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Gary Brown

A concept cluster quiz ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes - 1 views

www.downes.ca/52461

language

shared by Gary Brown on 19 May 10 - Cached
  • Not everybody is happy when I say words have different meanings for each person that uses them. But it's hard to escape that conclusion when you actually look at language.
  • Geoffrey K. Pullum writes, "The people who think clarity involves lack of ambiguity, so we have to strive to eliminate all multiple meanings and should never let a word develop a new sense... they simply don't get it about how language works, do they?" A good lesson for the Semantic Web people, no?
  • Gary Brown on 19 May 10
     
    As we continue to refine the rubric, this short post is a useful reminder of the challenge....and the limits. We struggle in part because the formal assessment experience of many of our partners is not wide or deep, which in turns increases the language challenges.
Joshua Yeidel

A Professor at Louisiana State Is Flunked Because of Her Grades - Teaching - The Chroni... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...65555

assessment higher_education

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 19 May 10 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 19 May 10
     
    A fascinating look into the tangled web of misconceptions and cross-purposes in testing and grading, especially in an introductory non-major science course.
Joshua Yeidel

Official Google Blog: A new approach to China - 1 views

googleblog.blogspot.com/...new-approach-to-china.html

google china

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 12 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 12 Jan 10
     
    The Official Google Blog reports that Google detected a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack" originating in China against them and against at least 20 other large business. Google says they have "evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists." Google says "We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China."
Gary Brown

Students: Video lectures allow for more napping | eCampus News - 1 views

www.ecampusnews.com/...ectures-allow-for-more-napping

future of education

shared by Gary Brown on 28 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • College students gave video lectures high marks in a recent survey, although many students supported the technology because it freed up more time for napping and hanging out with friends.
  • A majority of students who responded to the survey, conducted in August by audio, internet, and video conferencing provider InterCall, said they would only attend a live lecture if an exam were scheduled for that day, or to borrow notes from a classmate
  • confirm a key fear of many college professors about the availability of video lecture-capture technology: that it could lead to a drop in attendance at the live lectures themselves.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Fifty-three percent of respondents said they “learn more effectively” with online lectures, and 54 percent “report that their grades improve when lectures are streamed via video online,”
  • Nearly three-quarters of students said that streaming lectures online “helps them be better prepared for exams.”
  • 49 percent of students take matters into their own hands and record lectures on their own so they can review the material later.
  • “indicative” of the modern college-student mindset. “They can’t be bothered with things that require stepping out of their own comfort and convenience zone,” she said. “Rather than adapt themselves … they want things the way they want things.
  • ‘It’s about me and my convenience’ is one that extends into many aspects of their lives, from school, to work, to community obligations,” Gregory said. “How much more self-absorbed does it get?”
  • Gary Brown on 28 Sep 10
     
    It is interesting to see the resistance to what is sometimes considered student-centered approaches to learning.   One wonders whose "convenience" will have primacy in the education market, and at what....cost?
Joshua Yeidel

A Classical Education: Back to the Future - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com - 1 views

opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/...l-education-back-to-the-future

education

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 09 Jun 10 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 09 Jun 10
     
    Professor Stanley Fish reports approvingly on three books that emphasize "Classical" (as in Latin and Greek) education, memorization, drill, and so on. But what do we do when "worked for me" is not enough?
Gary Brown

Western Governors U. President Wins a McGraw Prize in Education - The Ticker - The Chro... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...27252

outcomes competency future of education

shared by Gary Brown on 28 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • The university's president, Robert W. Mendenhall, was cited for creating "a compelling example of how technology and a competency-based academic model -- where students earn degrees by demonstrating what they know and can do -- can expand access to higher education."
  • Gary Brown on 28 Sep 10
     
    Western Governor's getting some attention
Gary Brown

Innovate to Cease Publication ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes - 1 views

www.downes.ca/...page.cgi

innovate

shared by Gary Brown on 20 Oct 09 - Cached
  • To say that this publication - Technology Source, and then Innovate - and the work of editor James Morrison was an important influence on my work and my career would be an understatement. I benefited at all levels from my involvement with it, from help with my writing, to exposure to innovative ideas, to the creation of an audience for my work, to Jim's encouragement and support, which was unwavering. My thanks to Jim and to everyone else involved.
  • Gary Brown on 20 Oct 09
     
    nothing to add here. I will miss this affiliation.
Gary Brown

The Chimera of College Brands - Commentary - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 1 views

