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Kris Cody

The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens: Scientific A... - 103 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

education reading research ebooks epub books

shared by Kris Cody on 10 May 13 - No Cached
  • prevented them from zooming out to see a neighborhood, state or country
    • Monica Williams-Mitchell
      Monica Williams-Mitchell on 10 May 13
       
      This explains, in real terms, why I've had so much struggle with online reading! Very interesting article.
  • Because of these preferences—and because getting away from multipurpose screens improves concentration—people consistently say that when they really want to dive into a text, they read it on paper
    • Kris Cody
      Kris Cody on 11 May 13
       
      This is backed up by a recent article: Faris, Michael J., and Stuart A. Selber. "E-Book Issues In Composition: A Partial Assessment And Perspective For Teachers." Composition Forum 24.(2011): ERIC. Web. 31 Mar. 2013.
  • Surveys and consumer reports also suggest that the sensory experiences typically associated with reading—especially tactile experiences—matter to people more than one might assume.
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • When reading a paper book, one can feel the paper and ink and smooth or fold a page with one's fingers; the pages make a distinctive sound when turned; and underlining or highlighting a sentence with ink permanently alters the paper's chemistry.
  • discernible size, shape and weight.
  • Although many old and recent studies conclude that people understand what they read on paper more thoroughly than what they read on screens, the differences are often small. Some experiments, however, suggest that researchers should look not just at immediate reading comprehension, but also at long-term memory.
  • When taking the quiz, volunteers who had read study material on a monitor relied much more on remembering than on knowing, whereas students who read on paper depended equally on remembering and knowing.
  • E-ink is easy on the eyes because it reflects ambient light just like a paper book, but computer screens, smartphones and tablets like the iPad shine light directly into people's faces.
  • the American Optometric Association officially recognizes computer vision syndrome.
  • People who took the test on a computer scored lower and reported higher levels of stress and tiredness than people who completed it on paper.
  • Although people in both groups performed equally well on the READ test, those who had to scroll through the continuous text did not do as well on the attention and working-memory tests.
  • Subconsciously, many people may think of reading on a computer or tablet as a less serious affair than reading on paper. Based on a detailed 2005 survey of 113 people in northern California, Ziming Liu of San Jose State University concluded that people reading on screens take a lot of shortcuts—they spend more time browsing, scanning and hunting for keywords compared with people reading on paper, and are more likely to read a document once, and only once.
  • When reading on screens, people seem less inclined to engage in what psychologists call metacognitive learning regulation—strategies such as setting specific goals, rereading difficult sections and checking how much one has understood along the way
  • Perhaps she and her peers will grow up without the subtle bias against screens that seems to lurk in the minds of older generations.
  • They think of using an e-book, not owning an e-book,"
  • Participants in her studies say that when they really like an electronic book, they go out and get the paper version.
  • When it comes to intensively reading long pieces of plain text, paper and ink may still have the advantage. But text is not the only way to read.
  • Monica Williams-Mitchell on 10 May 13
     
    it is difficult to see any one passage in the context of the entire text.
  • Kris Cody on 11 May 13
     
    it is difficult to see any one passage in the context of the entire text.
Katt Blackwell-Starnes

Should We Really ABOLISH the Term Paper? A Response to the NY Times | HASTAC - 46 views

hastac.org/...h-term-paper-response-ny-times

critical thinking information literacy writing blogging

shared by Katt Blackwell-Starnes on 19 Feb 12 - No Cached
Kate Pok liked it
  • I no longer engage in a ritual that too often happens among assigners of research papers (you know who you are), that frantic last week reading and marking 50 term papers before grades are due.  Too often, in the old days, I would read and write comments on papers that wound up in a box outside my office door that few students ever came by to collect--a pointless and deadening pedagogy if there ever was one. 
  • Interestingly, the tipping point in these classes is when someone the student doesn't know, an anonymous stranger, responds to their work.  When it is substantive, the student is elated and surprised that their words were taken seriously.   When it is rude or trollish, the student is offended.  Both responses are good.  The Internet needs more people committed to its improvement, to serious discourse.
Katt Blackwell-Starnes

Blogs vs. Term Papers - NYTimes.com - 8 views

www.nytimes.com/...-the-term-paper-tradition.html

information literacy critical thinking NYTimes

shared by Katt Blackwell-Starnes on 03 Feb 12 - Cached
    • Sara Thompson
      Sara Thompson on 03 Feb 12
       
      It sounds like he's saying that term papers must, by their very nature, NOT be interesting. 
  • The National Survey of Student Engagement found that in 2011, 82 percent of first-year college students and more than half of seniors weren’t asked to do a single paper of 20 pages or more, while the bulk of writing assignments were for papers of one to five pages.
  • “It doesn’t mean there aren’t interesting blogs. But nobody would conflate interesting writing with premise, evidence, argument and conclusion.”
    • Katt Blackwell-Starnes
      Katt Blackwell-Starnes on 19 Feb 12
       
      Does he mean confuse or does he mean that there is no way for an argumentative assignment to be interesting? I'm also curious if Reeves is reading any academic and/or professional blogs. Perhaps I'm just angry at this sentence because I'm a blogger who works hard to make my argumentative posts interesting and valid to my readers..
Clint Heitz

