tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57871486943047156382024-03-13T04:03:43.651-07:00Chalkboard PirateA blog of adventures in E-Learning and Instructional Technology and teaching and stuff.Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-55895687977903242582016-01-03T19:18:00.001-08:002016-01-03T19:18:16.083-08:00Heresy! The End of Late Penalties<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r_xcP_Xrp4c/VonkWzrRDaI/AAAAAAAAaKE/M18hyJRWGk4/s1600/dillar-dollar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r_xcP_Xrp4c/VonkWzrRDaI/AAAAAAAAaKE/M18hyJRWGk4/s1600/dillar-dollar.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A dillar, a dollar...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Tom Schimmer makes a powerful argument against late penalties on grades in this <a href="http://tomschimmer.com/2011/02/21/enough-with-the-late-penalties/?blogsub=confirmed#blog_subscription-3" target="_blank">2011 blog pos</a>t. And no, you won't get a flood of assignments at the end of the marking period if you do it. Dare I try it? I may this semester, and I'll report back to you. Stay tuned, readers! Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-33814490188929106872015-08-07T08:09:00.000-07:002015-08-07T08:09:05.116-07:00Quick Answers: How Do I Make My Term Paper "Look" Better?<span class="quora-content-embed" data-name="How-do-I-make-my-term-paper-look-better/answer/Anne-Delaney-Pushkal">Read <a class="quora-content-link" data-embed="kymtmcq" data-height="250" data-id="14623353" data-key="cafee8e5fe2dd1e217d75111a2477f4d" data-type="answer" data-width="559" href="http://www.quora.com/How-do-I-make-my-term-paper-look-better/answer/Anne-Delaney-Pushkal" load-full-answer="True"></a><a href="http://www.quora.com/Anne-Delaney-Pushkal">Anne Delaney Pushkal</a>'s <a href="https://www.blogger.com/How-do-I-make-my-term-paper-look-better#ans14623353">answer</a> to <a href="https://www.blogger.com/How-do-I-make-my-term-paper-look-better" ref="canonical">How do I make my term paper look better?</a> on <a href="http://www.quora.com/">Quora</a><script src="http://www.quora.com/widgets/content" type="text/javascript"></script></span>Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-79809302294231943742015-05-01T11:51:00.001-07:002015-05-01T11:51:57.464-07:00Adult Learners Self-Concept and Self-Direction: Helping Adults Become Independent Learners<div class="dbThreadBody" data-mce-tabindex="0">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L0LZwAdjrWs/VUPLG7EKDoI/AAAAAAAATKA/3m9_67_Dlqs/s1600/Slide1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L0LZwAdjrWs/VUPLG7EKDoI/AAAAAAAATKA/3m9_67_Dlqs/s1600/Slide1.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<a data-mce-href="https://scholarsphere.psu.edu/downloads/8s45q881f" href="https://scholarsphere.psu.edu/downloads/8s45q881f" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fiddishun</a>, deals specifically with the attributes of adult learners and technology. She points out, "It is also important <b>that self-directedness not be confused with self-motivation[</b>Italics
mine]. Although a student may be motivated to take a course, they may
not be self-directed enough to feel comfortable choosing instructional
modules in an online course or creating their own structured environment
to learn in a web-based course." (Fiddishun, pp. 4-5)<br />
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</div>
Some adults, for various reasons, may need a little help in their self-concept. <br />
Fiddishun
goes on to suggest how instructors can help the adults who may need
encouragement learning to learn: "Encouraging self-directedness may
also take the form of additional instructor contact in the beginning
stages of the class or could be facilitated by having students do
technology-based modules within a traditional class before they move to a
complete course based in technology." I think we've all seen this in
either our teaching or classes where some adults may not be comfortable
with technology or research and may need encouragement to catch up on
certain skills, or to be more intrepid learners.<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TdhSlaBHaWo/VUPKjO10rQI/AAAAAAAATJ4/Mhspml_YOnM/s1600/Slide1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TdhSlaBHaWo/VUPKjO10rQI/AAAAAAAATJ4/Mhspml_YOnM/s1600/Slide1.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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Above is the powerpoint slide of Giuliana L. and Monica V., some classmates who expand upon the
ideas surrounding self-concept as it pertains to adult learners. As we
get more and more into Knowles's attributes, I can't help thinking that
in some ways he is talking about an ideal. Toward the end of his career
Knowles acknowledged that the differences between child and adult
learners are not as hard and fast as he had originally thought, and I
think self-concept is a good illustration of this.<br />
<br />
For example, if we
think of confidence, there are always a few children in any group who
have precocious amounts of confidence and independence; and it is not
unusual to find adults who lack confidence, cannot accept criticism or
feel hurt by it, or who are not self-starters. While some of this may
be personality traits, I think experiences in school and in the family
of origin have a lot to do with the range of self-concepts we see in
both children and adults.<br />
<br />
I have to admit I am a little preoccupied with psychological barriers
to learning, including the effects of chronic stress, after my
experience teaching youth and young adults ages 14-23 in North Camden in
2013-2014. Conditions there - both the life circumstances and the
educational experiences of the youth and young adults - were so extreme
that I sometimes find myself wondering if I really saw some of the
things I did. In any case, the self-concept of these young people
played a very important role in how easily they were able to complete
their training, and even whether they could complete it at all.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-62664193940407641072015-05-01T11:37:00.003-07:002015-05-01T11:37:49.510-07:00Would Kids Learn Like Adults if They Weren't in School? Self-Concept, Orientation, and Andragogy (Attribute 2)<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S56ihkJx6vw/VRCg-29gKRI/AAAAAAAASjQ/3IAd_-nJU0M/s1600/the-old-fishing-hole-joy-taylor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S56ihkJx6vw/VRCg-29gKRI/AAAAAAAASjQ/3IAd_-nJU0M/s1600/the-old-fishing-hole-joy-taylor.jpg" height="227" width="320" /></a></div>
