Group items tagged

"My premise is that we're all sympathetic towards students who dislike mathematics, this course they're forced to take. We all have answers to the question, "What does it take to interest students in mathematics?" Though those answers are often implicit and unspoken, they're powerful. They determine the experiences students have in our classes. I lay out three of the most common answers I hear from teachers, principals, policymakers, publishers, etc., two of which are "make math real world" and "make math relevant." I offer evidence that those answers are incomplete and unreliable. Then I dive into research from Willingham, Kasmer, Roger & David Johnson, Mayer, et al., presenting stronger strategies for creating interest in mathematics education. "

"Students presented their work. They had about 30 seconds. A few students served as a panel (if we're sticking with "Shark Tank", these are your Mark Cubans, your Mr. Wonderfuls, etc.). The teacher had prepared a few scripted questions, which the panel asked psuedo-randomly. The presenters knew these questions ahead of time and had to be prepared to answer them. Students responded to the questions that were selected. The panelists convened with their groupmates to discuss the presenters' responses and to develop deeper, more probing questions. The presenters also had a couple minutes to regroup and confer. After convening, the panelists return to their station and ask the questions that they and their group came up with. The presenters respond. From this point, it becomes semi-conversational as all the panelists are interested in getting their question answered.he presenters then answered those questions, which were generally more specific in nature and based on the initial responses of the presenters."

" also share a lot of your concerns about specifics, but I think I've found a way to work my brain around it. You're absolute right; we've been conditioned to think in terms of exact numbers. We're used to being told our posts should be 200 words with 4 paragraphs and exactly 8 links to external sources, so that's how we've learned to function. I think this class has been great for me to retrain my brain to think creatively rather than within the confines of instructions. For length, I just make sure I answer the question. I ask myself if I feel that my answer is appropriate, or if I should go into more detail. It helps me if I stop focusing on the grade (as hard as that is) and instead focus on the assignment itself. If I can answer the question with detail in two sentences, I feel like two sentences is a perfectly fine entry. Most of the time, my entries are 2-3 paragraphs. I just write down what I'm thinking, rather than trying to filter through "Is this what Dr. Becker wants to see?" I think my work looks a lot better when I'm focused on what I think looks respectable, rather than trying to mold myself to what I think others may expect of me." h/t Jon

I/we need to consider this with our team and education more broadly. "Theory 1: Nothing we "know" about software development should be assumed to be true. Most of our tools, our mental models, and our practices are remnants of an era (possibly fictional) where software was written by solo practitioners, but modern software is a team sport. Theory 2: Technology is the product of the culture that builds it. Great technology is the product of a great culture. Culture gives us the ability to act in a loosely coupled way; it allows us to pursue a diversity of tactics. Uncertainty is the mind-killer and culture creates certainty in the face of the yawning shapeless void of possible solutions that is software engineering. Culture is what you do, not what you say. It starts at the top. It affects everything. You have a choice about the culture you promote, not about the culture you have. Theory 3: Software development should be thought of as a cycle of continual learning and improvement rather a progression from start to finish, or a search for correctness. If you aren't shipping, you aren't learning. If it slows down shipping, it probably isn't worth it. Maturity is knowing when to make the trade off and when not to. I had some experience with this at Flickr, and I wanted to see how far you could scale it. My private bet was that we'd make it to 50 engineers before things broke down. Theory 4: You build a culture of learning by optimizing globally not locally. Your improvement, over time, as a team, with shared tools, practices and beliefs is more important than individual pockets of brilliance. And more satisfying. Theory 5: If you want to build for the long term, the only guarantee is change. Invest in your people and your ability to ask questions, not your current answers. Your current answers are wrong, or they will be soon. "

An interesting look at assessment in an Econ course. h/t Laura G.

"Criteria for Grades This course will revolve around exploring a question which is very current and for which there is no settled answer yet.  Therefore, we can't determine grades based on obtaining "the right answer" or even learning "the content."  There will be content to be learned, but learning content is not the point of the class, just a means to the end."

"Nelson goes on to say that "Education ought to be clear, inviting and enjoyable, without booby-traps, humiliations, condescension or boredom. It ought to teach and reward initiative, curiosity, the habit of self-motivation, intellectual involvement." This reminded of this course. So far I can honestly say that I have thoroughly enjoyed this course. Many of my previous online courses were extremely repetitive and the assignments were very bland. We did the same thing over and over again every week. Read the article and write a post about it. We are taught to question things in this course. We are pushed to be creative and research topics that we cannot find easy answers to. We are not punished for our opinions, rather rewarded for getting our creative juices flowing. One of my favorite assignments was the one where we had to search a question that we already knew the answer to. I had no idea that my question about the S on superman's chest would lead to gender equality. It taught me to always take a deeper look. This course is the kind of course Nelson was talking about. It's unique, and definitely meets his criteria." h/t Jon

"The studies analyzed here document that active learning leads to increases in examination performance that would raise average grades by a half a letter, and that failure rates under traditional lecturing increase by 55% over the rates observed under active learning. The analysis supports theory claiming that calls to increase the number of students receiving STEM degrees could be answered, at least in part, by abandoning traditional lecturing in favor of active learning."

