Oh, burn! What a disappointment to think that “we” don’t have all the answers. Inside Higher Ed reports that: Online higher education is increasingly hailed as a chance for educators in the developed world to expand access and quality across the globe. Yet it may not be quite so easy. Not only does much of …
Author Archives: wtaylor
Students Launch “Button” to Put Denied Access to Research on the Map | Open Access Button
One lament I have as a student and researcher is that my library often does not have full text access to a journal. Being the info geek that I am, I have access to various databases (my public library, the school I attend, and of course the databases here at Colorado College). As a last …
Injury and Education: Speech Recognition
An injury can make learning difficult, especially on the block plan. A concussion, if untreated, can permanently harm a student’s ability to think and react. Treatment usually involves complete boredom: limiting stimulus and light (no music, no reading, no watching things) for a long time. (Here’s an effective test for concussion) and here’s Kristi Erdahl’s …
Mobile lecturing and class feedback – engaged teaching/learning
EDUCAUSE is a gathering of educators who use technology. This yearly conference just happened last week (October 15-18, 2013) and several of the poster presenters put their materials online. One presenter, Perry Samson of the University of Michigan, uses SpashTop and LectureTools to gather realtime feedback from his class as he’s walking around the room …
Continue reading “Mobile lecturing and class feedback – engaged teaching/learning”
Considerations in Instructional Design
A colleague shared this video a while back. I think it hints at the reasoning behind why instructional design is important. I’ve been working on a degree in Instructional Design and while I don’t always think about how people could learn more effectively, I do occasionally think about how I would design an instruction (class, video, …
Further study is necessary to test the variables in adaptive learning
Arizona State has jumped on adaptive learning to try to combat increasing enrollment and lower funding. Scientific American reports: Any accurate evaluation of adaptive-learning technology would have to isolate and account for all variables: increases or decreases in a class size; whether the classroom was “flipped” meaning homework was done in class and lectures were …
Continue reading “Further study is necessary to test the variables in adaptive learning”
Signing a digital document – Print, Sign, Scan?
One of the things that gets me every time is when someone comes into the lab to print a document, sign it, and then scan it so they can email it back to someone. They then take the paper and throw it away, leave it or recycle it. That does not have to happen any …
Continue reading “Signing a digital document – Print, Sign, Scan?”
Free OpenSource Dyslexia Font | OpenDyslexic
One of the reasons it’s nice to have a live teacher in front of the class is the teacher’s ability to make adjustments for the students on the fly. While possible with computer-based instruction, it would be quite difficult to account for all potential problems, situations and characteristics of all likely learners. One unique new …
Continue reading “Free OpenSource Dyslexia Font | OpenDyslexic”
Are We Guilty of EdTech Hype?
I know I like shiny things. If it’s new or has neat features, I like to look at it and see what it can do. I also like testing things out and comparing them, though, which is why I enjoyed doing literary analyses. What Kim suggested, in reaction to an article on academic technology activism, …
Clickers!
One problem that faces us in class is how to allow all students to participate. It’s even more difficult with large classes and students who are hesitant to voice their opinion. One tool that some teachers use to mitigate this is a classroom response system, or clickers. Teachers use these for: formative assessment getting class …