According to influential theorist of adult learning Malcolm Knowles, in childhood people's orientation is toward subject-based
learning, wheres adults are oriented toward problem-based learning that
seeks a specific, immediate goal. He also says that their <b>self-concept </b>is different: children are dependent learners, more easily led to study this or that subject at the behest of adults in their lives, whereas adults are self-directed. While this is not the case for every child or every adult (adults can be quite dependent in certain learning situations, and some children can be quite driven and self-directed), it is important for instructors to take adults' independent self-conception into account.<br />
<br />
However, I wonder if children's supposed attribute of
a dependent, subject-driven orientation toward learning is structural - that is, could it be due more to the imposition
of compulsory classroom-based schooling than to any natural tendency of children? After all, what choice do
most children have? What kind of learners would they be if they had more
freedom to learn in an organic way? We've all seen kids on the weekends
and in the summer, running around teaching themselves to play games,
ride a bike, make things. <br />
<br />
Adults' inquisitiveness and problem-based
learning might be more a function of their relative freedom and choice
about learning. Perhaps children do not have the opportunity to pick
and choose their learning so much, and that's why they appear to be
subject-oriented.<br />
<br />
This is precisely the argument that the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2015/02/25/unschooling-what-is-it-and-how-one-family-does-it/" target="_blank">unschooling</a> movement makes (Unschooling is a term coined by educator John Holt, who published <a href="http://smile.amazon.com/Children-Learn-Classics-Child-Development/dp/0201484048/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427152952&sr=1-1&keywords=john+holt" target="_blank">books</a> and the influential periodical Growing Without Schooling. The point to societies in which children learn informally by imitating adults or by helping them as they go about their activities; children also had considerable free time to explore the world around them, and were given considerable responsibility. This learning pattern was common in the pre-industrial world, including in the United States until schooling became mandatory in most places in the nineteenth century. <br />
<br />
Unschooling is a branch of the homeschooling movement that eschews classroom-like setups in the home in favor of more organic models of learning. As many unschoolers would tell you, "We are just living our lives." While adults provide guidance, children have a lot of say in how and what they will learn and whether or not they are successful. Under these conditions, unschooled child learners look a lot like the self-directed, problem-oriented adult learners described by Knowles. Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-43779362718806844562015-04-30T14:07:00.000-07:002015-05-01T11:29:12.682-07:00Adult Learners: Practical Orientation (Attribute 5)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GqWmbFz-P5Q/VUKaWWQ4t0I/AAAAAAAATIo/8MjyDwNDoRM/s1600/mariners-compass-quilt1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GqWmbFz-P5Q/VUKaWWQ4t0I/AAAAAAAATIo/8MjyDwNDoRM/s1600/mariners-compass-quilt1.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Schoolchildren are "subject oriented," and do not expect to be able to apply all they learn immediately, at least in traditional schools. But adults, on the other hand, want their learning to be relevant, practical, immediately applicable, and problem-centered. <br />
<br />
To learn more, check out my and Karrie Augustine's <a href="http://screencast.com/t/2RfYLr2ETtd5" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Screencast</a>
about Adult Learning Attribute #5, "Orientation," which synthesizes our own and our classmate's work on this attribute. We enjoyed creating
it and hope that you learn from our tour of the class's attribute maps.<br />
<br />
An <a href="http://elearninginfographics.com/adult-learning-theory-andragogy-infographic/" target="_blank">Infographic </a>provides information about Knowles's theory in graphic form. Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-59488869701795085782015-04-29T19:35:00.001-07:002015-04-29T19:35:08.933-07:00Explore Web 2.0 Tools - a Handy Annotated List and Some Boffo Resources<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zIsESz4U8kA/VUGUSsD6f1I/AAAAAAAATHs/d_97YxO4fek/s1600/Im-a-heavy-sleeper-l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zIsESz4U8kA/VUGUSsD6f1I/AAAAAAAATHs/d_97YxO4fek/s1600/Im-a-heavy-sleeper-l.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: http://cdn.cutestpaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Im-a-heavy-sleeper-l.jpg</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
You snooze, you lose.<br />
<br />
I came across the wonderful metasite <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cool Tools for Schools</a>
</span>the other day, and pasted it into my Notes app, thinking I would post it to my class discussion board
later. But by the time I got around to it, others had scooped me. Procrastination 1, Anne 0. <br />
<br />
I
had to look pretty hard for another site that would be as useful. I
don't know if I quite succeeded, but I did find some great links:<br />
<br />
First, a <span style="color: red;">Wikibook on </span><a href="http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Web_2.0_and_Emerging_Learning_Technologies" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies </span></a>. It qualifies as a metasite because of its many categorized links,
and because it links to other sites that have great Web 2.0 tools.<br />
<br />
