Keeping up with the latest developments in learning, teaching, and technology
I recently dived into studying linear algebra, and was intrigued to read Robert Talbert’s post about the use of peer instruction in linear algebra classes. Talbert says that “Linear algebra is loaded with big ideas that all connect around a central question (whether or not a matrix is invertible). The computation is not the hard …
Continue reading “Linear algebra,classroom response systems, and questions about questions”
In reading Robert Talbert’s blog post about a study that appears in the Journal of Engineering Education, I realized that answering this question really requires us to talk first about what problems the screencasts are meant to address. In the study he discusses, there were two types of screencasts: homework solution screencasts, where the professor …
Continue reading “Do screencasts actually help students learn?”
A few ideas bubbled up at the block 5 block break workshop we did on that topic. We started off with a presentation from Thomas Riedel of Regis University in Denver, who told us about a project undertaken there to help students better understand academic integrity issues. We then split up into groups to talk …
Continue reading “How can technology help address common teaching challenges?”
At the end of CC’s half-block winter session, we held a winter conference where various people around campus presented on topics related to the strategic planning process we are currently working through. Steve Lawson, our humanities librarian, and I ran a session titled “The CC Classroom: Using Technology to Improve Teaching and Learning.” We centered …
Continue reading “Common teaching challenges and how technology can help address them”
I recently read an article in the New York Times about Maria Popova, founder of the Brain Pickings “online ideas emporium,” and was struck by her quote describing how she views her work as “helping people become interested in things they didn’t know they were interested in, until they are.” It’s a perfect description of …
The New York Times, Inside Higher Ed, and The Chronicle of Higher Education today all reported on Semester Online, a collaboration between 10 top-tier universities that, starting fall 2013, will offer fully online, credit-bearing undergraduate courses through a partnership with 2u (formerly known as 2tor). The institutions currently in the consortium are Duke, Emory, Washington …
With all the recent hype about MOOCs, it is unfortunate that a tool with a much longer and proven track record of increasing student success, Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative, has received almost no coverage in the academic or mainstream press. OLI has been in operation for several years, and with its not-for-profit blended learning …
Among the challenges that arise when one is thinking of inverting (or “flipping”) one’s classroom, developing materials such as screencasts and quizzes that will be used outside of class is one of the most commonly mentioned. Equally important, however, is the reaction of students to this radical change in their educational model. In his blog …
Continue reading “Student perceptions of the flipped classroom”
What does origami have to do with technology in higher education? If you are on the CC campus, then come to our presentation Tuesday August 28 to find out. Modular origami part 1: making the base Modular origami part 2: making the face Modular origami part 3: combining the base and the face
There is a lot of web-based software these days that says it’s “free,” but beware! Many of these software as service sites have terms of service that grant them a perpetual, irrevocable, and transferable right to use anything you post to their site in any way they like. While I have a hard time understanding …
