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Skim | Home - 2 views

skim-app.sourceforge.net pdf software mac opensource freeware
shared by Joshua Yeidel on 11 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 11 Nov 09
     
    "Skim is a PDF reader and note-taker for OS X. It is designed to help you read and annotate scientific papers in PDF, but is also great for viewing any PDF file. Stop printing and start skimming."
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European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning - 0 views

www.eurodl.org/?article=369 higher_education accountability
shared by Joshua Yeidel on 11 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 11 Nov 09
     
    "This paper describes the implementation of a quantitative cost effectiveness analyzer for Web-supported academic instruction that was developed in Tel Aviv University during a long term study."
  • Joshua Yeidel on 11 Nov 09
     
    The king of indirect measures, putting the "count" in accountability via web log analysis.
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Has Accreditation Produced an Ethical Business Climate? - Letters to the Editor - The C... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...49058 accreditation
shared by Gary Brown on 10 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Institutions that choose to seek program accreditation must, in the finite world of budgets, shift funds away from many struggling departments and toward the chosen few to ensure that all criteria, from faculty credentials and salaries to high-tech classrooms and generous support staff, are not only met but exceeded.
  • Last year's economic crisis, fueled largely by the graduates of elite, accredited M.B.A. programs who flocked into banking and Wall Street, suggests a startling ethical blindness, social irresponsibility, and historical ignorance.
  • What good are accrediting agencies that take no responsibility for the behavior of those they accredit?
  • Gary Brown on 10 Nov 09
     
    We might choose to help our accreditors by forwarding a response to this letter in our Rain King write up.
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Renewed Debate Over the 3-Year B.A. - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Ed... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...49043 3 year degree outcomes incoming future
shared by Gary Brown on 10 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Zemsky, chairman of the Learning Alliance for Higher Education, wrote in The Chronicle in August. Shifting to a three-year baccalaureate, Zemsky added, would force universities to "judge whether their shorter degree programs were achieving the same learning outcomes as their four-year programs had promised; they would find themselves in need of the performance measures they had hitherto eschewed." The idea has stirred some support, as well as considerable opposition.
  • the reality is that the question of whether or not this makes sense may have already been made for us by the Bologna Process, which has been moving toward mainstreaming and standardizing three-year degrees across the European Union and beyond (46 countries are participating) for some time now.
  • This idea treats an academic credit as a purchasable commodity, and a college experience as quantifiable, subject to rules of efficiency rather than humane values. In reality, so-called "credits" have no standard meaning or value. Furthermore, the idea on its own is superficial. Why not two years? One? Five?
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • For those who see college as a place to learn marketable skills, the less time and money it takes, the better. For others who see college as a place to learn to think and to learn about the world and others as broadly as possible, and to grow into one's own, why rush? (The Choice, NYTimes.com)
  • they might want to rethink not just what time of year and how long students are in the classroom, but how student accomplishment is measured.
  • The high schools are not going to suddenly become more rigorous because the colleges reduce their expectations.
  • Gary Brown on 10 Nov 09
     
    Today's rip-tide toward measures, this time from Alexander and Zemsky (and others), and the implications of standardized measures.
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The Ticker - Governors' Association Urges More Accountability in Academic Performance -... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...8779 accountability
shared by Gary Brown on 09 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Governors' Association Urges More Accountability in Academic Performance
  • An issue brief, released today by the bipartisan group, which represents the nation's chief state executives, calls on states to go beyond federal reporting requirements for graduation rates, for instance, and include degree attainment by part-time students and those who transfer among community colleges.
  • Gary Brown on 09 Nov 09
     
    The call for accountability du jour. Note dissatisfaction with provostial measures while suggesting we need more...provostial measures.
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Comic books are good for children's learning - Telegraph - 1 views

www.telegraph.co.uk/...od-for-childrens-learning.html education
shared by Matthew Tedder on 09 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Matthew Tedder on 09 Nov 09
     