In the course of this search I stumbled across additional resources too awesome not to share. The European Union's <span style="color: red;"><a href="https://www.adam-europe.eu/prj/10532/prj/10.%20MOBIVET-WP2-StudyReport_Web2.0_technologies_and_their_applications_v1a.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MobiVET</a> </span>project makes available a .pdf document, <a href="https://www.adam-europe.eu/prj/10532/prj/10.%20MOBIVET-WP2-StudyReport_Web2.0_technologies_and_their_applications_v1a.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"Web 2.0 Technologies and Their Applications in Online Training and Tutoring"</a>
(May, 2013). This document gives a concise yet comprehensive intro to E-learning with tons of info on Web 2.0, its history, strengths, and uses. The report yields a
bonanza of useful links for course design, free learning management
systems, resources, and yes, Web 2.0 tools. Particularly helpful is its
Section 3, "Web 2.0 in E- and M-learning," on Web 2.0 tools, it describes and suggests uses for an array of Web 2.0 tools,
categorized by function.<br />
<br />
Here are some more great tools sites:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.go2web20.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Go2Web20.net </a>Web
Applications Index has an easy logo-based interface and a sidebar with
tool categories to explore. You can also follow them on Twitter or
contribute to this useful site by suggesting an app.<br />
<br />
Less comprehensive, but still useful, is the Watertown, Massachusetts' school district's<a href="https://sites.google.com/a/watertown.k12.ma.us/wps/faculty" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> list of Web 2.0 resources for faculty</a>.</div>
</div>
<br />
An awesome short list of Web 2.0 tools has been put together for the Watertown, MA public schools: <br />
<a href="http://www.watertown.k12.ma.us/staff/index.html" target="_blank">Web 2.0 Tools</a><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mLroZ_C4kaw/Trxt8nrx0NI/AAAAAAAAAU4/gqXv1FKTWgY/s1600/Picture+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mLroZ_C4kaw/Trxt8nrx0NI/AAAAAAAAAU4/gqXv1FKTWgY/s320/Picture+1.png" height="320" width="300" /> </a></div>
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I'm so proud I did not use the word "curate" once in this blog post. Just can't do it, out of respect for my curator friends from my days spent at a major museum. Making a list, however useful, is not the same as what those fine, extremely knowledgeable and well-trained folks do with the world's precious art heritage.</div>
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Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-7718938203744184302015-04-29T17:51:00.001-07:002015-04-29T17:51:30.016-07:00Motivation and Learning (Adult Learner Attribute 6)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RrxQ8FjrL90/VR1r-jgfYkI/AAAAAAAASnU/_7iNk-AS9uc/s1600/push-me-pull-you.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RrxQ8FjrL90/VR1r-jgfYkI/AAAAAAAASnU/_7iNk-AS9uc/s1600/push-me-pull-you.jpg" height="320" width="248" /></a></div>
The sixth of Malcolm Knowles's attributes of adult learners is motivation. Adults, he says, may respond to external enticements like higher salary, but the strongest and most lasting motivations are internal. I looked at this web page on <a href="http://psychology.about.com/od/motivation/f/intrinsic-motivation.htm" target="_blank">intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation</a>, but I started arguing with it a little, thinking, hey, I'm reading this because I'm genuinely (intrinsically)
interested in motivation - reading about it for me is its own reward. But I'm also reading this for a class so I can fulfill the requirements and get a good grade (extrinsic reward). If my motivation is mixed, what does that mean for my learning?<br />
<br />
Not only is intrinsic motivation more powerful, but adding external rewards to a task
for which someone is already intrinsically motivated may actually <i>decrease</i> motivation. I hardly know what to make of this. Could I
be harming the learning of some students by offering rewards to everyone, hoping it will motivate the daydreamers, the behind-the-purse texters, the window-gazers, the nappers, the gamers, the feckless, the clueless?<br />
<br />
The solution, say the authors, is to make the learning environment itself more intrinsically
motivating: offer "challenge, curiosity, control, cooperation and
competition, and recognition." As it happens, point out the authors, all these are things we
associate with fun.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A1p_ACa1984/VUF72LQtb6I/AAAAAAAATHc/xuPZxOKiCFE/s1600/Playful-Puppy3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A1p_ACa1984/VUF72LQtb6I/AAAAAAAATHc/xuPZxOKiCFE/s1600/Playful-Puppy3.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
So wait: making learning fun makes people more motivated and thus better learners? I am all over that puppy!<br />
<br />
But the surprises keep coming: the <i>very same reward</i> may help or hurt motivation: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The functional significance, or salience, of the event dictates whether
intrinsic motivation is facilitated or diminished. For example, an
athlete may perceive receiving an external reward (e.g., money, trophy)
as a positive indicator of her sport competence (informational), whereas
another athlete may perceive the same reward as coercion to keep her
involved in the activity (controlling). Thus, the aspect of the event
that is perceived as salient will determine level of autonomy and
perceived competence experienced, and ultimately affect intrinsic
motivation for that activity."<br />
(Horn, 2008)</blockquote>
In other words, how the individual perceives the reward may make it intrinsically motivating or extrinsically de-motivating. <br />
<br />
If rewards weren't thorny enough, even praise can be a two-edged sword. You may have heard the maxim, <span style="color: #351c75;">"Praise the work, not the worker." A</span>t one time I had resisted this idea - it seemed harsh and ungenerous. But I finally understood it apropos of motivation when I read this:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"There is also evidence that verbal praise (one form of reward) should
be used carefully. When children are successful, it may be best to
praise their effort ("You worked so hard!") rather than their ability
("You're so smart!"), because when children believe that success depends
on effort, they are more likely to persist in the future if they fail.