chronicle.com/...65764

quality market accountability

shared by Gary Brown on 10 Jun 10 - Cached
  • What you get from a college, by contrast, varies wildly from department to department, professor to professor, and course to course. The idea implicit in college brands—that every course reflects certain institutional values and standards—is mostly a fraud. In reality, there are both great and terrible courses at the most esteemed and at the most denigrated institutions.
  • With a grant from the nonprofit Lumina Foundation for Education, physics and history professors from a range of Utah two- and four-year institutions are applying the "tuning" methods developed as part of the sweeping Bologna Process reforms in Europe.
  • The group also created "employability maps" by surveying employers of recent physics graduates—including General Electric, Simco Electronics, and the Air Force—to find out what knowledge and skills are needed for successful science careers.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • If a student finishes and can't do what's advertised, they'll say, 'I've been shortchanged.'
  • Kathryn MacKay, an associate professor of history at Weber State University, drew on recent work from the American Historical Association to define learning goals in historical knowledge, thinking, and skills.
  • In the immediate future, as the higher-education market continues to globalize and the allure of prestige continues to grow, the value of university brands is likely to rise. But at some point, the countervailing forces of empiricism will begin to take hold. The openness inherent to tuning and other, similar processes will make plain that college courses do not vary in quality in anything like the way that archaic, prestige- and money-driven brands imply. Once you've defined the goals, you can prove what everyone knows but few want to admit: From an educational standpoint, institutional brands are largely an illusion for which students routinely overpay.
  • Gary Brown on 10 Jun 10
     
    The argumet for external stakeholders is underscored, among other implications.
Gary Brown

OECD Project Seeks International Measures for Assessing Educational Quality - Internati... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...63764

assessment

shared by Gary Brown on 28 Jan 10 - Cached
  • The first phase of an ambitious international study that intends to assess and compare learning outcomes in higher-education systems around the world was announced here on Wednesday at the conference of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
  • Richard Yelland, of the OECD's Education Directorate, is leading the project, which he said expects to eventually offer faculty members, students, and governments "a more balanced assessment of higher-education quality" across the organization's 31 member countries.
  • learning outcomes are becoming a central focus worldwide
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • the feasibility study is adapting the Collegiate Learning Assessment, an instrument developed by the Council for Aid to Education in the United States, to an international context.
  • At least six nations are participating in the feasibility study.
  • 14 countries are expected to participate in the full project, with an average of 10 institutions per country and about 200 students per institution,
  • The project's target population will be students nearing the end of three-year or four-year degrees, and will eventually measure student knowledge in economics and engineering.
  • While the goal of the project is not to produce another global ranking of universities, the growing preoccupation with such lists has crystallized what Mr. Yelland described as the urgency of pinning down what exactly it is that most of the world's universities are teaching and how well they are doing
  • Judith S. Eaton, president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, said she was also skeptical about whether the project would eventually yield common international assessment mechanisms.
  • Ms. Eaton noted, the same sets of issues recur across borders and systems, about how best to enhance student learning and strengthen economic development and international competitiveness.
  • Gary Brown on 28 Jan 10
     
    Another day, another press, again thinking comparisons
Matthew Tedder

The Canadian Press: Study: More of today's US youth have serious mental health issues t... - 0 views

www.google.com/...M5gBI4SQOMnufssMGrc6v-pd6P-iLw

education

shared by Matthew Tedder on 12 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Matthew Tedder on 12 Jan 10
     
    In my view, our society has become suicidal in a number of ways, such as fructose in everything. I wonder if our ever poorer health contributes to psychological issues such as these..
Gary Brown

WSU Today Online - Current Article List - 0 views

www.wsutoday.wsu.edu/...Publications.asp

writing assessment

shared by Gary Brown on 02 Dec 09 - Cached
  • the goal of the program is for students to submit their portfolios at the start of their junior year, and only about 34 percent are managing to do that.
  • Writing Assessment Program received the 2009 “Writing Program Certificate of Excellence”
  • If students delay completing their portfolio until late in their junior year, or into their senior year, she said, “it undermines the instructional integrity of the assessment.”
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • 70 percent of students submitted a paper as part of their portfolio that had been completed in a non-WSU course
  • Gary Brown on 02 Dec 09
     
