and workshops, we have a line-up of fringe events outside Lecture Theatre 1(LT1).
Check out the booths of: [bulleted]
-Our telecommunication providers SingTel, M1 and StarHub.
-NCS showcasing their interactive e-book
-Blackboard demonstrating their mobile solutions
-Vendors promoting mobile devices and accessories
Well,
that was quick. Right after yesterday's surprising announcement,
Sony flew its yet-to-be-released NEX-VG10 camcorder into London just in time for
today's showcase event. Naturally, we had to get our hands on this shiny baby,
and boy we were impressed. In case you missed the news, this snazzy device is
the world's first consumer HandyCam with interchangeable lens, meaning you can
share E-mount lenses with your young NEX DSLRs, or take advantage of
the abundant A-mount lenses with the help of an adapter (which will cost you
extra, mind you). Likewise, there are also hot and cold shoe mounts on the mic
shaft to cater your current camera accessories. Read on for our thoughts on the
rest of the camcorder -- we've put together a little sample clip for you at the
end as well.
There
isn't much to complain about with this $2,000 (and, sadly, possibly £2,000 for
the Brits) piece of kit in terms of appearance and ergonomics. We like being
able to hold it by either the seemingly solid body (using the strap) or the mic
shaft, and both ways provided comfortable grip without much fatigue due to the
light weight (even with the bundled lens). We were also able to quickly master
the jog-dial control next to the 3-inch screen, but for this price, we expected
a touchscreen interface as well to make life easier. As for the bundled F3.5-6.3
18-200mm lens, we found that zooming required a bit more effort than we liked,
so thankfully there's auto focus mode -- just like any ordinary camcorder -- to
save us from further wrist work with the focus ring. We must also point out that
unlike the Olympus PEN,
this Sony camcorder didn't pick up any mechanical noise from its lens auto
focussing; otherwise, this kit totally wouldn't deserve such price tag.
Of
course, what we really care about is the picture and sound quality. All is
revealed in our sample reel below (remember to enable HD playback mode), but in
brief: stunningly accurate colors, sharp 1080/60i picture, and impressive audio
sensitivity (notice how the mic was able to pick up conversations from afar; you
can also enable just the front mics to minimise background noise). You may
notice some shakiness while we were adjusting the lens -- we'll blame it on our
lack of practice from the little hands-on time we had. Regardless, the NEX-VG10
certainly lived up to our expectation, and we look forward to hear what the
filming hobbyists think of this prosumer-level camcorder when it comes out in
September.
Update: commenter
aim120 dropped us a link to Sony's own sample clip. Enjoy!
To be effective
at improving productivity and content retention, mobile learning
content must take a different form from what has gone before. And it
is content — content fit for the mobile learning purpose — that
will drive market growth.
there are two types of user for mobile learning —
the “considered” user and the “trigger” user.
The considered user
downloads and views learning material
The trigger user
responds to contextual situations that require action
know what
know-how
Mobile learning is
also best focused around “inflection points.” These are times
during the week where there is no opportunity to redo the task, and
where high performance is vital. Examples of inflection points
include issuing a verbal warning to an employee, conducting a meaty
interview, and doing a key client review.
the
idea of learning separated by an extended period of time from the
“Event,” when a person actually attempts to use the learning has
to be challenged. Few learners today want the information weeks and
even months in advance. They actually would like to have specific
top-of-mind and refresher learning “on-demand” minutes or even
seconds before they will need to use it.
Google Apps Scripts can be used to automate tasks such as "sending emails, scheduling calendar events, creating and updating site pages using data from other systems, and more."
You can create a script in Google Sites by clicking "More actions" > "Manage site" > "Apps Scripts." Once created scripts can be embedded on any Google Sites page.
Name URL Description AU2Go http://m.adelphi.edu Adelphi University's full fledged app suite made to rival iStanford eSudoku http://sudoku.rectang.com/iphone/ A daily sudoku game of varying difficulty with leaderboard iLounge http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/iui Independent resource for all things iPod, iTunes and beyond iRibbit http://iribbit.com eBay on the iPhone iMobMail http://www.imobmail.org/ Webmail for the iPod touch and iPhone iViewr http://www.iviewr.com Browse and view popular attractions, events, and travel information on your iPhone NHL.app http://nhlapp.com/ NHL Game Information Presbytery of the Pacific Churches http://www.presbyteryofthepacific.org/iphone/index.html Readdle http://readdle.com/ A simple way to access your files with iPhone / iPod Touch Synod of Southern California and Hawaiian Churches http://www.synod.org/iphone/index.html Wachusett Youth Flag Football http://www.wachusettflagfootball.com/iphone Community Sports Website
OS 4.2 is a free update for every iPhone, iPod or iPad device available now. This new release provides some major changes on HTML5 and W3C future standards support, like WebSockets and Accelerometer support, print support, new JavaScript data-types and better SVG support.
Accelerometer & Gyroscope support through the DeviceOrientation API
WebSockets API from HTML5
Updated HTML5 Form Support
Partial XHR-2 Support
Print Support
New JavaScript data types
New DOM events
Enhanced SVG and Canvas support
Facebook has quietly enabled a new privacy feature that allows users to hide certain types of updates from their walls and from the newsfeeds of friends. Make a new friend? Planning on going to an event? Now you can do those things on Facebook but be discreet about it, thanks to the new Hide All These button
Or should we ask them to organize their next EduCamp Singapore at NIE ? If I'm not mistaken Pritam from Ngee Ann Poly has been organizing these. We could then invite the IHLs to join us..
The informal way of sharing is quite interesting, and it might lead to new discovery, another prospective, and people also feel less stressful as it require less preparations.
Stephen Downes very alternative thinking on alternative assessment: Helping others, being cooperative, and contributing to public good.