The goal of praise should be to produce feelings of competence and
confidence that success is possible with good efforts." (Breckler, Olson, & Wiggins, 2006)</blockquote>
This surely applies to adults as well as children. If you want to encourage persistence and lasting learning, create a fun environment that make learning intrinsically rewarding. As in so many things, heavy-handed manipulation can backfire, while a light touch and sensitivity to the needs and characteristics of learners can only help.<br />
<br />Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-41040879975320839092015-04-29T14:10:00.002-07:002015-04-29T14:39:39.363-07:00Trigger Events and Adult Learner's Need to Know (Attribute 1 of Adult Learners)<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NWqjhm9j70s/VUFGkHZTZTI/AAAAAAAATHM/sKBU8syAddo/s1600/Slide1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NWqjhm9j70s/VUFGkHZTZTI/AAAAAAAATHM/sKBU8syAddo/s1600/Slide1.jpg" height="225" title="" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This flow chart by Karrie Augustine and Anne Pushkal shows how a trigger event leads an adult to initiate learning or decide against taking action. (Augustine & Pushkal 2015)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
Trigger + Need to Know = Desire to Learn = Action</h3>
The first attribute of adult learners is their realization that, or acceptance of, their need to know something (<a href="http://www.joe.org/joe/2006december/tt5.php" target="_blank">Malcolm Knowles et al, 2005, cited in, for example Ota et al, Training and Needs of Adult Learners)</a>. This is often sparked by a trigger event - something takes place that brings them to this conclusion that a gap in their knowledge needs to be addressed. Rothwell's (<a href="http://amzn.com/B002BDU89W" target="_blank">Adult Learning Basics</a> ) notion of a "trigger circumstance" (p. 27) refers to
"anything that leads an individual learner to recognize the importance
of learning something new."<br />
<br />
While I can imagine a situation in which
people learn without realizing they are doing it or thinking they need
to - going with friends to see <i>Dangerous Liaisons</i>, say finding afterwards they've gained an understanding of France during
the 18th century - Rothwell is right to identify this realization as the
first step of the learning process, since a large proportion of adult
learning is intentional and deliberately undertaken. Trigger
circumstances can be internal or external. An internal circumstance
would be some desire: an adult realizes a lack of knowledge is keeping
him or her from accomplishing something he or she wants to do, whether
it's sewing on a button or becoming a lawyer. An external circumstance
would be something like mandatory workplace sexual harassment training,
which an employee may not have sought on his or her own but understands
he or she must complete as a condition of employment. <br />
<br />
For example, I've been pretty
happily using Techsmith's <a href="https://www.techsmith.com/jing.html" target="_blank">Jing</a> for screencasts. I love it- so functional and easy to use - but my work in an E-learning environment and my coursework in an instructional technology program made me increasingly dissatisfied with the inability to edit, add music, etc. I realized that not being able to edit
video is holding me back from the kinds of productions I envision.<br />
<br />
I
had used <a href="https://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html" target="_blank">Camtasia</a> in the past and forgot how. Finding that I could have
used that knowledge to good effect now has triggered me to want to
learn Camtasia, Apple's Final Cut Pro, or another video editing program like iMovie, really
well. Moreover, the realization that I need to up my video editing game spurred me to begin investigating the
programs that are available to me and consider long-term benefit vs.
immediate benefit, costs, and feasibility of learning one or another of these video
editing tools.<br />
<div class="dbThreadBody" tabindex="0">
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div class="vtbegenerated">
<blockquote>
"Knowing you have a problem is half of the solution." </blockquote>
<br />
If buy-in is important for adult learners, then some learning theories that would be especially useful would be <strong>Functionalistic</strong> theories, which stress not only giving learners a reason to learn but rewarding them for learning; <strong>Constructivist </strong>theories, which take into account learners' backgrounds and current situations in order to influence their learning, and <strong>Experiential</strong>
theories, which privilege the role of the learner in constructing their
own learning and focuses on giving them a reason to learn.</div>
</div>
<br />
Trigger + Need to Know = Desire to Learn = Action<br />
<br />
What video editing tools do you use? Are there any free tools you recommend?Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-33036897985652180912015-04-24T06:47:00.002-07:002015-04-24T06:52:23.297-07:00British Library releases over a million images<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q3SLv6s-8yA/VTpGxeyCcxI/AAAAAAAASzw/CrGmm-2i6oI/s1600/BL11219260354_4e1a38f7f2_m.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q3SLv6s-8yA/VTpGxeyCcxI/AAAAAAAASzw/CrGmm-2i6oI/s1600/BL11219260354_4e1a38f7f2_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span class=" meta-field photo-desc "><b></b> "Thrilling Life Stories for the Masses"</span><br />
<div>
<span class=" meta-field photo-desc "><b></b> "British Library HMNTS 012634.n."</span></div>
<span class=" meta-field photo-desc "><b></b>Crewe, Manchester<b>, </b>1892</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The <a href="http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-british-librarys-mechanical-curator-million/" target="_blank">Public Domain Review reports</a> that the British Library has <a href="http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/12/a-million-first-steps.html" target="_blank">released over a million images</a>, rights-free, to its <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/" target="_blank">Flickr photostream</a>. What a spectacular resource! Here are just a few of the riches that have been made accessible to us all:<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2qQ53PVfKXs/VTpH2JwffBI/AAAAAAAASz8/FI9A94fFLI8/s1600/BL11053345634_a95cef5150_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2qQ53PVfKXs/VTpH2JwffBI/AAAAAAAASz8/FI9A94fFLI8/s1600/BL11053345634_a95cef5150_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class=" meta-field photo-desc "><b>Title</b>: "The National and Domestic History of England ... With numerous steel plates, coloured pictures, etc"<br />
<b>Author</b>: AUBREY, William Hickman Smith.<br />
<b>Shelfmark</b>: "British Library HMNTS 9503.i.1."<br />
<b>Volume</b>: 02<br />
<b>Page</b>: 897<br />
<b>Place of Publishing</b>: London<br />
<b>Date of Publishing</b>: 1867<br />
