Writing Across the Curriculum

As its name suggests, flipping describes the inversion of expectations in the traditional college lecture. It takes many forms, including interactive engagement, just-in-time teaching (in which students respond to Web-based questions before class, and the professor uses this feedback to inform his or her teaching), and peer instruction. But the techniques all share the same underlying imperative: Students cannot passively receive material in class, which is one reason some students dislike flipping. Instead they gather the information largely outside of class, by reading, watching recorded lectures, or listening to podcasts.

Designing Writing Assignments

Wonderful writing across the curriculum resource from the Univ. of Hawai'i at Manoa.

Traditional use of the Web (i.e. non-mobile and non-video usage) is shrinking.  Per-person consumption of traditional Web content fell by 3 percent between March 2010 and March 2011 in terms of minutes. Within that shrinking slice of online time, Facebook is increasingly the portal for everything.  While the "document Web" (as author Ben Elowitz terms the old-style Web) shrank by 9 percent overall, Facebook consumption increased by 69 percent, essentially stealing time from everything else.  It now accounts for 1 out of every 8 minutes of online time, as opposed to 1 out of 13 at the beginning of the year.  Search engines, once the gatekeepers to the Web, are giving way to Facebook.  Google and everything it represents is facing the first stages of irrelevancy.

Writing as an exercise in learning

I opted to have students use Google Sites to create their portfolios, for several reasons. Students were already using Google Documents for their essays, so the interface was reasonably familiar to them. Google Documents integrates well with Google Sites, so it was very easy for students to embed their essays in their portfolios. Google Sites allows for easy customization, for any student who might want to get creative with site design. Using Google Sites along with Google Documents makes it very easy for students to control who's allowed to see what.

This post has two purposes: (1) Present a model you can use for your own students' portfolios. It is critical to know what you want students to present before you begin. (2) Provide videos that show you, step-by-step, how to set up portfolios using Google sites.

An introduction and links to a study by the Apollo Research Institute that list 6 cultural shifts and 10 skills that help people handle those shifts as productively as possible.

In an effort to help schools become more reflective learning environments, I've developed this "Taxonomy of Reflection." - modeled on Bloom's approach.  It's posted in four installments: 1.  A Taxonomy of  Reflection  2. The Reflective Student 3. The Reflective Teacher  4. The Reflective Principal 

This website has been designed to describe mobile learning and technology-based activities that facilitate a sense of community in a variety of educational and training settings. The links in the menu lead to descriptions of the individual activities.  They rely mostly on texting, emailing, and photo-taking activities.  Free, group sharing internet sites are also used which require access to the Internet via a smartphone or computer.  Sites such as Flickr Photo Sharing, Google Docs, and Web 2.0 tools supplement some of the activities.

What follows are 26 tips, from A-Z, to help you create optimal blog posts every time you sit down to write.

The "gamification of education" is very hot at all levels of education. It reminds me of what Keith and I were trying to do by bringing a concept of "play theory" to our QEP model, in our case, through repeated small yet successful writing experiences for the students. Through the repetition of pleasurable experiences, what I call "regenerative value," the students "level up" in their written communication abilities.

Reflection can be a challenging endeavor. It's not something that's fostered in school - typically someone else tells you how you're doing! At best, students can narrate what they did, but have trouble thinking abstractly about their learning - patterns, connections and progress.

Reflection is the hallmark of many thoughtfully developed portfolios. Reflections on the products within a portfolio allow the audience to understand why these items were chosen to represent the student and his / her capacities and can provide some of the best indicators of student growth. However many students often have a difficult time thinking about their own learning when confronted by teachers to do so without guidance or support. When asked to reflect on their learning, students often don't know quite what to say or write - as much of the thinking that has gone on has been either subconscious or nonverbal.

The Stanford University professor who taught an online artificial intelligence course to more than 160,000 students has abandoned his tenured position to aim for an even bigger audience.

The ePI study is exploring large-scale implementations of e-portfolio use in Higher and Further Education and professional organisations in the UK . It is JISC funded and led by the University of  Nottingham.