Do we read differently on paper than on a screen? - 9 views

phys.org/...-differently-paper-screen.html

reading digital resources

shared by Clint Heitz on 21 Mar 18 - No Cached
  • In total, there are more than 180 researchers from 33 different countries participating in the COST-initiated research network E-READ, reading in an age of digital transformation. This network examines the effects and consequences of digital developments in terms of reading.
  • It is not a case of "one size fits all," but patterns are beginning to emerge from empirical research into the subject. The length of the text seems to be the most critical factor. If the text is long, needs to be read carefully and perhaps involves making notes, then studies show that many people, including young people such as students, still often prefer a printed book, even if it is available as both an e-book and in electronic formats with options for making notes, enabling the user to search for and highlight the text digitally. This is not the case when it comes to shorter texts.
  • When reading long, linear, continuous texts over multiple pages that require a certain amount of concentration, referred to as "Deep Reading," the reader often experiences better concentration and a greater overview when reading from a printed medium compared to a screen. When we are reading from a screen, only one section can be seen at a time and the available reading surface area is limited. If you read a printed medium such as a book, several text areas are available simultaneously and it feels easier to form an overview and make notes in the margins.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • However, an interesting finding in some of the empirical studies is that we tend to overestimate our own reading comprehension when we read on screen compared to on paper.
  • it has been found that we tend to read faster on screen and consequently understand less compared to when reading from paper. This is a very new research topic and there are studies that have not found any differences in this area.
  • such findings do highlight something very important, namely that we may have a different mental attitude to what we read on a screen. This has very significant implications, including in the context of education.
  • For example, reading literature has proven to have a stimulating effect on the imagination and encourage the development of empathy. Reading has an effect on our ability to concentrate and for abstract thinking. We want to discover if such processes are influenced by the reading medium.
  • There is a need for more empirical research on reading comprehension in terms of screen reading and also on the subjective reading experience.
Gareth Jones

Looking in the Wrong Places | Edge.org - 5 views

www.edge.org/...er-looking-in-the-wrong-places

NaturalScience senseperception paradigm

shared by Gareth Jones on 19 May 18 - No Cached
  • We should be very careful in thinking about whether we’re working on the right problems. If we don’t, that ties into the problem that we don’t have experimental evidence that could move us forward. We're trying to develop theories that we use to find out which are good experiments to make, and these are the experiments that we build.   We build particle detectors and try to find dark matter; we build larger colliders in the hope of producing new particles; we shoot satellites into orbit and try to look back into the early universe, and we do that because we hope there’s something new to find there. We think there is because we have some idea from the theories that we’ve been working on that this would be something good to probe. If we are working with the wrong theories, we are making the wrong extrapolations, we have the wrong expectations, we make the wrong experiments, and then we don’t get any new data. We have no guidance to develop these theories. So, it’s a chicken and egg problem. We have to break the cycle. I don’t have a miracle cure to these problems. These are hard problems. It’s not clear what a good theory is to develop. I’m not any wiser than all the other 20,000 people in the field.
  • I’m still asking myself the same question that I asked myself ten years ago: "What is going on in my community?" I work in the foundations of physics, and I see a lot of strange things happening there. When I look at the papers that are being published, many of them seem to be produced simply because papers have to be produced. They don’t move us forward in any significant way. I get the impression that people are working on them not so much because it’s what they’re interested in but because they have to produce outcomes in a short amount of time. They sit on short-term positions and have short-term contracts, and papers must be produced.
  • The field that I mostly work in is the foundations of physics, which is, roughly speaking, composed of cosmology, the foundations of quantum mechanics, high-energy particle physics, and quantum gravity. It’s a peculiar field because there hasn’t been new data for almost four decades, since we established the Standard Model of particle physics. There has been, of course, the Higgs particle that was discovered at the LHC in 2012, and there have been some additions to the Standard Model, but there has not been a great new paradigm change, as Kuhn would have put it. We’re still using the same techniques, and we’re still working with the same theories as we did in the 1970s.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • That makes this field of science rather peculiar and probably explains why there hasn’t been much progress. But it’s not like we don’t have any questions that need to be answered. There are a lot of questions that have been around for decades. For example, what is dark energy? What is dark matter? What are the masses of the Standard Model particles? And what’s up with the foundation of quantum mechanics? Is a theory that's fundamentally not deterministic, where we cannot predict outcomes, the last word that we have, or is there something more to it? Is there maybe another underlying structure to reality?
  • but we haven't reached the fundamental level. Maybe we will never reach it. Certainly, the theories that we have right now are not all there is. The question is, of course, if we don’t have any guidance by experiment, how do we make progress? And are we doing the right thing?
  • We’ve reached this point where we have to carefully rethink if the criteria that we’re using to select our theories are promising at all. If one looks at the history of this field in the foundations of physics, progress has usually been made by looking at questions that, at least in hindsight, were well posed, where there was an actual mathematical contradiction. For example, special relativity is incompatible with Newtonian gravity. If you try to resolve this incompatibility, you get general relativity.
  • There are various similar examples where such breakthroughs have happened because there was a real problem. There was an inconsistency and people had to resolve it. It had nothing to do with beauty. Maybe beauty was, in some cases, the personal motivation of the people to work on it. There’s certainly some truth to this, but I don’t think it’s good to turn this story around and say that if we only pay attention to this motivation that comes from ideals of beauty it will lead to progress.
  • If we are working with the wrong theories, we are making the wrong extrapolations, we have the wrong expectations, we make the wrong experiments, and then we don’t get any new data. We have no guidance to develop these theories. So, it’s a chicken and egg problem. We have to break the cycle. I don’t have a miracle cure to these problems. These are hard problems. It’s not clear what a good theory is to develop. I’m not any wiser than all the other 20,000 people in the field.
  • The way that research is funded in foundations of physics and in many other fields just puts a lot of things at a disadvantage that are not pursued anymore. Typically, everything that takes longer than three years to complete, no one will start it because they can’t afford it. They can literally not afford it.
  • Who makes the decisions about the funding? Superficially, people say that it's a funding agency, so it’s the university who get to hire people. But that puts the blame on the wrong party. In the end it’s the community itself who makes the decisions. What do the funding agencies do if they get a proposal? They send it to reviewers. And who are the reviewers? They're people from the same community. If you look at how hiring decisions are being made, there’s some committee and they are people from the same community. They have some advisory boards or something, which contains people from the same community.
  • Even if that wasn’t so, what the people in these committees would be doing is looking at easy measures for scientific success. Presently, the most popular of these measures are the number of publications and the number of citations. And maybe also whether the person has published in high-impact journals. So, these are the typical measures that are presently being used. But what do they measure? They primarily measure popularity. They indicate whether somebody’s research is well received by a lot of people in the same community. And that’s why once a research area grows beyond a certain critical mass, you have sufficiently many people who tell each other that what they’re doing is the good thing to do. They review each other’s papers and say that that’s great and it's what we should continue to do. It’s a problem in all communities that grow beyond a certain size.
  • I later came to the United States and then Canada, and that gave me the opportunity to learn a lot about quantum gravity. I also figured out that much of what goes on in quantum gravity is very detached from reality. It’s pretty much only mathematics. Yes, the mathematics is there, but I still don’t know if it’s the mathematics that describes reality.
  • That’s the very reason why we don’t normally think of gravity as a weak force. It’s the only force that is left over on long distances, and the reason for this is that it adds up. It gets stronger the more mass you pile up. More precisely, we should say that the reason we find it so hard to measure quantum gravitational effects is that we either have a particle that has very pronounced quantum properties, like, say, a single electron or something like that, but then it’s so light that we cannot measure the gravitational field. Or we have some object that is so heavy that we can measure the gravitational field, but then it doesn’t have quantum properties. Okay, so that’s the actual problem.
Katt Blackwell-Starnes

