GlobalSkillsCC

A website, developed by the makers of the Oxford English Dictionary, devoted to saving words that are rarely used and therefore risk losing a place in the dictionary.

Presentation by Josh Jarrett, Senior Program Officer, Education -- Postsecondary Success at the Gates Foundation; given September 10, 2010. Jarrett outlines his vision for education innovation, also highlighting some interesting resources.

This is a neat "tool" for free-writing. When the user hits the "go" button, s/he will see a word at the top of the screen and have 60 seconds to write about it. \n\n

Conrad Wolfram presentation on TED.com (filmed July 2010; posted Nov 2010). Wolfram argues that math applications are all around us, and that people in a ever-wider variety of workplaces are excited about math...but students are not. Wolfram argues that bringing computers into the math classroom would help improve math's relevancy -- and build excitement as well. Use the tag wolfram to look at his "knowledge engine," Wolfram Alpha.

Hosted by the Research & Planning Group for California Community Colleges in Cosa Mesa, CA, October 6-8 2010.

RA to attend this conference

The National center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR) at Teachers College, Columbia University, hosted this conference, September 23-24 2010. Downloads of all presentations are available from this site,as are some conference videos.

PA attended this conference.

Trailer and official movie site of the documentary by Davis Guggenheim, released fall 2010. The movie looks at the failing American public school system, as well as those who are trying to save it.

Mentioned in the Learning thread of the Jam. SB says that he was a little disappointed in the film.

Reported by Anthony Mason of CBS News, September 28 2010. A look at the discrepancy between rich and poor, as the gap grows. Video.

From their About page, "The WIDE Research Center creates new knowledge about digital communication and promotes the transfer of this knowledge to school, workplace, and community contexts to promote learning, knowledge work, and citizenship."

Study done by Writing in Digital Environments (WIDE) Research Center, Michigan State University, published September 7 2010. The study looks at the writing lives of over 1300 first year students, enrolled in a variety of secondary settings (and geographic locations), from large 4-year universities, to a community college. Executive summary, information about the survey, and a downloadable PDF.

Part of the NPR series, Speaking of Faith, hosted by Krista Tippett and first broadcast on January 7 2010. In this presentation, Tippett speaks with Mike Rose of UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies on the idea of what kind of education befits a democracy.

By Wick Sloane, in a column called The Devil's Workshop in Inside Higher Ed, September 20 2010. Sloane, previously the CFO of a public university, has embedded himself as a writing teacher at Bunker Hill Community College. In this column, he ties completion to the many varied needs of under-served students, many of whom live in poverty.

By Ros Smith, published by JISC, Sept 6 2010. Announcement and podcast posted on the JISC site. This newly published guide raises questions about the meaning of assessment, and how more effective assessment (ideally taking advantage of current technologies) might also promote the idea of students becoming lifelong learners. There is a 13 minute podcast with Ros Smith, the author. The new guide can be downloaded by chapter, of full guide (as PDF or Word docs). Also, until Oct 31, 2010, printed copies can be ordered for free.

Posted on Ideascale, users can submit their "thoughts, questions, and challenges" for the White House Summit on Community College, to be held October 5 2010.

By Caralee Adams in the College Bound section of Education Week, October 5 2010. Adams reports on the White House Summit on Community Colleges, held on October 5.

Presented on TED.COM, filmed Feb 2010 and posted April 2010. Wujec discusses his experience using the Marshmallow Challenge in team-building exercises. Observing the challenge 100s of times, he sees that kindergarteners do better than recent business school grads (better at prototyping, less jockeying for leadership), CEOs do well, but do even better with an executive admin on their team because facilitation is important. High stakes (he's offered a cash reward) works better once the team has acquired skills; high stakes with no skills is a disaster.

Inspired by this video, both LS and RS used the Marshmallow Challenge as an icebreaker on their first class meetings (2nd semester) and both were pleased with the results.

The marshmallow challenge continued to be a popular icebreaker throughout the GSCC project. In semester 4, RS referenced this video again, and LS created her own video (see tag marshmallow) with her students completing the challenge.

By Khairil Imran Ghauth and Nor Aniza Abdullah in Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 2010, 26(6), 764-774. From the abstract, "we propose a new e-learning recommender system framework that uses content-based filtering and good learners' ratings to recommend learning materials, and in turn is able to increase the student's performance."

Excerpted from Biehler/Snowman, Psychology Applied to Teaching, 8th ed., 1997, this page is part of Houghton-Mifflin's Project-Based Learning Space. This review of cooperative learning resources looks at the models of the Johnson Brothers, Slavin, and Sharan & Sharan, comparing and contrasting each. This page includes resources, results, and methods for using cooperative learning in the classroom.

From Channel Thirteen's Ed Online, books, articles, and websites that promote collaborative and particularly cooperative learning.

This explanation, from (channel) Thirteen/Ed Online, defines collaborative learning as the larger category of students learning in groups. Cooperative learning, a subset, is where students are in small groups, working together on structured activities. Work is assessed both individually and as a group.