<b>Publisher</b>: James Hagger</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PatEHOPmz8g/VTpIswgzTcI/AAAAAAAAS0M/Eyv6Jftde_U/s1600/BL11213437806_92f8835ea6_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PatEHOPmz8g/VTpIswgzTcI/AAAAAAAAS0M/Eyv6Jftde_U/s1600/BL11213437806_92f8835ea6_z.jpg" height="158" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class=" meta-field photo-desc "><b>Title</b>: "The rivers of Great Britain. The Thames, from source to sea, etc. [With “Rivers of the east coast”.]"<br />
<b>Shelfmark</b>: "British Library HMNTS 10348.k.18."<br />
<b>Page</b>: 716<br />
<b>Place of Publishing</b>: London, etc<br />
<b>Date of Publishing</b>: 1891<br />
<b>Publisher</b>: Cassell & Co.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YUFZ_KI57CY/VTpFxh8AhXI/AAAAAAAASzk/lykW0vILZ0o/s1600/BL11248354024_2d6b152931_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YUFZ_KI57CY/VTpFxh8AhXI/AAAAAAAASzk/lykW0vILZ0o/s1600/BL11248354024_2d6b152931_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class=" meta-field photo-desc ">From John Ledyard Denison, <span class=" meta-field photo-desc ">1873</span> "An
Illustrated History of the New World: containing a general history of
all the various nations...<b>" </b>British Library HMNTS 9555.cc.1."<b> </b>p. 579<b> </b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kLDJZ9DFlwU/VTpH6AlyPOI/AAAAAAAAS0E/TWHKLTfJIcI/s1600/BL11005514615_13da05eca3_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kLDJZ9DFlwU/VTpH6AlyPOI/AAAAAAAAS0E/TWHKLTfJIcI/s1600/BL11005514615_13da05eca3_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class=" meta-field photo-desc "><b>Title</b>:
"Sailing Directions for the Strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean
Sea, comprehending the Coasts of Spain, France and Italy ..., the Coasts
of Greece ... and the African Coast, from Tangier to Alexandria"<br />
<b>Author</b>: PURDY, John.<br />
<b>Shelfmark</b>: "British Library HMNTS 795.e.33."<br />
<b>Page</b>: 136<br />
<b>Place of Publishing</b>: London<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add caption</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Date of Publishing</b>: 1841<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: left;"></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span class=" meta-field photo-desc "><br />
<br /><b></b></span><br />
<div>
<span class=" meta-field photo-desc "></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class=" meta-field photo-desc "><br />
</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-46880185348484318902015-04-19T13:24:00.003-07:002015-05-01T11:30:50.554-07:00How Adults and Children Learn (Andragogy v. Pedagogy)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZTzNVZBE9QA/VTQByh7ixoI/AAAAAAAASwM/sQCsDUZc8nE/s1600/back-to-school.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZTzNVZBE9QA/VTQByh7ixoI/AAAAAAAASwM/sQCsDUZc8nE/s1600/back-to-school.png" height="215" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rodney Dangerfield goes <i>Back to School </i>(1986)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> Children, it seems, are coming full circle. Before the fifteenth century, as Philippe Aries argued in his 1962 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centuries_of_Childhood" target="_blank"><i>Centuries of Childhood</i></a>, children were thought of as small adults, less capable, perhaps; but they dressed the same as adults, were little shielded, and began working as soon and as hard as they were able. While many of his points (such as the notion that medieval parents were detached from their young children since the children were so likely to die) have since been refuted, his central idea - that childhood is a social construct that has changed over time - is generally accepted. Moreover, neuroscience has since provided evidence that children's brains function differently from those of adults, and that, consequently, they have different ways of learning and different learning needs (although what those ways and needs consist of is often avidly contested). All this is taking place even as <a href="http://www.eji.org/childrenprison" target="_blank">some children, at least, </a>are imputed to have the same responsibility, autonomy, and moral capacity as adults. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> I raise these points in returning to look at assignment for the first week of the course Adult Learning, in which our class members were asked to post an image which to us embodies the differences in learning between adults and children (my semi-<span id="goog_955326325"></span><span id="goog_955326326"></span>tongue-in-cheek contribution is above).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><u> </u> There is by no means universal agreement on what the differences between adults and children as learners might be. Malcolm Knowles, who first codified (some say popularized) the idea of specific attributes of adult learners from the 1950s on in the United States, remains influential in adult education and training circles, although he modified his ideas in the 1980s and allowed the differences might not be as strict as he once supposed. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> One might argue that some of the differences he points out are related more to the structures of children's formal education, and to a particular kind of teaching style then prevalent, than to innate characteristics of children or adults as learners. For example, Knowles's contention that adults choose what they will learn based on their own needs and goals, while children acceptingly learn whatever they are taught, may be true when children are enrolled in traditional schools. But the <a href="http://mhla.org/information/resourcesarticles/holtorigins.htm" target="_blank">unschooling movement</a> has argued that children are naturally independent, self-directed learners when freed from the structures (or strictures) that characterize(d) most formal K-12 educational milieux. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> This sets the context for <a href="http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9211/teaching.htm" target="_blank">"Teaching Adults: Is is Different?"</a></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9211/teaching.htm" target="_blank"> </a>, Susan Imel's 1989 article that synthesizes several studies from the
1980s on the topic of adult learning. While scholarship and research
on adult learning have advanced since then, it is still a useful place to start</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Imel examines some of adult learning theorist Malcolm Knowles’ assumptions, and concludes,</span></span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">“Is
teaching adults different? Based on the literature discussed here, the
answer is both yes and no. Although teachers perceive adults as being
different, these perceptions do not automatically translate into