    Comics...
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Schmidt - 3 views

www.irrodl.org/...641 accreditation peer review Open education assessment
shared by Gary Brown on 08 Nov 09 - Cached
  • There are a number of assessment methods by which learning can be evaluated (exam, practicum, etc.) for the purpose of recognition and accreditation, and there are a number of different purposes for the accreditation itself (i.e., job, social recognition, membership in a group, etc). As our world moves from an industrial to a knowledge society, new skills are needed. Social web technologies offer opportunities for learning, which build these skills and allow new ways to assess them.
  • This paper makes the case for a peer-based method of assessment and recognition as a feasible option for accreditation purposes. The peer-based method would leverage online communities and tools, for example digital portfolios, digital trails, and aggregations of individual opinions and ratings into a reliable assessment of quality. Recognition by peers can have a similar function as formal accreditation, and pathways to turn peer recognition into formal credits are outlined. The authors conclude by presenting an open education assessment and accreditation scenario, which draws upon the attributes of open source software communities: trust, relevance, scalability, and transparency.
  • Gary Brown on 08 Nov 09
     
    Kinship here, and familiar friends.
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Official Google Blog: Transparency, choice and control - now complete with a Dashboard! - 2 views

googleblog.blogspot.com/...cy-choice-and-control-now.html google
shared by Corinna Lo on 06 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Corinna Lo on 06 Nov 09
     
    "In an effort to provide you with greater transparency and control over their own data, we've built the Google Dashboard. Designed to be simple and useful, the Dashboard summarizes data for each product that you use (when signed in to your account) and provides you direct links to control your personal settings. "
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News: Are Today's Grads Unprofessional? - Inside Higher Ed - 0 views

www.insidehighered.com/...professionalism higher_education
shared by Joshua Yeidel on 05 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 05 Nov 09
     
    "The results of the survey [of employers], released Friday, suggest that colleges need to change how they prepare their students for the working world, particularly by reinforcing soft skills like honoring workplace etiquette and having a positive demeanor. " -- Oh, yes, and get rid of the tatoos and piercings.
  • Joshua Yeidel on 05 Nov 09
     
    Relevant to Gary's post about Career Services and Liberal Arts -- can "professionalism" be part of the curriculum?
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Why Liberal Arts Need Career Services - Commentary - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 1 views

chronicle.com/...48973 careers
shared by Gary Brown on 04 Nov 09 - Cached
  • I have consulted with deans who say they really want to improve their career-services programs—but no, they can't offer career courses for credit, their professors aren't interested in supervising internships, and they must tread lightly around anything that might be seen by the faculty as encroaching vocationalism.
  • I've also heard from numerous professors, "Our good students go to graduate school. We don't need to focus on those who are looking for jobs."
  • I have also been told, "The professors are too busy teaching to worry about how the students will use their knowledge. It's not their job." And I've had more than one faculty member confess to me that they really aren't sure how what they teach applies in the nonacademic world.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • There's no way to predict which moments of a liberal-arts education will be directly relevant in the workplace, but it's imperative that students know such moments occur frequently, and that the skills and knowledge they're learning are far from obscure and irrelevant.
  • We use visual-thinking techniques to help students connect the dots between their academic experience and the workplace.
  • But the opportunity to teach a career course that directly draws from a liberal-arts curriculum is not offered at many institutions. Instead, if courses are offered at all, they typically focus on basic job-finding skills like résumé writing and networking, serving to reinforce professors' worst beliefs about career advising: that it distracts and detracts from the educational process.
  • Professors, academic deans, and career-center staff members must work together. Learn what is happening in each other's shops. And don't have just a superficial conversation about services—instead, engage in a conversation about what is truly distinct about the curriculum, what students are learning, and how to make employers care.
  • Career-center personnel should find out what employers are seeking and what they say about your students.
  • If more liberal-arts faculties and career experts get together, watch out—the results could be amazing.
  • Gary Brown on 04 Nov 09
     
    As we work with CLA, perhaps inviting Careers Services to join as independent reviewers will help the effort
  • Joshua Yeidel on 05 Nov 09
     
