Group items tagged

Nice student blog post on virtual reality, meditation, and nature.

"But there's a couple of problems with the disciplinary focus on teaching and learning. It reinforces the belief that teaching in a particular field is unique, and if you don't know the field you can't possibly know anything about how to teach it. Certainly the content-how knowledge of it advances, how it's organized, what counts as evidence, for example-has implications for how it's taught. Teaching problem solving and teaching themes from a novel are not the same. But there are many aspects of teaching and learning that transcend disciplinary boundaries-you wouldn't be reading this blog if you didn't believe that"

Reflections on the incubator classroom from Social Work

"I started composting at our summer place in 2009, and now I'm a convert. In the summer, we live on an island that's mostly rock covered with something the locals call "organic matter." Growing anything this far north on this soil base is challenging, but compost has made a big difference. My bleeding hearts, campanulas, delphinium, phlox, and coral bells are far more impressive than they used to be."

"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. "

"If your students worship grades, they won't complete assignments without knowing how many points it's worth. If they worship stickers and candy, they won't work without the promise of those prizes. If you say a prayer to the "real world" every time you sit down to plan your math lessons, you and your students will never have enough real world, never feel you have enough connection to jobs and solar panels and trains leaving Chicago and things made of stuff. If you instead say a prayer to the atomic sensation of being puzzled and the catharsis that comes from being unpuzzled, you will never get enough of being puzzled and unpuzzled."

Kind of what I was thinking for #DS106 and the upcoming VCU MOOCs- only using the mother blog for more than just Twitter and thinking through a couple other display options. 

GREAT annotated curation of recent blog posts about the LMS

Will Sullivan's Engelbart's scholars blog

Modeling a number of things in this post that would have strong parallels in faculty/student blogging.