Blogs vs. Term Papers - NYTimes.com - 56 views

www.nytimes.com/...-the-term-paper-tradition.html

shared by Katt Blackwell-Starnes on 19 Feb 12 - No Cached
Kate Pok liked it
  • We don’t pay taxes so kids can talk about themselves and their home lives.”
    • Katt Blackwell-Starnes
      Katt Blackwell-Starnes on 19 Feb 12
       
      Do they really think the only purpose of a blog in the classroom is to talk about home life? Do they think educators are incapable of designing blog assignments that further the learning of the course and help students better understand the importance of audience and exigency in writing?
  • Her conclusion is that students feel much more impassioned by the new literacy. They love writing for an audience, engaging with it. They feel as if they’re actually producing something personally rewarding and valuable, whereas when they write a term paper, they feel as if they do so only to produce a grade.
Bonnie Breeden

Paper Rater | Pricing - 38 views

paperrater.com/pricing

term papers review tools

shared by Bonnie Breeden on 10 Apr 13 - Cached
  • Bonnie Breeden on 10 Apr 13
     
    Free Gammar/Spelling/Proofing/Plagiarism checker!!
  • Matt Lindsey on 12 Apr 13
     
    It will also grade the paper based upon the age level of the student. It is a way for the student to see how well they have done on their paper before they hand it in!
Marc Hamlin

Reintroducing students to Research - 144 views

homepages.gac.edu/...LakeForest.html

research resources tools

shared by Marc Hamlin on 01 Dec 12 - Cached
  • First, we think research, broadly defined, is a valuable part of an undergraduate education. Even at a rudimentary level, engaging in research implicates students in the creation of knowledge. They need to understand that knowledge isn’t an inert substance they passively receive, but is continually created, debated, and reformulated—and they have a role to play in that process.
  • we recognize that research is situated in disciplinary frameworks and needs to be addressed in terms of distinct research traditions.
  • research is a complex and recursive process involving not just finding information but framing and refining a question, perhaps gathering primary data through field or lab work, choosing and evaluating appropriate evidence, negotiating different viewpoints, and composing some kind of response, all activities that are not linear but intertwined.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • learning to conduct inquiry is itself complex and recursive. These skills need to be developed throughout a research project and throughout a student’s education.
  • the hybrid nature of libraries today requires students to master both traditional and emerging information formats, but the skills that students need to conduct effective inquiry—for example, those mentioned in your mission statement of reading critically and reasoning analytically—are the same whether the materials they use are in print or electronic.
  • Too often, traditional research paper assignments defeat their own purpose by implying that research is not discovery, but rather a report on what someone else has already discovered. More than once I’ve had to talk students out of abandoning a paper topic because, to their dismay, they find out it’s original. If they can’t find a source that says for them exactly what they want to say—better yet, five sources—they think they’ll get in trouble.
  • In reality, students doing researched writing typically spend a huge percentage of their time mapping out the research area before they can focus their research question. This is perfectly legitimate, though they often feel they’re spinning wheels. They have to do a good bit of reading before they really know what they’re looking for.
  • she has students seek out both primary and secondary sources, make choices among them, and develop some conclusions in presentations that are far from standard literary criticism. One lab focuses on collecting and seeking relationships among assigned literary texts and other primary sources from the second half of the twentieth century to illuminate American society in that time period.
  • For this lab, groups of students must find ten primary sources that relate in some way to literary texts under discussion and then—here’s the unusual bit—write three new verses of “America the Beautiful” that use the primary sources to illuminate a vision of American society. Instead of amber waves of grain and alabaster cities, they select images that reformulate the form of the song to represent another vision of the country. At the end of the course, her final essay assignment calls upon all of the work the previous labs have done, asking students to apply the skills they’ve practiced through the semester. While students in this course don’t do a single, big research project, they practice skills that will prepare them to do more sophisticated work later.
  • Marc Hamlin on 01 Dec 12
     
