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Paul Beaufait

SLWIS Newsletter - March 2011 - 0 views

newsmanager.commpartners.com/...2.html

assessment automation ESL essays evaluation machine scoring writing

shared by Paul Beaufait on 15 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • several problems are inherent in machine scoring. First, though Ferris (2003) claimed that students will improve over time if they are given appropriate error correction and that students use teacher-generated feedback to revise things other than surface errors, students rarely use programs like MY Access! to revise anything other than surface errors (Warschauer & Grimes, 2008); paragraph elements, information structure, and register-specific stylistics are largely ignored. Second, although teachers can create their own prompts for use with the program (more than 900 prompts are built into MY Access! to which students can write and receive instantaneous feedback.), MY Access! will score only those prompts included in the program. Third, regarding essay length, in many cases, MY Access! seems to reward longer essays with higher scores; consequently, it appears that MY Access! assumes that length is a proxy for fluency.
  • Overall, students’ opinions regarding MY Access! were mixed; students found useful aspects as well as aspects they termed less helpful.
  • Some students found working with the program very helpful in discipline, encouraging multiple revision. Others liked working with the many tools provided, finding them very helpful in the revision process. On the other hand, some students, lacking basic computer skills, found the program stressful and unusable. Others were discouraged by the seeming overabundance of feedback; in some cases, writers found it overwhelming, so they tended to disregard it. Our most disheartening finding: When some of the students were unhappy with their scores, they found ways to raise them by simply inserting unrelated text to their essays.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • They appreciated the help MY Access! offered in finding grammar errors, but they were not always sure how to fix them. Further, the program offered no positive comments about what students were doing well, which could negatively impact student motivation. In addition, after working on a prompt once or twice, many became bored and wanted to switch to another prompt. Many of the student writers used MY Access! for surface editing only and rarely used it for revision. In general, students in this study did not use features in MY Access! (e.g. My Portfolio, My Editor), possibly because their teachers did not explicitly assign them.
  • Locally controlled assessment is important; when assessments are created from within, they are specific to one context―they are developed with a very specific group of students in mind, considering what those students have learned in their classes and what they are expected to be able to do as a result of what they have learned in that context. Standardized tools such as the many machine-grading programs available today cannot address this specificity.
  • Paul Beaufait on 15 Mar 11
     
    "Though Crusan (2010), Ericsson and Haswell (2006), and Shermis and Burstein (2003) offered a more thorough treatment of machine scoring in general, in this article, I concentrate on one program―MY Access! (Vantage Learning, 2007)―briefly describing it and discussing a small study conducted in a graduate writing assessment seminar at a midsize Midwestern university in which graduate students examined second language writers' attitudes about using the program as a feedback and assessment tool for their writing in a sheltered ESL writing class" (¶2).
Paul Beaufait

U.S. Considers 'Internet Access for All' - 1 views

www.technewsdaily.com/net-access-for-all-100128-0115

access broadband human rights

shared by Paul Beaufait on 31 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Paul Beaufait on 31 Mar 10
     
    In his "Blueprint for Change" economic recovery document, President Obama said that America "should lead the world in broadband penetration and Internet access." Data indicates, however, that the U.S. is far behind other nations when it comes to providing broadband access for its citizens. Figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) show a sharp decline in U.S. broadband access rank among its 30 member nations. In 2001, the U.S. ranked 4th, but by the end of 2008 had fallen to 15th place. As for speed, Akamai, one of the largest global networks, released its "Q3 2009 State of the Internet" report that shows the U.S. 18th with an average connection speed of 3.9 Mbps. In first place was South Korea, which clocked in at 14.6 Mbps. (America Lagging, ¶¶1-3)
Paul Beaufait

