Group items tagged

Crafting a well-written email to an adult Holding online video chats with community members, leaders, and decision makers Analyzing the differences between viewpoint-clashing Web sites such as Wikipedia.org and Conservapedia.com Blogging responsibly Having one student write a research paper using only online resources, and another write a paper on the same topic using only print resources, and compare and contrast the final papers

In the case of informal learning, however, the structure is much looser. People pursue their own objectives in their own way, while at the same time initiating and sustaining an ongoing dialogue with others pursuing similar objectives. Learning and discussion is not structured, but rather, is determined by the needs and interests of the participants. There is no leader; each person participates as they deem appropriate. There are no boundaries; people drift into and out of the conversation as their knowledge and interests change.

The PLE is not an application, but rather, a description of the process of learning in situ from a variety of courses and according to one’s personal, context-situated, needs. The process, simply, is that learners will be presented with learning resources according to their interests, aptitudes, educational levels, and other factors (including employer factor and social factors) while they are in the process of working at their job, engaging in a hobby, or playing a game.

It doesn't matter when you learn it, so long as you learn it. A student’s grade should reflect her current understanding of the course, not last month’s, not her understanding when it was convenient for me to assess her. Keep a loose grip on your students' grades. My assessment policy needs to direct my remediation of your skills. My comprehensive test on "Twelfth Night" won't do much for us two months down the road when you come in looking to patch yourself up. Assign separate scores to "Twelfth Night Themes," "Twelfth Night Vocabulary," and "Twelfth Night [whatever else it is you English teachers do]," scores which can be targeted and remediated individually. My assessment policy needs to incentivize your own remediation. How many students will put in the effort to remediate their skills if the reward isn't tangible and immediate? Traditionally, what do you have? The promise that your studying here at lunch is really gonna pay off on the next test? Which is in three weeks. The student's like, awesome, glad I came in.

Who Needs Teachers? The elearning zeitgeist is that teaching is passé: Google opens the door to all the world’s knowledge. The “sweet-spot” in corporate training, we are told, is rapid conversion of PowerPoints and SME-created podcasts. E-textbook and enterprise software publishers insist that what students need is better access to digital resources.

two-thirds of teens admit in a survey that emoticons and other informal styles have crept in

The Pew Internet and American Life Project, in a study released Thursday, also found that teens who keep blogs or use social-networking sites such as Facebook or News Corp.'s MySpace have a greater tendency to slip nonstandard elements into assignments

Teens who consider electronic communications with friends as "writing" are more likely to carry the informal elements into school assignments than those who distinguish the two.