    What are our assumptions about how students get research done in the humanities? How do those assumptions affect our instruction, and what really is our students' approach to research?
Sandra Flowers

The (Coming) Social Media Revolution in the Academy - Daniels and Feagin - Fast Capital... - 6 views

www.uta.edu/...Daniels8_2.html

shared by Sandra Flowers on 04 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Scholars now completing PhD’s have likely never known a world without the Internet and social media.
  • Ultimately, this technological transformation is going to have major implications on expert knowledge. The Internet increases voices and knowledge available to all. Elitism in the expert knowledge world is declining; the Internet democratizes knowledge building and use. Much more knowledge has become available, and the distinction between experts and ordinary folks, what Gramsci might have called “organic intellectuals,” is declining.
  • Academic bloggers frequently use blogs to keep up with the relevant literature in their field, thereby providing a kind of public note-taking and research-sharing exercise. Academic bloggers also use blogging as a rough draft for ideas they later develop fully for peer-reviewed papers or books.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • bloggers have embraced Internet technologies in ways that broaden the scope of their research work beyond college walls and in ways reaching beyond old disciplinary silos. This is partly about reaching audiences in disparate geographic locations
  • Academics, like others who use Twitter, have found short updates a useful way to find and maintain connections to others who share their research and other interests
  • For academics that may toil in relative isolation from others who share their immediate interests, the social connection of blogging and microblogging can also provide an opportunity to curate the ideal academic department.  While in another era, scholars may have identified strongly with their PhD-granting university, the college or university, or the academic department in which they are currently employed, the rise of social media allows for a new arrangement of colleagues.
  • Our colleagues in the humanities have embraced digital technologies much more readily than those of us in sociology or the social sciences more generally.  A casual survey of the blogosphere reveals that those in the humanities (and law schools) are much more likely to maintain academic blogs than social scientists.  In terms of scholarship, humanities scholars have been, for more than ten years, innovating ways to combine traditional scholarship with digital technologies.
  • scholars in English have established a searchable online database of the papers of Emily Dickinson and historians have developed a site that offers a 3D digital model showing the urban development of ancient Rome in A.D. 320.
  • Kate Pok on 04 Jan 12
     
    Great article on coming changes in digital scholarship.
Steve Kelly

What would an exceptional middle and high school computer science curriculum include? -... - 48 views

www.quora.com/ter-science-curriculum-include

high school school computer computer science middle school curriculum science coding code programming include

shared by Steve Kelly on 26 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • What would an exceptional middle and high school computer science curriculum include?
  • This isn't a complete answer, but one thing the very first introductory classes should require is that the students turn off all their electronic computers and actually learn to walk through  algorithms with a computer that exists only on paper. (Or, I suppose, a whiteboard or a simulator.) This exercise would give the students a grounding in what is going on inside the computer as a very low level.My first computer programming class in my Freshman year of high school was completely on paper. Although it was done because the school didn't have much money, it turned out to be very beneficial.Another class I had in high school, that wouldn't normally be lumped into a Computer Science curriculum but has been a boon to my career, was good old Typing 101.
  • If you followed the CS Unplugged curriculum your students would know more about CS than most CS grads:http://csunplugged.orgIt's a really great intro to basic computer science concepts and very easy for students to understand.  Best of all you don't even need a computer per student if your school doesn't have the budget,
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • For younger students, I think that the ability to make something professional-looking, like a real grown-up would, is paramount.  Sadly, I think this means that LOGO and BASIC aren't much use any more*.
  • So, we have a few choices.  You can try to write phone apps that look just like real phone apps, design interactive websites that look just like real interactive websites, or do something with embedded systems / robotics.  Avoid the temptation to make these things into group projects; the main thing every student needs to experience is the process of writing code, running it, debugging it, and watching the machine react to every command.
  • It is important to consider what an 11 to 18-year old is familiar with in terms of mathematics and logical thinking. An average 11-year old is probably learning about fractions, simple cartesian geometry, the concept of units, and mathematical expressions. By 15, the average student will be taking algebra, and hopefully will have the all-important concept of variables under his/her belt. So much in CS is dependent on solid understanding that symbols and tokens can represent abstract concepts, values, or algorithms. Without it, it's still possible to teach CS, but it must be done in a very different way (see Scratch).
  • At this point, concepts such as variables, parenthesis matching, and functions (of the mathematical variety) are within easy reach. Concepts like parameter passing, strings and collections, and program flow should be teachable. More advanced concepts such as recursion, references and pointers, certain data structures, and big-O may be very difficult to teach without first going through some more foundational math.
  • I tend to agree strongly with those that believe a foundational education should inspire interest and enforce concepts and critical thinking over teaching any specific language, framework, system, or dogma.
  • The key is that the concepts in CS aren't just there for the hell of it. Everything was motivated by a real problem, and few things are more satisfying than fixing something you really want to work with a cool technique or concept you just learned.
  • Steve Kelly on 26 Mar 15
     