    I ponder these highlights
Gary Brown

Accrediting Agencies Confront New Challenges - Letters to the Editor - The Chronicle of... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...63530

accreditation

shared by Gary Brown on 19 Jan 10 - Cached
  • The Chronicle, December 17). In an era of global expansion in higher education, accreditation agencies are increasingly confronted with myriad challenges surrounding various forms of distance education (whether virtual, so-called branch campuses, or study abroad) and cross-institutional certification.
  • the American Academy for Liberal Education is particularly well placed to view this changing pedagogical and institutional landscape, both domestically and worldwide.
  • AALE goes several steps further in evaluating whether institutions meet an extensive set of pedagogical standards specifically related to liberal education—standards of effective reasoning, for instance, and broad and deep learning. This level of assessment requires extensive classroom visitations, conversations with students and faculty members, and the time to assess the climate of learning at every institution we visit.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Innovation and quality in higher education can only join hands when institutions aspire—and are held to—independent, third-party standards of assessment.
  • Gary Brown on 19 Jan 10
     
    a small but clear stress made for independent review
Joshua Yeidel

News: 'You Can't Measure What We Teach' - Inside Higher Ed - 0 views

www.insidehighered.com/...humanities

assessment accountability

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 27 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 27 Jan 10
     
    "Despite those diverging starting points, the discussion revealed quite a bit more common ground than any of the panelists probably would have predicted. Let's be clear: Where they ended up was hardly a breakthrough on the scale of solving the Middle East puzzle. But there was general agreement among them that: * Any effort to try to measure learning in the humanities through what McCulloch-Lovell deemed "[Margaret] Spellings-type assessment" -- defined as tests or other types of measures that could be easily compared across colleges and neatly sum up many of the learning outcomes one would seek in humanities students -- was doomed to fail, and should. * It might be possible, and could be valuable, for humanists to reach broad agreement on the skills, abilities, and knowledge they might seek to instill in their students, and that agreement on those goals might be a starting point for identifying effective ways to measure how well students have mastered those outcomes. * It is incumbent on humanities professors and academics generally to decide for themselves how to assess whether their students are learning, less to satisfy external calls for accountability than because it is the right thing for academics, as professionals who care about their students, to do. "
  • Joshua Yeidel on 27 Jan 10
     
    Assessment meeting at the accreditors -- driven by expectations of a demand for accountability, with not one mention of improvement.
Gary Brown

Duncan Appoints Six Members to National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and... - 0 views

www.ed.gov/...12172009.html

accreditation

shared by Gary Brown on 17 Dec 09 - Cached
  • U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced the Department’s six appointments to the newly constituted National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI).
  • The Department’s six members, appointed for three-year terms, are: Earl Lewis, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.; Susan Phillips, provost and vice president for academic affairs, University of Albany, State University of New York; Jamienne Studley, president and CEO, Public Advocates Inc., San Francisco, Calif.; Aron Shimles, student, Occidental College, Los Angeles, Calif.; Frank Wu, professor, Howard University Law School, Washington, D.C.; and , Frederico Zargoza, vice chancellor of economic and workforce development, Alamo Colleges, San Antonio, Tex.
  • The House and Senate are expected to complete their appointments soon and the newly-formed committee will then meet shortly thereafter.
  • Gary Brown on 17 Dec 09
     
    Probably worth scoping some of their writings. This little tid-bit may well have substantial implications for our work.
Matthew Tedder

Turning Work into Play with Online Games | h+ Magazine - 0 views

hplusmagazine.com/...turning-work-play-online-games

education

shared by Matthew Tedder on 16 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Matthew Tedder on 16 Jan 10
     
    This is about games to improve employee work.
  • Matthew Tedder on 16 Jan 10
     
    This is about using online games to engage employees in work. This is very much the core of what I was talking about, except for education. For those more knowledgeable about software design: my thoughts so far were on using Google's V8 Javascript engine and a 3D engine, such as Ogre3D, perhaps wrapped by QT or SDL. The worlds would be managed on the server but code for each object type shipped to the clients and run, sychronized there. Everything would be an "object"--even a world itself (a container object). Each object would comprise of four code modules plus its media files (3D models, sounds, etc.): Affector -- this receives sensory input then filters and translates that to the object's internal properties. Intrinsor -- this is the object's behavioral programming. For example, it can be the functions of an espresso machine object or the AI and/or user-interface connector of an animate object, etc. Mitigator -- this is the code that controls the internal environment of any objects contained within this object. It mitigates the effects of contained objects to the affects of others. For example, a world object, a boat, a house, or a bag. The physics, weather, and such will depend on what they are contained within. The mitigator may also initiate effects to contained objects. Effector -- this provides the API for action attempts to the Intrinsor. It then filters and translates the action attempts to the objects actual action attempts that are read by this object's containor. (Yes--I mispelled some words above intentionally) This design provides a framework for a persistent world of decent individual performance. The V8 engine compiles to fast machine code (and caches). Only very minimal data need be communicated over the network. Objects can run in parallel precisely the same, so if a client fails the system continues. Updates of virtually any kind can be made on-the-fly without stopping the game. New object types will be relatively easy to b
Matthew Tedder