Answer: not much

"Which of Newton's Laws (First, Second or Third) says that an object will move in a straight line at a constant speed without a net force? This is a terrible question for the following reasons: Does it really matter which law is First, Second, and Third? Technically, both the First and Second Law would be correct answers. It misses the main point about forces and motion and instead gives some type of recall-based question. I just think we can do better. Just because most physics textbooks (but not all) have been very explicit about Newton's Laws of Motion, this doesn't mean that is the best way for students to learn."

Pretty interesting way to try to answer this question.

""We were initially torn between collaborating with universities and working outside the world of college," Thrun tells me. The San Jose State pilot offered the answer. "These were students from difficult neighborhoods, without good access to computers, and with all kinds of challenges in their lives," he says. "It's a group for which this medium is not a good fit.""

"Students appreciated the MOOC's ability to support structured, self-paced learning. Students often watched the short (10-to-15-minute) lecture videos at double speed with the captions turned on, at times that fit the students' schedules. Students described Andrew Ng as a highly effective lecturer, which added to the value of the lecture videos. Students did not actively participate in the discussion forums provided by the MOOC, choosing instead to use each other and Professor Fisher as resources when they needed help with the material. Occasionally, a student with a specific question would check to see if that question had already been asked and answered in the forums. It often was, and so the forums were a study resource for the students even if they didn't post to the forums themselves. Doug's students appreciated the in-class active learning facilitated by the "flipped" approach. By shifting explanatory lectures outside of class, class time was made available for more discussion, interaction, and application of that material. The students described Doug's role as "facilitator," guiding class discussions and making sure that every student understood the material. The biggest challenge identified by the students was a misalignment between the MOOC material and the additional readings Doug provided. These readings took the students beyond the introductory ideas presented in the MOOC, focusing on recent and seminar research in the field. The readings weren't designed for novices in the field, as Andrew Ng's lecture videos were, and they required "a different kind of learning," as one student put it. Nor did the readings always build on the week's MOOC content in clear ways."

HabWorlds Beyond explores the formation of stars, planets, Earth, life, intelligence, technological civilizations and, ultimately, is a quest of exploration as we attempt to answer one of the most profound questions: are we alone in the universe? Produced by Prof. Ariel Anbar and Dr. Lev Horodyskyj from Arizona State University, HabWorlds Beyond is now available for faculty to teach at your university.

"This past year, Davidson College introduced "A Domain of One's Own" to a portion of the student body through faculty willing to use it in their teaching. I saw two styles of 'Domains' rise out of the initiative. The first type of 'Domain' took audience into account, considering the implications of public scholarship, representation, and student agency. The second, in many ways, mirrored the traditional pedagogical structure by assigning papers or short answer assignments to be posted online through blogs. This is not necessarily bad, but also doesn't necessarily empower. The problems with the second approach can be wrapped up into two key questions beginning with: Why post an assignment online if…"

Also related to the distinction between having an eportfolio program and creating a domain of one's own; very different creatures that sometimes get discussed as if they're the same thing.

"But sometimes the reflexive impulse to map the data can make you forget that showing the data in another form might answer other - and sometimes more important - questions. So, when should you use a form other than than a map?"

"This adorable animated GIF is apparently the official answer Google sent to a Daily Dot reporter in response to his seeming scoop on a new YouTube livestreaming plan. "

"Later in his commentary Ragusea touches on transparency: "just trust me I know what I'm talking about doesn't work anymore, even if you are trustworthy and you do know what you're talking about," he says. "It's like math problems in school: it is not enough to get the right answer you have to show your work." Since at least 2011 in journalism developer circles show your work has been a mantra, and it is slowly spreading to other parts of the newsroom. Ragusea argues that Thompson's idea of discovery is important not because "people enjoy watching their hero sleuth chase down a mystery" but because nobody will believe you anymore when you "report a bunch of facts, even if you explain where you got them from. You have to show how you got them." Show, don't tell. It's writing 101 and it is the basic idea of active versus passive transparency. I like putting the emphasis on active transparency, in part, because it reinforces the idea of journalism as a process not a product."