    Great resource for teachers (especially those of us not initially trained in Computer Science) about what should 'count' as Computer Science.  Worth the read!
Barbara Moose

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Plagiarism_in... - 0 views

www.ascd.org/...arism_in_the_Internet_Age.aspx

plagiarism Internet research intellectual_property

shared by Barbara Moose on 25 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Teachers who wish to prevent plagiarism should devote extensive instruction to the component tasks of writing from sources
  • instruction should focus on
  • summarizing sources
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Instructional materials like these imply that teachers can stop inappropriate use of sources through three strategies: (1) teaching students from early grades the nuts and bolts of crediting all sources they use; (2) designing plagiarism-proof assignments that spell out how works should be cited and that include personal reflection and alternative final projects like creating a brochure; and (3) communicating to students that you're laying down the law on plagiarism ("I'll be on the lookout for this in your papers, you know").
  • Any worthwhile guide to preventing plagiarism should Discuss intellectual property and what it means to "own" a text. Discuss how to evaluate both online and print-based sources (for example, comparing the quality and reliability of a Web site created by an amateur with the reliability of a peer-reviewed scholarly article). Guide students through the hard work of engaging with and understanding their sources, so students don't conclude that creating a technically perfect bibliography is enough. Acknowledge that teaching students how to write from sources involves more than telling students that copying is a crime and handing them a pile of source citation cards.
  • That pedagogy should both teach source-reading skills and take into consideration our increasingly wired world. And it should communicate that plagiarism is wrong in terms of what society values about schools and learning, not just in terms of arbitrary rules.
  • through formal education, people learn skills they can apply elsewhere—but taking shortcuts lessens such learning.
  • communicate why writing is important. Through writing, people learn, communicate with one another, and discover and establish their own authority and identity. Even students who feel comfortable with collaboration and uneasy with individual authorship need to realize that acknowledged collaboration—such as a coauthored article like this one—is very different from unacknowledged use of another person's work.
Gregory Louie

Students tap into technology - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - 1 views

www.pittsburghlive.com/...s_612698.html

shared by Gregory Louie on 23 Feb 09 - Cached
  • use their laptops to read "Don Quixote" and Dante's "Divine Comedy" on the Internet
  • Technology is the wave of the future
  • a computer program
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • "Most jobs require computers," noted Brittnee Stephen, 16, as she assembled a slideshow on her HP Mini laptop. "It's good that we're learning it now."
    • Ed Webb
      Ed Webb on 23 Feb 09
       
      The technology is still very visible, if students are talking in terms of 'computers' rather than the skills involved. We don't talk about 'paper' but writing, critical reading etc. Yet here the platform itself is emphasized. Early days, I guess.
  • has just begun incorporating technology
    • Ed Webb
      Ed Webb on 23 Feb 09
       
      Uh, no. They have been using 'technology' forever, in the form of, say, books.
  • students seem far more interested in learning via interactive technology than they had been with a chalkboard and an overhead projector
    • Ed Webb
      Ed Webb on 23 Feb 09
       
      Well, the problem here is that some of that can be ascribed to novelty. Once every class uses 'interactive technology' (yuk) then how much difference will there be? The tools are great. All tools can be useful. But focus on the pedagogy, people!
    • Scott Merrick
      Scott Merrick on 25 Feb 09
       
      I'm for focusing on understanding. I love the word "pedagogy" because most lay people don't really know what it entails--theory (which can be anything institutional or community deems effective or correct), practice (which, as we know, can be summed up with the phrase "mileage will vary"), and some third thing which if I could come up with it I'd have the magic 3 elements in an effective argument. I think effective tools used effectively by effective teachers (there! 3 uses of one adjective!) will remain effective as long as they are used to promote understanding. No argument here, Ed, just sayin'...
    • Ed Webb
      Ed Webb on 26 Feb 09
       
      Perhaps the magic third thing would be 'attitude' or 'state of mind'? Alternatively, perhaps another of those non-transparent terms, 'praxis'. The point I was trying to make, of course, was that it ain't what you use, it's the way that you use it.
  • "I think the kids that have turned school off because it's boring to them will come here and see something familiar,"
    • Ed Webb
      Ed Webb on 23 Feb 09
       
      Boring and familiar seem to me to be closely related, not opposites. I suspect that often when students say their learning environment is 'boring' they mean 'challenging'.
  • Educational technology does not come cheaply
    • Ed Webb
      Ed Webb on 23 Feb 09
       
      The cost of books is astronomical!
  • "Learning is changing,"
    • Ed Webb
      Ed Webb on 23 Feb 09
       
      Was it EVER the case that we could "just deliver a lecture and expect all the kids to get it"?
    • Gregory Louie
      Gregory Louie on 26 Feb 09
       
      Computer technology in my classroom has revolutionized my teaching of biology. Instead of static images on a printed page, or talk and chalk, my students can manipulate 3-D images of DNA, RNA and proteins. These have even been embedded in a research-based learning progression that leads the students to a robust understanding of the foundational elements of molecular literacy. 1. Atoms and molecules are constantly in motion. (A visualization is not possible on a 2-3 printed page.) 2. All atoms and molecules have a 3-D structure that determines how they interact with other particles. 3. Charges and other intermolecular forces play a role in atomic and molecular interactions. My students can see these for themselves, change the number of particles in a box, or the distribution of charge on a large particle or the temperature of the box and other thought experiments which they can follow in real-time. There is no way, I could do that without the computer!
Mark Glynn