differences in approaches to teaching." </span></span></blockquote>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NhTgnFYekpg/VTQF-YxfvhI/AAAAAAAASwc/_HDho2BHg8k/s1600/ChildrenLittleAdultsSpock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NhTgnFYekpg/VTQF-YxfvhI/AAAAAAAASwc/_HDho2BHg8k/s1600/ChildrenLittleAdultsSpock.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The author then turns the question on its head: </span></span>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">"Perhaps a better way to frame the question is to ask 'Should teaching adults be different?' "<br /><br />She continues, "According to Darkenwald and Beder (1982), 'the real issue is not whether learner-centered methods are universally applied by teachers of adults, but rather for what purposes and under what conditions such methods, and others are most appropriate and effective and in fact used by teachers (p. 153).'"</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> I'm
not sure I agree with that assessment of what the "real" issue is. The
author never really answers the question, focusing instead on whether
or not teachers teach adults differently than children in different
situations, rather than whether or not they should. The author does
note, however, that “master” teachers tend to be less directive and more
student-centered, regardless of whether they teach adults or children.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Imel
maintains, “The andragogical or learner-centered approach
is not appropriate in all adult education settings (Feuer and Geber
1988). The decision about which approach to use is contextual and is
based upon such things as the goals of the learners, the material to be
covered, and so forth..." and also notes that teachers may not have had
training or the opportunity to practice learner-centered teaching.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Imel thus focuses on whether or not teachers teach adults
differently than they teach children, and ultimately sidesteps the
question of whether adults and children have distinctive characteristics as learners. At the time, the author may not have been able to gather
conclusive evidence in the literature on whether adults learn
differently from children. </span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Gss03OrCS84/VTQF6jX0UtI/AAAAAAAASwU/l9SkS41LcQ4/s1600/LittleAdults2015-02-02%2Bat%2B12.35.52%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Gss03OrCS84/VTQF6jX0UtI/AAAAAAAASwU/l9SkS41LcQ4/s1600/LittleAdults2015-02-02%2Bat%2B12.35.52%2BAM.png" height="255" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> In any case, what we now know about brain functioning (for example, this <a href="http://abc7news.com/archive/6964448/" target="_blank">2009 Stanford University study</a>) leads us to conclude that there may well be significant differences in how children learn compared to how adults learn; but the move toward learner-centered approaches has also shown us that children can be a lot more proactive about their own learning than may have been believed in the recent past.</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-19108092845054769062015-04-06T08:34:00.000-07:002015-05-01T11:28:37.994-07:00Are You Experienced? Prior Experience in Adult Learners (Attribute 3)<div class="dbThreadBody" tabindex="0">
<div class="vtbegenerated">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g30Ao1S968E/VSKnXPo8cGI/AAAAAAAASpk/ej5Fxo0zupk/s1600/51XopVPfDOL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g30Ao1S968E/VSKnXPo8cGI/AAAAAAAASpk/ej5Fxo0zupk/s1600/51XopVPfDOL.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Adult learners are not a blank slate. According to Malcolm Knowles, the godfather of Adult Learning theory, adults arrive at a learning situation with a wealth of experience from their work and personal lives and from the education (both informal and formal) they've received up to that point.<br />
<br />
While adults sometimes have the reputation of being set in their ways and unwilling to try new things, this stereotype does not describe the majority of adult learners, especially when they are learning voluntarily. And many adults have a lot of experience learning knew things - they have learned to learn. Experienced learners can and often do share their valuable talents and
experience with others in their learning situation, and everyone is enriched. One of the best
things about teaching adults is the wealth of resources adult learners
bring with them to the learning situation.<br />
<br />
In a recent presentation on experience, I was struck by the phrase,
"remembering that prior learning experiences may not have all been
positive." I've seen a lot of this in my encounters with young adults I taught in Camden, NJ. They had often had problematic experiences with formal schooling - everything from indifferent teachers to, in one alternative school, physical abuse and restraints by the staff. While these are extreme situations and the coping strategies the young adults had developed to survive them brought predictable difficulties when they entered training programs, even the common experience of garden-variety classroom humiliations and boredom can pose significant barriers when an adult returns to the classroom.<br />
<br />
In the youth development
organization I worked for, we chose a strategy of making the technology
and academic instruction as un-school-like as possible so that we would
not trigger negative responses in the youth. Even so, people were
ambivalent about instruction. While they bridled at
the authoritarian structures they had experienced in traditional schools, those same structures and top-down classrooms had made them dependent learners who were often initially lost or even angry when expected
to take an active role in their own learning. A large part of my work there was helping
people "learn to learn."<br />
<br />
But I've also seen a problematic attitude toward learning among the people from whom you would least expect: teachers. Surely we can assume that the majority of those who choose teaching as a profession are good at classroom learning and "get" what school and learning is all about.<br />
<br />
Yet during the mandatory
continuing education seminars at a school where I taught, some of my
fellow faculty were overheard to say "these things are a waste of time." They brought their eye-rolling, arm-crossing attitude with them into the seminar, twiddling their cell phones, grading on the sly, and
waiting for the presenter to prove to them that this one would be different. Some participated in activities minimally and with obvious reluctance. So here, the negative prior experience with teacher training became a barrier to
their own learning, since they expected the worst from the new learning
situation.<br />
<br />
In this <a href="https://youtu.be/Y0ItF1s9O9Y" target="_blank">video</a>, Charles Jennings boils down many theories about adult learning and explains the role of experience in adult learning using the 70-20-10 model. </div>
</div>
Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-17830622509663435872015-03-03T08:39:00.004-08:002015-03-31T06:55:54.849-07:00Something Is Rotten on the Internet<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Om4havFPatw/VPUdnQWoYfI/AAAAAAAASWc/QjAIlst9Kkk/s1600/Lynx-lynx-cat-27763245-398-377.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Om4havFPatw/VPUdnQWoYfI/AAAAAAAASWc/QjAIlst9Kkk/s1600/Lynx-lynx-cat-27763245-398-377.jpg" height="303" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Have you checked your lynx?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