Three generations of distance education pedagogy | Anderson | The International Review ... - 0 views

www.irrodl.org/...1663

cognitive-behaviouris community of inquiry connectivism content context distance education education expectations learning learning design pedagogy social constructivist technology typologies

shared by Paul Beaufait on 28 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • Some technologies may embody pedagogies, thereby hardening them, and it is at that point that they, of necessity, become far more influential in a learning design, the leaders of the dance rather than the partners. For example, a learning management system that sees the world in terms of courses and content will strongly encourage pedagogies that fit that model and constrain those that lack content and do not fit a content-driven course model. The availability of technologies to support different models of learning strongly influences what kinds of model can be developed
  • 30 years of research has yet to show differences in learning outcomes between learning designs with high or low levels of social presence, that is if one confines the definition of learning to the CB notions of acquisition of pre-specified facts and concepts.
  • Social-constructivist pedagogies, perhaps not coincidently, developed in conjunction with the development of two-way communication technologies. At this time, rather than transmitting information, technology became widely used to create opportunities for both synchronous and asynchronous interactions between and among students and teachers. Michael Moore’s famous theory of transactional distance (1989) noted the capacity for flexible interaction to substitute for structure in distance education development and delivery models.
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  • It is notable that social-constructivist models only began to gain a foothold in distance education when the technologies of many-to-many communication became widely available, enabled first by email and bulletin boards, and later through the World Wide Web and mobile technologies. While such models had been waiting in the wings for distance education since Dewey or earlier, their widespread use and adoption was dependent on the widespread availability of workable supporting technologies.
  • It remains challenging to apply learning where it can blossom into application and thus demonstrate true understanding.
  • Teaching presence extends beyond facilitation of learning to choosing and constructing educational interventions and to providing direct instruction when required.
  • teaching presence in constructivist pedagogical models focuses on guiding and evaluating authentic tasks performed in realistic contexts.
  • Ironically, constructivist models of distance education began to share many of the affordances and liabilities of campus-based education, with potential for teacher domination, passive lecture delivery, and restrictions on geographic and temporal access.
  • Connectivist learning focuses on building and maintaining networked connections that are current and flexible enough to be applied to existing and emergent problems. Connectivism also assumes that information is plentiful and that the learner’s role is not to memorize or even understand everything, but to have the capacity to find and apply knowledge when and where it is needed. Connectivism assumes that much mental processing and problem solving can and should be off-loaded to machines
  • Connectivist cognitive presence begins with the assumption that learners have access to powerful networks and, as importantly, are literate and confident enough to exploit these networks in completing learning tasks. Thus, the first task of connectivist education involves exposing students to networks and providing opportunities for them to gain a sense of self-efficacy in networked-based cognitive skills and the process of developing their own net presence.
  • The artifacts of connectivist learning are usually open, accessible, and persistent. Thus, distance education interaction moves beyond individual consultations with faculty (CB pedagogy) and beyond the group interactions and constraints of the learning management systems associated with constructivist distance-education pedagogy.  Cognitive presence is enriched by peripheral and emergent interactions on networks, in which alumni, practicing professionals, and other teachers are able to observe, comment upon, and contribute to connectivist learning.
  • Connectivist pedagogy stresses the development of social presence and social capital through the creation and sustenance of networks of current and past learners and of those with knowledge relevant to the learning goals. Unlike group learning, in which social presence is often created by expectation and marking for participation in activities confined to institutional time frames, social presence on networks tends to be busy as topics rise and fall in interest.
  • Connectivist learning is also enhanced by the stigmergic knowledge of others and the signs that they leave as they navigate through learning activities. The activities, choices, and artifacts left by previous users are mined through network analytics and presented as guideposts and paths to knowledge that new users can follow (Dron, 2006). In this way, the combination of traces of people’s actions and activities generate an emergent collective, which may be seen as a distinctive individual in itself, both greater and lesser than the sum of its parts: it is a socially constituted entity that is, despite this, soulless, a reflection of the group mind that influences but does not engage in dialogue (Dron & Anderson, 2009).
  • As in constructivist learning, teaching presence is created by the building of learning paths and by design and support of interactions, such that learners make connections with existing and new knowledge resources. Unlike earlier pedagogies, the teacher is not solely responsible for defining, generating, or assigning content. Rather, learners and teacher collaborate to create the content of study, and in the process re-create that content for future use by others. Assessment in connectivist pedagogy combines self-reflection with teacher assessment of the contributions to the current and future courses.
  • Teaching presence in connectivist learning environments also focuses on teaching by example.
  • A final stress to teaching presence is the challenge presented by rapidly changing technologies. No one is current on all learning and communications applications, but teachers are often less competent and have less self-efficacy; thus, connectivist learning includes learners teaching teachers and each other, in conjunction with teachers aiding the connectivist learning of all.
  • Learning in connectivist space is, paradoxically, plagued by a lack of connection.
  • In connectivist space, structure is unevenly distributed and often emergent, with that emergence seldom leading to structure that is optimally efficient for achieving learning goals.
  • Cognitive-behaviourist models are most notably theories of teaching and social–constructivist models are more notably theories of learning, but both still translate well into methods and processes for teaching. Connectivist models are more distinctly theories of knowledge, which makes them hard to translate into ways to learn and harder still to translate into ways to teach. Indeed, the notion of a teacher is almost foreign to the connectivist worldview, except perhaps as a role model and fellow node (perhaps one more heavily weighted or connected) in a network.
  • As concerns about privacy mount and we come to adopt a more nuanced approach to connections and trust, our networks are bound to become more variegated and specialized. It is already becoming clear that connectivist approaches must become more intelligent in enabling people to connect to and discover sources of knowledge.
  • Although the prime actors in all three generations remain the same—teacher, student, and content—the development of relationships among these three increases from the critical role of student–student interaction in constructivism to the student–content  interrelationship celebrated in connectivist pedagogies, with their focus on persistent networks and user-generated content. The popular community-of-inquiry model, with its focus on building and sustaining cognitive, social, and teaching presence, can be a useful heuristic in selecting appropriate pedagogies.
  • It is clear that whether the learner is at the centre or part of a learning community or learning network, learning effectiveness can be greatly enhanced by applying, at a detailed level, an understanding of how people can learn more effectively: Cognitivist, behaviourist, constructivist, and connectivist theories each play an important role.
  • Paul Beaufait on 28 Aug 11
     