(32) (PDF) An Overview and Study on the Use of Games, Simulations, and Gamification in ... - 14 views

www.academia.edu/...mification_in_Higher_Education

paper 2016 wiggins gamification

shared by Mark Glynn on 24 Oct 19 - No Cached
  • Mark Glynn on 24 Oct 19
     
    "This article examines the use of both game-based learning (GBL) and gamification in tertiary education. This study focuses specifically on the use of games and/or simulations as well as familiarity with gamification strategies by communication faculty. Research questions concentrate on the rate, frequency, and usage of digital and non-digital games and/or simulations in communication courses, as well as instructor familiarity with gamification. A survey was constructed with questions emerging from the game-based learning and gamification literature. It was distributed to communication faculty at public institutions of higher education in a southern state. In this context, the author argues that while the term gamification is novel, the approach is not. Based on the results, current gamification strategies appear to be a repackaging of traditional instructional strategies."
Kate Pok

Figuring Grades - 67 views

www.educationoasis.com/...beginners_guide_grades.htm

teaching grading guide grades

shared by Kate Pok on 24 Nov 11 - Cached
  • Always convert all grades and numbers to a system of 100. It will not only be easier for you to figure out overall grades, but it will simplify your explanations to parents and administrators if they can see your grades in terms of percents.
  • FAILING GRADES BELOW "50" ALWAYS GET MARKED AS A SCORE OF "50"
  • All letter grades are converted to a numerical equivalent, equi-spaced from each other, based on a 100 point system. Then they are averaged as you would with other grades. Here is a chart you can use: A++ = 100 (perfect paper with extra-credit) A+ = 98 A = 95 A- = 92 B+ = 88 B = 85 B- = 82 C+ = 78 C = 75 C- = 72 D+ = 68 D = 65 D- = 62 F = 55
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • EXAMPLE: The student in the example received: 25, 80, 40, 95, 90. Average = 66%, Grade = D The student's grades should be converted to 50 , 80, 50 , 95, 90. Average = 73%, Grade = C, which is a better representation of grades of A, A-, B-, F, F.
Karen Balnis

Another Look at the Weaknesses of Online Learning - Innovations - The Chronicle of High... - 86 views

chronicle.com/...29888

shared by Karen Balnis on 28 Jul 11 - No Cached
  • have been lucky enough to have taught the full range of our freshman / sophmore undergraduate offerings as both an onsite and online instructor. While I have thoroughly enjoyed both formats - and very much so - I must admit that my experiences online have been *much* more positive than onsite instruction. Let me try and elucidate:1. While in the onsite classroom you have the opportunity to think on your feet and challenge and be experiential on your feet to reactions to the students who speak, in the online classroom, you are able to meet *every* class member and challenge their minds and ideas. The students who would normally be lost in a classroom of 35-40 are met and developed each day or week at their level and pushed to consider ideas they might not have considered. 2. I am able to reach the entire class through multimedia exhibits in each of the weekly units - journal articles, non-copyrighted film clips (and many from our university's purchased collection under an agreement for both onsite classroom and online classroom use), photography, art, patents, etc, that the students would not see - or would otherwise ignore - in an onsite classroom. We incorporate this information into our discussions and make it part of the larger whole of history.3. Each student and I - on the phone during office hours or in e-mail - discuss the creation of their term papers - and discuss midterm and final "anxiety" issues - and as they are used to the online format, and regular communication with me through the discussion boards, they respond much more readily than onsite students, whom I have found I have to pressure to talk to me. 4. I am able to accommodate students from around the country - and around the world. I have had enrolled in my class students from Japan, Indonesia, India, England - and many other countries. As a result, I have set up a *very* specific Skype address *only* for use of my students. They are required to set up the time and day with me ahead of time and I need to approve that request, but for them (and for some of my students scattered all over the state and US), the face time is invaluable in helping them feel "connected" - and I am more than happy to offer it. 5. As the software upgrades, the possibilities of what I can offer become more and more amazing, and the ease of use for both me - and for the students -  becomes astronomically better. Many have never known the software, so they don't notice it - but those who have taken online courses before cheer it on. Software does not achieve backwards. As very few of these issues are met by the onsite classroom, I am leaning more and more toward the online classroom as the better mode of instruction. Yes, there are times I *really* miss the onsite opportunities, but then I think of the above distinctions and realize that yes, I am where I should be, and virtually *ALL* the students are getting far more for their money than they would get in an onsite classroom. This is the wave of the future, and it holds such amazing promise. Already I think we are seeing clear and fruitful results, and if academics receive effective - and continuing - instruction and support from the very beginning, I cannot imagine why one would ever go back. The only reason I can think of *not* doing this is if the instructor has his or her *own* fear of computers. Beyond that - please, please jump on the bandwagon, swallow your fears, and learn how to do this with vigor. I don't think you will ever be sorry.PhD2BinUS
  • have been lucky enough to have taught the full range of our freshman / sophmore undergraduate offerings as both an onsite and online instructor. While I have thoroughly enjoyed both formats - and very much so - I must admit that my experiences online have been *much* more positive than onsite instruction. Let me try and elucidate:
  • While I have thoroughly enjoyed both formats - and very much so - I must admit that my experiences online have been *much* more positive than onsite instruction. Let me try and elucidate:
  • S B on 29 Jul 11
     