    What seems to be missing here is inclusion of employers directly into the learning community. If professors "aren't sure how what they teach applies in the nonacademic world", get somebody directly involved who is, as one voice in the conversation, anyway. Of course this will be challenging to the professoriate, but it could also be revitalizing.
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News: Assessing the Assessments - Inside Higher Ed - 2 views

www.insidehighered.com/...vsa assessment CLA VSA
shared by Gary Brown on 05 Nov 09 - Cached
  • The validity of a measure is based on evidence regarding the inferences and assumptions that are intended to be made and the uses to which the measure will be put. Showing that the three tests in question are comparable does not support Shulenburger's assertion regarding the value-added measure as a valid indicator of institutional effectiveness. The claim that public university groups have previously judged the value-added measure as appropriate does not tell us anything about the evidence upon which this judgment was based nor the conditions under which the judgment was reached. As someone familiar with the process, I would assert that there was no compelling evidence presented that these instruments and the value-added measure were validated for making this assertion (no such evidence was available at the time), which is the intended use in the VSA.
  • (however much the sellers of these tests tell you that those samples are "representative"), they provide an easy way out for academic administrators who want to avoid the time-and-effort consuming but incredibly valuable task of developing detailed major program learning outcome statements (even the specialized accrediting bodies don't get down to the level of discrete, operational statements that guide faculty toward appropriate assessment design)
  • f somebody really cared about "value added," they could look at each student's first essay in this course, and compare it with that same student's last essay in this course. This person could then evaluate each individual student's increased mastery of the subject-matter in the course (there's a lot) and also the increased writing skill, if any.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • These skills cannot be separated out from student success in learning sophisticated subject-matter, because understanding anthropology, or history of science, or organic chemistry, or Japanese painting, is not a matter of absorbing individual facts, but learning facts and ways of thinking about them in a seamless, synthetic way. No assessment scheme that neglects these obvious facts about higher education is going to do anybody any good, and we'll be wasting valuable intellectual and financial resources if we try to design one.
  • Gary Brown on 05 Nov 09
     
    ongoing discussion of these tools. Note Longanecker's comment and ask me why.
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News: Assessing the Assessments - Inside Higher Ed - 0 views

www.insidehighered.com/...vsa
shared by Gary Brown on 05 Nov 09 - Cached
  • In other words, a college that ranked in the 95th percentile for critical thinking using one of the tests would rank in roughly the same place using the critical thinking component of one of the other two tests, and vice versa.
    • Gary Brown
      Gary Brown on 05 Nov 09
       
      A stellar example of critical thinking, this sentence.
  • diversity in measurement" to satisfy faculty
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The Rules of Faculty Club - Manage Your Career - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 0 views

chronicle.com/...49000 Graduate Student Prep
shared by Gary Brown on 05 Nov 09 - Cached
  • The third rule of Faculty Club: You must be a teacher to enter the club. Your adviser will not tell you that; your fellow graduate students won't understand that. So enjoy the research nirvana that is graduate school but know that you will be descending back into the cave if and when you are hired by a university. You may have difficulty accepting this rule. If you can't, stop reading this immediately and go back to work on your dissertation. Cease and desist. Only precede to Rule No. 4 once you have fully accepted and understood Rule No. 3. Once you do, then you must not expect to be given any actual guidance from your department on how to be a teacher. You will only be able to obtain those skills through your own efforts.
  • The fourth rule of Faculty Club: Your students will only know you as their teacher and do not care about your research unless you require them to know about your research. If you require them to know about your research, they will figure out your argument without understanding the complex road that you took to get there. That leads students to believe that the point of education is to tell a professor what he or she wants to hear rather than to think through the material for themselves.
  • You must be able to convey on a syllabus the course objective and the road map that you will be employing to get students there
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Nobody will ever tell you this, but your career will, in part, rest on having a well-thought-out philosophy of education
  • Teaching is a science. Be as methodical about developing teaching strategies and a teaching philosophy as you are in your research.
  • You must have enough teaching experience to handle Rules No. 5 and No. 6.
  • Stay focused on your research while being cognizant that you are preparing for a career as a teacher.
  • Gary Brown on 05 Nov 09
     
    another for those collecting the secret reality of teaching
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Google's new Social Search surprisingly useful - Ars Technica - 2 views

arstechnica.com/...search-surprisingly-useful.ars google search socialnetworking
shared by Joshua Yeidel on 05 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 05 Nov 09
     
    "No, Social Search isn't yet another social network aggregator. It's a way for you to make your Google search results more relevant by adding a section dedicated to content written by your friends and acquaintances. Though limited, we think it's pretty useful thus far."
  • Joshua Yeidel on 05 Nov 09
     