You click in anticipation, latte at your elbow, ready to check out that sweet snowboard or finally read that tax info that's been on your to-do list all week. But instead, you get "404 Page Not Found." Just like that, your morning is ruined. Your smooth-functioning cosmos is disturbed, the latte goes cold, and worst of all, the website you were intending to read is now in your bad graces. It's called link rot, and the Internet is riddled with it.<br />
<br />
This week my Adult Learning class was asked to post links to metasites that list useful Web 2.0 tools. (A metasite is a site that directs users to other sites.) One of the criteria was that the metasites not be more than two years old. Our instructor specified this partly because, at the hyperspace pace of the web, tools seem to come and go at warp speed. But also, it's rare that even well-maintained sites can keep all their links current. The longer the site is up, the greater the chance it will experience "link rot," or the presence of links that return a 404 error or otherwise no longer reach their intended target.<br />
<br />
How serious is the problem? National Public Radio's <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/04/26/307041846/stopping-link-rot-aiming-to-end-a-virtual-epidemic" target="_blank">Stopping Link Rot</a> notes that "half of the links were dead already in Supreme Court
opinions." They report that for the <i>Harvard Law Review</i>, 70 percent of the links were dead. The content the links go to can also be changed, which might mislead users who click on the links. This could have serious consequences not only for law, but for fields like medicine.<br />
<br />
The situation is equally grave in the sciences: According to the website <a href="http://journalistsresource.org/" target="_blank"><i>Journalists' Resource</i></a>, one study showed the average lifespan of a hyperlink in scientific articles was 9. 3 years, yet only 63 percent of the articles had been archived. <br />
<br />
How do you combat this insidious rot that turns away users and lessons the value of your page? <a href="http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/internet/website-linking-best-practices-media-online-publishers#" target="_blank">"The Growing Problem of Internet "Link Rot" and Best Practices for Online and Media Publishers"</a> gives extensive guidelines for preventing link rot. On their own site, which has over 10,000 links, <i>Journalists' Resource</i> says 10 or more links a week break. Links for academic articles fare no better. <br />
<br />
A casual blogger is not likely to run a plug-in, WordPress extension or other bad-link-detecting aid, but we can still adopt some of the best practices that <i>Journalists' Resource</i> recommends: <br />
<ol>
<li> Add only essential links. The fewer links you have, the less likely they are to break.</li>
<li>Keep links clearly visible, linking text of two to five words and distinguishing them by color and style. Avoid linking longer and one-word texts.</li>
<li>Make sure the text you are linking clearly indicates what the user will find if she clicks. Don't use URLs, or words like "this link," "click here" and so on. Don't "stack" links, placing them one after another in a sentence with no break in between. Consider using hover text that appears when readers mouse over, but do it consistently if you opt for this method.</li>
<li>Whenever possible, link to stable URLs and link to reliable sites that are not likely to change. Established databases at universities and government agencies, academic papers with DOI (<a href="http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/digital-object-identifier-doi/" target="_blank">digital object identifier</a>) numbers,<a href="https://perma.cc/" target="_blank"> perma.cc</a> (a service that archives content and assures link stability) <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/" target="_blank">WebCite</a> (an on-demand archiving service) and permalinks rather than shortlinks are good choices.</li>
<li><i>Journalists' Resource</i> recommends whenever possible linking to web pages rather than pdfs.</li>
<li>Try to look for a "clean" URL that is stable with no extra characters. URLS with ?, % and other symbols can be problematic, and the longer the URL the greater the chance it will go bad.</li>
<li>Avoid link shorteners (bit.ly, tinyurl) unless you are tweeting.</li>
<li>Don't link through paywalls or in ways that could violate copyright.</li>
<li>Check your links after you post and again from time to time. If you publish on the web a lot, use plug-ins, extensions, or other tools that check links automatically.</li>
<li>Prevent your website from contributing to link rot by using URLs with safe characters, creating landing pages for .pdfs that you post, and set up redirect pages when you change the organization of your site. <br />(See more tips and details at <i>Journalists' Resource</i>'s <a href="http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/internet/website-linking-best-practices-media-online-publishers#" target="_blank">best practices article</a>.)</li>
</ol>
<br />
Taking the health of your links seriously is one of the steps toward taking your own content seriously. Be considerate of people who visit your site, and protect your reputation, by ensuring the content you link to will be available for users who may depend on it. Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-9841584480128754562015-02-12T12:48:00.004-08:002015-02-26T06:59:48.475-08:00Tips for Online Students Working on Group Projects | Drexel Online<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-inSi74656IU/VN0QqnTLwJI/AAAAAAAASQc/7JGfYEFD40w/s1600/Tr%C3%A5dtelefon-illustration.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-inSi74656IU/VN0QqnTLwJI/AAAAAAAASQc/7JGfYEFD40w/s1600/Tr%C3%A5dtelefon-illustration.png" height="219" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Since Adult Learning is my first all-online asynchronous class, I thought I'd post some tips provided courtesy of Drexel University in Philadelphia. Apart from the obvious ones, like identifying what project activities you need to do and setting deadlines for them, or dividing up the work according to the group members' strengths, there are some not-so-obvious ones - like "choose group members with similar schedules or time zones." I think the tips about scheduling and how to save time are particularly germane to the challenges faced by adult learners.<br />