    I am a graduate student at Sam Houston State University and before I started grad school I never had taken an online course before. My opinion then was that online courses were a joke and you couldn't learn from taking a course online. Now my opinion has done a complete 180. The teachers post numerous youtube videos and other helpful tools for each assignment so that anyone can successfully complete the assignment no matter what their technology skill level is. I do not see much difference between online and face-to-face now because of the way the instructors teach the courses.
Carol Ansel

The Daring Librarian: Wikipedia is not wicked! - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post - 70 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...gIQAYWSF8J_blog.html

wikipedia washintonpost daringlibrarian encyclopedia research

shared by Carol Ansel on 08 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • Teaching Wikipedia in 5 Easy Steps: *Use it as background information *Use it for technology terms *Use it for current pop cultural literacy *Use it for the Keywords *Use it for the REFERENCES at the bottom of the page!
  • 4 ways to use Wikipedia (hint: never cite it) Teachers: Please stop prohibiting the use of Wikipedia 20 Little Known Ways to Use Wikipedia Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica Schiff, Stacy. “Know it all: Can Wikipedia conquer expertise?” The New Yorker, February 26, 2006 And: Yes students, there’s a world beyond Wikipedia **Several years ago, Nature magazine did a comparison of material available on Wikipedia and Brittanica and concluded that Brittanica was somewhat, but not overwhelmingly, more accurate than Wikipedia. Brittanica lodged a complaint, and here, you can see what it complained about as well as Nature’s response. Nature compared articles from both organizations on various topics and sent them to experts to review. Per article, the averages were: 2.92 mistakes per article for Britannica and 3.86 for Wikipedia. -0- Follow The Answer Sheet every day by bookmarking http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet. And for admissions advice, college news and links to campus papers, please check out our Higher Education page. Bookmark it! var entrycat = ' ' By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 09/07/2011 .connect_widget .connect_widget_text .connect_widget_connected_text a {display:block;} #center {overflow:visible;} /*.override-width iframe {width:274px !important;}*/ Tumblr Reddit Stumbleupon Digg Delicious LinkedIn http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/tweet_button.html#_=1315504289567&count=horizontal&counturl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fblogs%2Fanswer-sheet%2Fpost%2F
  • Carol Ansel on 08 Sep 11
     
    Excellent perspective on "The 'W' Word" - use it wisely for what it is - high school and college kids shouldn't be citing any general knowledge encyclopedias for serious research - but that doesn't mean there aren't some excellent uses for it.
anonymous

Technology in Schools Faces Questions on Value - NYTimes.com - 70 views

www.nytimes.com/...-faces-questions-on-value.html

technology schools change critique measurement effectiveness integration

shared by anonymous on 04 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • When it comes to showing results, he said, “We better put up or shut up.”
  • Critics counter that, absent clear proof, schools are being motivated by a blind faith in technology and an overemphasis on digital skills — like using PowerPoint and multimedia tools — at the expense of math, reading and writing fundamentals. They say the technology advocates have it backward when they press to upgrade first and ask questions later.
  • how the district was innovating.
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • district was innovating
  • there is no good way to quantify those achievements — putting them in a tough spot with voters deciding whether to bankroll this approach again
  • “We’ve jumped on bandwagons for different eras without knowing fully what we’re doing. This might just be the new bandwagon,” he said. “I hope not.”
  • $46.3 million for laptops, classroom projectors, networking gear and other technology for teachers and administrators.
  • If we know something works
  • it is hard to separate the effect of the laptops from the effect of the teacher training
  • The high-level analyses that sum up these various studies, not surprisingly, give researchers pause about whether big investments in technology make sense.
  • Good teachers, he said, can make good use of computers, while bad teachers won’t, and they and their students could wind up becoming distracted by the technology.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Dec 11
       
      yep - so where does leadership come in?
  • “It’s not the stuff that counts — it’s what you do with it that matters.”
  • “Test scores are the same, but look at all the other things students are doing: learning to use the Internet to research, learning to organize their work, learning to use professional writing tools, learning to collaborate with others.”
  • that computers can distract and not instruct.
  • “They’re inundated with 24/7 media, so they expect it,”
  • The 30 students in the classroom held wireless clickers into which they punched their answers. Seconds later, a pie chart appeared on the screen: 23 percent answered “True,” 70 percent “False,” and 6 percent didn’t know.
  • rofessor Cuban at Stanford argues that keeping children engaged requires an environment of constant novelty, which cannot be sustained.
  • engagement is a “fluffy
  • term” that can slide past critical analysis.
  • creating an impetus to rethink education entirely
    • Steve Ransom
      Steve Ransom on 04 Sep 11
       
      Like teaching powerpoint is "rethinking education". Right.
  • guide on the side.
  • Professor Cuban at Stanford
  • But she loves the fact that her two children, a fourth-grader and first-grader, are learning technology, including PowerPoint
  • “There is a connection between the physical hand on the paper and the words on the page,” she said. “It’s intimate.”
  • Mr. Share bases his buying decisions on two main factors: what his teachers tell him they need, and his experience. For instance, he said he resisted getting the interactive whiteboards sold as Smart Boards until, one day in 2008, he saw a teacher trying to mimic the product with a jury-rigged projector setup. “It was an ‘Aha!’ moment,” he said, leading him to buy Smart Boards, made by a company called Smart Technologies.
  • This is big business.
  • “Do we really need technology to learn?” she said. “It’s a very valid time to ask the question, right before this goes on the ballot.”
  • anonymous on 07 Dec 11
     