    Anderson, T., & Dron, J. (2010). Three generations of distance education pedagogy. The International Review Of Research In Open And Distance Learning, 12(3), 80-97. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/890/1663
Paul Beaufait

SCoPE: Seminars: Collaborative Projects on WikiEducator: August 10-28, 2009 - 0 views

scope.bccampus.ca/...view.php

collab-bk-collaboration collaboration projects Wikieducator

shared by Paul Beaufait on 25 Sep 09 - No Cached
  • Paul Beaufait on 25 Sep 09
     
    Online seminar introducing "many opportunities available to educators to learn from others, to collaborate on curriculum projects, and to explore new technologies that will improve educational access and quality" (forum blurb).
Paul Beaufait

Teaching Writing Using Blogs, Wikis, and other Digital Tools - 0 views

digitalwriting.pbworks.com

writing tools teaching resources wikis activities

shared by Paul Beaufait on 02 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Paul Beaufait on 02 Aug 10
     
    Authors of Teaching Writing Using Blogs... are hoping to collect "material related to the topics in this wikibook: links, references, files, descriptions of teaching activities, or student work." For permission to comment on or edit this wiki, "request access from Richard Beach, University of Minnesota, at rbeach@umn.edu" (Front Page, 2010.08.03).
Paul Beaufait

Google Drawings - Google Docs Help - 0 views

docs.google.com/...topic.py

drawings documents Google Docs Google graphics concept mapping and outlining wink_students

shared by Paul Beaufait on 03 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Paul Beaufait on 03 Aug 10
     
    Access point for help and tutorials - Categories include: Getting Started; Organizing your Docs List; Creating and Editing Drawings; Sharing, Collaborating and Publishing; Uploading and Exporting; Fixing a Problem; and More.
Paul Beaufait

Web2Access - Products - Type with Me - 1 views

www.web2access.org.uk/170

collaboration products tools Web2Access writing

shared by Paul Beaufait on 20 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Paul Beaufait on 20 Mar 10
     
