Group items tagged

"Good automated feedback gets students writing more. This is the most important thing that any scaffolding for writing can do. The best thing that writers can do to improve their writing is to write more, and to keep practicing. Many students, though, are going to be stuck at the first draft above - they won't see how they can expand. Inexperienced writers need to be nudged in the right direction with advice like this teacher gives. By giving specific suggestions for how a writer can improve, this teacher is keeping students engaged in the writing process."

"Google Docs is an online suite of digital tools that provides teachers with some powerful features to help students develop 21st century writing skills. Since Docs are collaborative and available 24/7, the tool is well-suited for facilitating digital writing workshops that combine peer editing with cooperative grouping and small group fine-tuned writing instruction."

For more than two years, I have been writing blog posts on a weekly basis for the Foreign Policy Association. More than anything, what that experience has offered me is one of the greatest tools that graduate students need to complete a dissertation: confidence in their writing.

"Jeannette M. Wing actually phrases it, "computational thinking" in her article on the subject, and writes that "Computational thinking is a fundamental skill for everyone, not just for computer scientists. To reading, writing, and arithmetic, we should add computational thinking to every child's analytical ability.""

For these reasons, the SUNYCoW opposes the prospect that MOOCs--or any other form of massive-scale instruction--might be accepted for credit in writing, especially in satisfaction of SUNY's Basic Communication requirement. Completion of the Writing requirement should always involve close work with a faculty member who can provide students mentorship, careful assessment and a genuine sense of a human audience.

"I would endorse a profoundly different attitude to academic writing, one that recognises its role in the development of responsible academic individuals and communities. I would like academic writing to become more integrated, not outsourced to market forces or bolted on as a response to last-minute deadlines."

A good rule of thumb is if it's boring to write, then it's probably boring to read. The reason is that your enthusiasm for the subject is reflected in your treatment of the subject. If it's a subject you are passionate about, it is only natural that you lavish attention on the details and spend that extra time fussing over the language. So how do you take a hum-drum post and make it awesome?

I wanted the two teachers I was talking with understand how to help their students learn to read and write hyperlinked text effectively. I shared with them the story of Bud's "Going South" blog post. It's a poignant lesson in reading and writing linked text.

"Below, we collect some "rules" we've derived from these features and from other pieces on the Times site, along with links and related activities we hope writers at any stage will find fun or useful - or both."

"the automated text-analysis tool will be tested in a statistics course this fall. For three semesters, students in that class have responded to the same writing prompts, producing hundreds of essays on the same topics. The M-Write team has pored over those papers, identifying the features of papers that met the assignment criteria and those that missed the mark. The findings will be used to design an algorithm that makes the text-analysis tool look for those features."

"Hemingway is a markdown editor that coaches you to write more clearly, helping you to emulate Ernest Hemingway's trademark sparse, journalistic style. Though I don't use it as my main markdown editor, I've been thinking about ways it can be useful in a variety of learning tasks."

"First of all, blogging is writing, 21st-century style, plain and simple. Blogging constitutes a massive genre.  It comes in many forms, addresses myriad topics, and can certainly range in quality. For my money (which usually means free), blogging provides the best venue for teaching student writing. As bloggers, young people develop crucial skills with language, tone their critical thinking muscles, and come to understand their relationship to the world."

"After looking for one of those "joke" worksheets to review competing the square I thought I'd try some group work (ala @druinok) via index cards.  I decided to write problems in varying degrees of difficulty... those with an "a" value, those without, those that would result in fractions, etc.  I pulled out my Sharpies to start writing and what did I discover?"

This is a facilitated course that will run for 6 weeks, initially from 19 March - 23 April 2013. Webinars are held Tuesday morning (Americas)/ late afternoon (Europe, Africa). There is an optional weekly lab session on Fridays at the same time of day. To sign up, click 'Start Course' at bottom left.

"With this poorly articulated rationale in mind, I present first, some pros and cons to citing blogs within formal academic writing. Next, I put forth three main sub-questions that I think will help us-and by "us" I mean myself and the readers who grapple with the ethical and professional questions of rigor in standards of academic sourcing-organize our thoughts. "

Great example of how to combine writing and culture in an open setting.

Website is a collection of ideas, reflections and stories about what it means to teach writing in our digitl age.

I have recently created a class Instagram account. Since every student has their own iPad with the Instagram app installed I signed them all into the same account. I have made it a private account and accepted follow requests from only a select number of other early years classrooms that we converse with on Twitter.

"Academia has lots and lots and lots of systems in place for assuring that credit is always given where credit is due. If you're writing a paper, there are particular ways to cite internet sources-- even tweets and Facebook posts. But what about on the internet? We know we're supposed to cite sources, but a standardized system hasn't developed, and in the meantime, you could face a lawsuit if you steal someone else's work, even by accident."

"As it seems that social media will only play a bigger role in future research of all disciplines, I took to doing my own research on how Facebook posts, tweets, YouTube videos, etc. should be cited in academic publications."