A Lot of Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing : Uncertain Principles - 0 views

scienceblogs.com/...t_of_knowledge_is_a_danger.php

education

shared by Matthew Tedder on 13 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Matthew Tedder on 13 Jan 10
     
    Not the best example but the problem, I can attest, is very real. In general from my experience, exams tend to be tailored for a superficial memorization of facts such that any comprehenisve understanding is penalized severely. My guess is that about 40% of questions, on average, are like this. I learned very much the hard way that understanding a subject better is at some point detrimental to passing an exam on it. The key is to learn what expected answers are and learning to let technical truths go. In other words, to dumb ones understanding down for the sake of passing. I have grumbled to myself about this on most exams I've even taken, short of those I truly knew little about.
Joshua Yeidel

Capella Learning and Career Outcomes - Program Outcomes - 0 views

www.capellaresults.com/BS_info_tech.asp

higher_education accountability accreditation assessment

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 19 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 19 Jan 10
     
    Re: Capella U.'s "CHEA" award: it appears that CU is located in Lake Woebegone, where all the children are above average...
Matthew Tedder

Female teachers transmit math anxiety to female students - 0 views

arstechnica.com/...influences-female-students.ars

education

shared by Matthew Tedder on 27 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Matthew Tedder on 27 Jan 10
     
    Math anxiety is contagious.. a surprisingly lot of behaviors and beliefs tend to be..
Joshua Yeidel

Views: Reconsider the Credit Hour - Inside Higher Ed - 0 views

www.insidehighered.com/...crow

assessment

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 27 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 27 Jan 10
     
    "The Office of the Inspector General (of the Department of Education) prefers auditable measures for performance. It reads the Higher Education Act with its multiple references to credit hours to demand such measures."
  • Joshua Yeidel on 27 Jan 10
     
    How far is accountability from accounting...
Gary Brown

Wise Men Gone: Stephen Toulmin and John E. Smith - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...63649

critical thinking

shared by Gary Brown on 26 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Toulmin, born in London in 1922, earned his undergraduate degree in 1942 from King's College, Cambridge, in mathematics and physics. After participating in radar research and intelligence work during World War II in England and at Allied headquarters in Germany, he returned to Cambridge, where he studied with Ludwig Wittgenstein, the greatest influence on his thought, earning his Ph.D. in moral philosophy in 1948.
  • Toulmin moved to the United States, where he taught at Brandeis, Michigan State, and Northwestern Universities and the University of Chicago before landing in 1993 at the University of Southern California.
  • Toulmin's first, most enduring contribution to keeping philosophy sensible came in his 1958 book, The Uses of Argument (Cambridge University Press). Deceptively formalistic on its surface because it posited a general model of argument, Toulmin's view, in fact, was better described as taxonomic, yet flexible. He believed that formal systems of logic misrepresent the complex way that humans reason in most fields requiring what philosophers call "practical reason," and he offered, accordingly, a theory of knowledge as warranted belief.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Toulmin rejected the abstract syllogistic logic, meant to produce absolute standards for proving propositions true, that had become fashionable in analytic philosophy. Instead he argued (in the spirit of Wittgenstein) that philosophers must monitor how people actually argue if the philosophers' observations about persuasion are to make any sense. Toulmin took jurisprudential reasoning as his chief example in The Uses of Argument, but he believed that some aspects of a good argument depend on the field in which they're presented, while others are "field invariant."
  • Toulmin's "central thesis is that every sort of argumentation can in principle claim rationality and that the criteria to be applied when determining the soundness of the argumentation depend on the nature of the problems to which the argumentation relates."
  • But Toulmin, trained in the hard sciences and mathematics himself, saw through the science worship of less-credentialed sorts. He didn't relent, announcing "our need to reappropriate the wisdom of the 16th-century humanists, and develop a point of view that combines the abstract rigor and exactitude of the 17th-century 'new philosophy' with a practical concern for human life in its concrete detail."
  • Toulmin declared its upshot: "From now on, permanent validity must be set aside as illusory, and our idea of rationality related to specific functions of ... human reason. ... For me personally, the outcome of 40 years of philosophical critique was thus a new vision of—so to speak—the rhetoric of philosophy."
  • Gary Brown on 26 Jan 10
     
    FYI, Toulmin was the primary influence on the first WSU Critical Thinking Rubric. (Carella was the other philosopher.)
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