    Univ. of Southampton's evaluation of a "Web 2.0 Service" offers a brief description and assessments from three perspectives: 1) accessibility, 2) disability-tailoring, and 3) activities for which Type with Me is useful, namely: a) Group Discussion; b) Text-based Editable Information [compilation], c) Note Taking, and d)Collaborative Writing.
Paul Beaufait

Blog U.: Search: How Libraries Do it Wrong - Library Babel Fish - Inside Higher Ed - 0 views

www.insidehighered.com/...arch_how_libraries_do_it_wrong

databases frustration libraries journals reasoning research students

shared by Paul Beaufait on 05 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • The ultimate purpose is to prepare students to develop a habit of finding evidence and reasoning from it, which involves being thoughtful about both the search process and sources encountered as our graduates go forth to think for themselves.
  • It turns out the databases we use are more likely to include content from mega-corporations that from societies or universities, and the content of over 40% of the new journals was available in only a very few libraries, so even if a database identified a citation, it wouldn’t be accessible to most library users. Many open access journals would be available – just not discoverable through library tools.
  • we need to make sure that we aren’t turning libraries into walled gardens of overpriced material only available to the few, that when we introduce undergraduates to search, we recognize that searching is not a matter of tool use but is a creative and critical part of the research process and so teach it in the context of learning language, finding connections, and looking for patterns
  • Paul Beaufait on 05 Aug 11
     
    Highlights weaknesses in collections and uses of library resources
Paul Beaufait

Privacy & Data Practices | AddThis - 0 views

www.addthis.com/privacy

AddThis browsing data privacy practices services sharing wink_students

shared by Paul Beaufait on 05 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • The only time AddThis has access to any browsing data is when you visit a website that uses AddThis. If you use one of our browser extensions, we don't send your browsing activity to our servers.
  • You can easily stop AddThis from collecting any information about you for online behavioral advertising by opting out. This will prevent advertisers from receiving any data that could be used to tailor advertising for you.
  • Paul Beaufait on 05 Sep 12
     
    Quick summary of practices for consumers
Paul Beaufait

McToonish » ... » The Death of Communities When Courses End - 0 views

www.mctoonish.com/blog

access cohorts communities course management systems courses death learning learning opportunities glossaries opportunities professionalism resources social networking sites third-party sites universities wikis

shared by Paul Beaufait on 04 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Paul Beaufait on 04 Sep 09
     
    "Fortunately Facebook, Ning, Google and Yahoo Groups and many other options for social networking don't work that way. Those communities can continue for as long as the members of the community put in the effort to keep it alive. This can be very useful for students to stay in contact for social, professional and learning opportunities" (Ross, 2008.10.06).
Paul Beaufait

How To Write the Perfect Password - 0 views

www.technewsdaily.com/e-perfect-password-100128-0118

passwords technology tips web access wink_students

shared by Paul Beaufait on 31 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Paul Beaufait on 31 Mar 10
     
    10 tips for better password protection
Paul Beaufait

Privacy and security issues: advice for students and teachers - 0 views

"As an aside, … [on a recent bookmark, Joe remarks that he has] "banned Grouply from kuma-i and the PALE list because it requires full access to a participants['] Yahoo account[s]" (Buh-bye Ning......

privacy security services sign-ups sites

started by Paul Beaufait on 19 Apr 10 no follow-up yet
joe tomei

Buh-bye Ning (or at least the free social networking features) - 1 views

techcrunch.com/...-grouply-welcome-ning-refugees

social_software

shared by joe tomei on 18 Apr 10 - Cached
  • joe tomei on 18 Apr 10
     
    describes efforts by Grou.ps and Grouply to move into Ning territory. As an aside, I've banned Grouply from kuma-i and the PALE list because it requires full access to a participants Yahoo account
Paul Beaufait

10 Tips For Making Your Blog Posts Easier To Read - The Edublogger - 0 views

www.theedublogger.com/...your-blog-posts-easier-to-read

accessibility blogging blogs color education fonts headings images layout links lists paragraphs styles text alignment widgets wink_students writing

shared by Paul Beaufait on 25 Jan 18 - No Cached
  • Paul Beaufait on 25 Jan 18
     
    Morris has compiled "ten tips for making your blog posts easier to read" (¶6).
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