    A piece of a Personal Learning Network -- searchability.
2More

Running the White House Web site on Drupal is a political disaster. - By Chris Wilson -... - 1 views

www.slate.com/2233719 software Drupal
shared by Joshua Yeidel on 05 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 05 Nov 09
     
    "But I can't help but think the new software represents the triumph of hope over experience. Drupal looks great in theory: It's a powerful way to govern a Web site that is born out of the collective efforts of the community. In practice, it tends to be a bit of a mess."
  • Joshua Yeidel on 05 Nov 09
     
    Noew that the White House has launched its new Drupal-based site, a Slate columnist weighs in on Drupal's negatives.
2More

Crowdsourcing Authority in the Classroom | DMLcentral - 0 views

www.dmlcentral.net/...ourcing-authority-in-classroom
shared by Nils Peterson on 05 Nov 09 - Cached
  • I’m fascinated that the blogosphere was so annoyed with me for wanting to teach responsible judgment practices as part of my pedagogy. I think it is because grading, in a curious way, exemplifies our deepest convictions about excellence and authority, and specifically about the right of those with authority to define what constitutes excellence.  If we “crowdsource grading,” we are suggesting that those without authority can also determine excellence.  That is what happens in the non-refereed world of the internet, that’s what digital thinking is, and it is quite revolutionary. 
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 05 Nov 09
       
      THis is Cathy Davidson in a new blog post about crowdsourcing authority, responding to the critics of her earlier crowdsourcing grading.
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Blackboard Press Releases - 1 views

www.blackboard.com/...Press-Releases.aspx
shared by Peggy Collins on 04 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Peggy Collins on 04 Nov 09
     
    "Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) announced the launch of a native application for BlackBerry(R) mobile devices, debuting at the University of Washington this week, as part of the new Blackboard Mobile(TM) platform which is being leveraged by a growing number of campuses and K-12 schools to deliver a rich set of campus life services and content to mobile devices. The BlackBerry application enables many more users to enjoy an enhanced experience while navigating course catalogs and campus maps, e-mailing professors and classmates and receiving real time updates on course schedules, campus events, news and sports with Mobile Central (formerly MobilEdu(TM)), Blackboard Mobile's flagship suite of applications. Originally optimized for users of Apple(R) iPhone(R) and iPod Touch(R) devices, the best Mobile Central experience is now available to users of BlackBerry devices. The suite is also generally accessible to users of any smart phone or mobile Web enabled device. "This new platform allows us to easily reach our students, faculty and staff around the clock and deliver information whenever and wherever they want it, which increasingly is on mobile devices like the BlackBerry and iPhone," said David Morton, Director of Mobile Communication Strategies at the University of Washington (UW). "As a modern, global university, UW committed to embracing mobile communications and is pleased to be the launch institution for the BlackBerry initiative." "
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Northwestern U Creates Integration Utility To Link Blackboard and Google Apps -- Campus... - 1 views

campustechnology.com/...lackboard-and-google-apps.aspx
shared by Peggy Collins on 04 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Peggy Collins on 04 Nov 09
     
    Users at Northwestern University will be able to log into both Blackboard Learn and Google Apps with a single signon thanks to the efforts of the institution's IT development team. The code created by the team as a Blackboard Building Block and named Bboogle has also been released as open source to let other institutions use or build on the technology at no cost.
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Here, There, & Everywhere -- Campus Technology - 2 views

campustechnology.com/...ePortfolios.aspx
shared by Nils Peterson on 04 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Electronic portfolios can follow a student beyond graduation into careers and other life pursuits-- but not if the university can't guarantee access, or if the data won't transfer from one system to another. A look at how ePortfolios can be true repositories of lifelong learning.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 04 Nov 09
       
      despite this lead, it moves off to look at cloud-based portfolios in a pretty good fashion
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Privacy and Confidentiality: Holding IT Service Providers Accountable | EDUCAUSE - 0 views

www.educause.edu/...188606 higher_education cloud privacy
shared by Joshua Yeidel on 03 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 03 Nov 09
     
    " This ECAR research bulletin addresses the data privacy issues that must be covered by contractual language when entering into an agreement for externally provided IT services or for external consulting about institutional systems. It covers instances in which external agents have access to data that is considered confidential and/or where data can be linked to personally identifiable records. It is based on work done at The College of New Jersey between November 2008 and May 2009"
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