    Shallow (still important) analysis of the major issues regarding technology integration in schools.
anonymous

Curriculum21 - Annotexting - 62 views

www.curriculum21.com/...annotexting

annotating

shared by anonymous on 11 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • We would also like to share this DISCUSSION RUBRIC (2007) that you can use as students submit annotations and begin to draw conclusions about what their evidence is pointing to.
    • Sharin Tebo
      Sharin Tebo on 11 Nov 14
       
      An idea or resource perhaps...
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 11 Nov 14
       
      Start off modeling what you expect students to do.  Then, move more toward asking students to look at a text with a certain set of questions in mind.  Finally, just share a simple short list of terms or words which will guide student reading/annotating.
  • These annotations, rather than being on paper, can be collected with different web tools so that students can collaborate
  • ...8 more annotations...
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 11 Nov 14
       
      Great use of Diigo or Google documents!
  • Students submit their annotations via their smart phones or other digital devices, and then analyze each other’s notations collectively.  They could be looking for main ideas, thematic and literary elements, or big ideas from the work.   They could be looking for evidence of connections to other texts, their own experiences, or world issues. They could simply be searching for meaning to support them when reading complex texts.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 11 Nov 14
       
      Reading, analyzing, and collaborating about annotations helps open the eyes of readers and provides feedback which promotes even more thinking.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 11 Nov 14
       
      FABULOUS way to utilize Google docs and tools!
  • annotexting will allow students to engage with other audiences in tasks with an expanded purpose
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 11 Nov 14
       
      Anytime something is shared and ideas are discussed and shared, there seems to be more of a 'real-life' purpose for digging in and completing the task.
  • In order to get students to own this process, we have to relinquish some control. Let them think, let them make mistakes and respond. Let them draw conclusions even they are not the conclusions we would have drawn. We can be there to coach them through misconceptions.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 11 Nov 14
       
      Step back!  It is amazing to learn from the student's perspective.  Then, if the thinking is not focused toward the goal or objective of the teacher's lesson, a bit of guidance and coaching is all that is needed to steer students toward that goal/objective.
jariza67

Letter_Birmingham_Jail(1).pdf - 21 views

Engage NY

shared by jariza67 on 03 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      Martin Luther King Jr. is BOTH a Reverend (priest) AND a Doctor of Theology (study of religion) at this time in his life.
  • From the Birmingham jail, where he was imprisoned as a participant in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote in longhand the letter which follows.
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      QUESTION: Why was Dr. King sent to jail? What law(s) did he break?
  • Jr., wrote in longhand the letter which follows. It was his response to a public statement of concern and caution issued by eig
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • It was his response to a public statement of concern and caution issued by eight white religious leaders of the South.
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      QUESTION: Why were the 8 religious leaders angry at Dr. King?
  • nwise and untimely
  • WHILE confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling our present activities "unwise and untimely."
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      Dr. King starts off his letter by addressing his critics in the opening of his letter. QUESTION: WHY DOES KING ADDRESS HIS CRITICS IN THIS MANNER? ("My Dear Fellow Clergymen:")
  • "unwise and untimely."
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      QUESTION: Why do the 8 white priests think King's protests are "unwise and untimely?" QUESTION: Why does King refer to this in his letter?
  • unwise
  • unwise
  • unwise
  • unwise
  • ctive
  • I would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      QUESTION: How has King set up his defense?
  • you are men of genuine good will
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      QUESTION: What are King's reasons for this remark?
  • "outsiders coming in."
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      QUESTION: Why is King considered an outsider?
  • I am here because I have basic organizational ties here.
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (REVIEW Para. 1-2) 1. How does King begin the letter? 2. What is the impact of King's word choices? 3. HOW DO SPECIFIC WORDS AND PHRASES CONTRIBUTE TO THE IMPACT OF KING'S OPENING? 4. What are King's reasons for being in Birmingham?
  • carried
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      VOCABULARY: 5. consented (v.) - permitted, approved, or agreed.
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      VOCABULARY: sought (v.) - tried or attempted
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      VOCABULARY: 4. untimely (adj.) - happening too soon or too early.
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      "My Dear Fellow Clergymen:" (Mr. Ariza's note) Dr. King originally addresses his famous "Letter From A Birmingham Jail" to 8 Alabama clergymen (priests) who (in a local newspaper ad) criticized King's protests and demonstrations, while also labeling King as "a law-breaker." With no paper in his jail cell, King used the margins of this newspaper to write his Famous reply to their criticisms of him. KING'S LETTER (written in August 1963) is what brought the world's attention to our country's problems with segregation and racism.
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      VOCABULARY: 6. Seldom (adj.) on only a few occasions; rarely, not often.
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      VOCABULARY: 1: fellow (adj.) -belonging to the same class or group; united by the same occupation, interests, etc.).
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      VOCABULARY: 2. clergymen (n.) - religious leaders
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      VOCABULARY: 3. confined (adj.) - unable to leave a place because of illness, imprisonment, etc.
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      LINK FOR THE ORIGINAL LETTER WRITTEN TO KING BY THE 8 WHITE CLERGYMEN http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/09a/mlk_day/statement.html
    • jariza67
      jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
       
      VOCABULARY: Consented (v.) - permitted, approved, or agreed
  • jariza67 on 03 Feb 16
     
    Letter From a Birmingham Jail full text pdf w ANNOTATIONS Mr. Ariza/ Ms. Bozeman AUGUST MARTIN HS
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