I've provided the link to the infographic below for your edification:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.drexel.com/grouptips#.VN0O6IuvhUU.blogger" target="_blank">Tips for Online Students Working on Group Projects | Drexel Online</a>Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-88048874832284406542015-02-07T13:51:00.002-08:002015-02-07T14:59:31.631-08:00Roots of the term Andragogy in the U.S.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vmpjIpjkaKY/VNZ4khiQpLI/AAAAAAAASNs/C8vgGlYLE5Q/s1600/kapp-titel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vmpjIpjkaKY/VNZ4khiQpLI/AAAAAAAASNs/C8vgGlYLE5Q/s1600/kapp-titel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vmpjIpjkaKY/VNZ4khiQpLI/AAAAAAAASNs/C8vgGlYLE5Q/s1600/kapp-titel.jpg" height="320" width="194" /></a>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Dp6DAS6gZmY/VNZ4mQ4CWpI/AAAAAAAASN0/vUawS6r7veA/s1600/kapp-and.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Dp6DAS6gZmY/VNZ4mQ4CWpI/AAAAAAAASN0/vUawS6r7veA/s1600/kapp-and.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></a></div>
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(images from Andragogy.net) <br />
Researching the history of the concept of andragogy, or principles of adult education, for an assignment for a course in Adult Education I'm taking in the <a href="http://intraweb.stockton.edu/eyos/page.cfm?siteID=73&pageID=276" target="_blank">MAIT</a> program at Richard Stockton College of NJ, I came across the German website <a href="http://‘Platon’s Erziehungslehre’ (Plato’s Educational Ideas)" target="_blank">Andragogy.net</a>, which published images of what may be the first use of the term, in 1833 by the German teacher Alexander Kapp, whose book <span lang="EN-US"><i>Platon’s Erziehungslehre</i> (Plato’s
Educational Ideas) I have reproduced above. </span> <br />
<br />
I wanted to try to trace the use of the term in English and go into a little more detail than our assignment requires here in this blog. Remarkably, "andragogy" does not appear in the Oxford English Dictionary, although it has been in use in print in English at least since 1968 and became more widely known in 1970 with the publication of Knowles's <i>The Modern Practice of Adult Education: Andragogy vs. Pedagogy</i> (New York: Association Press).<br />
<br />
Digging a bit further, the earliest work I was able to find by Knowles is his 1950 <i><a href="http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/01317928.html">Informal Adult Education; A Guide for Administrators, Leaders, and Teachers (Association Press)</a></i>, which is available online. An electronic search of the text shows that Knowles appears not to have used the term in his 1950 publication. However, according to Jost Reichmann, creator of the Andragogy.net website, Knowles himself recounts how he met Yugoslavian educator Dusan Savicevic at a conference in 1967. Savicevic introduced Knowles to the term, and according to Reichmann, Knowles first published the term in his 1968 article, "Andragogy vs. Pedagogy." We can learn more about the development of Knowles's thought in his 1989 autobiography, T<i>he Making of an Adult Educator: An Autobiographical Journey</i> (Jossey-Bass). <br />
<br />
In any case, according to <a href="http://reischmannfam.de.w012a1fd.kasserver.com/fileadmin/andra/index.htm" target="_blank">Reichmann</a>, the term first appeared in German in 1833, reappeared in Germany in the 1920s, and then again in the 1950s in Switzerland, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, and Germany before Knowles spread its use in the English-speaking world.Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-81841588441426318972014-12-18T12:29:00.000-08:002014-12-18T13:38:28.843-08:00"If I Told You Once, I Told You a Thousand Times" - Turnitin Buys Automated Writing Feedback Company Lightside Labs<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gh2_5h2iCVQ/VJM9GBmmbAI/AAAAAAAAQw8/Xye7CpkCOpk/s1600/RP-P-OB-60.456detailSisyphus2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gh2_5h2iCVQ/VJM9GBmmbAI/AAAAAAAAQw8/Xye7CpkCOpk/s1600/RP-P-OB-60.456detailSisyphus2.jpg" height="400" width="217" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sisyphus, detail of <i>Tartarus [Tantalus]</i>, <br />
Abraham Dircksz Santvoort, 1668<br />
Etching. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam<br />
<a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.collect.170486">
http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.collect.170486</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Anyone who's had to grade student papers in any subject has had the experience, new each semester (or in the worst case, new each assignment) of repeating the same writing pointers and making the same corrections over and over. It can make you feel like <a href="http://www.camus-society.com/myth-of-sisyphus.html" target="_blank">Sisyphus</a>, the king of Greek mythology condemned to roll a boulder uphill over and over, forever.<br />
<br />
Over (and over) the years I've tried various timesavers - group instruction given ahead of time, seeding writing pointers into the assignment instructions, videos, posting info on the web, going over paper drafts ex post facto with the whole class or individually. I've constructed a word file of my greatest hits and checked the ones that applied to the paper at hand. I've sung, I've danced, I've threatened, I've assigned <i>The Elements of Style</i>, but the boulder keeps rolling back down. <br />
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The online grading and anti-plagiarism giant <a href="http://turnitin.com/">Turnitin.com</a> recognized the Sisyphean quality of grading papers when it introduced its Grademark tool, which provides a pre-loaded set of comments addressing the most common issues in student writing, and allowing instructors to add their own favorites.<br />
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But what about an ounce of prevention? What if students could get feedback on that stuff and leave me free to edit for structure, concept, logic, flow, or, God help us, content? <br />
<br />
Enter LightSide Labs, Turnitin.com's recent acquisition. Lightside Labs' Revision Assistant, like other tools such as <a href="http://www.pearsonhighered.com/writer/" target="_blank">Pearson Writer</a>, and Turnitin's own <a href="http://en.writecheck.com/" target="_blank">Writecheck</a> for students, provides automated feedback on student writing. According to Turnintin.com, the recently-founded (2013) Lightside bears an impressive pedigree.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The company has
been supported by grants and contracts from major organizations in
education, like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S.
Department of Education, and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.
LightSide [is] based on machine learning and natural
language processing research from Carnegie Mellon’s Language
Technologies Institute."</blockquote>
How good is it? Can it really work? According to Turnitin, "This feedback is trained on the behavior of real instructors and
provides personalized, positive, and constructive support for student
writers." Of course this begs several questions, one of which is, which instructors? What behavior?<br />
More to come as I investigate over the next week or so....Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-11906854947473132492014-03-15T11:54:00.002-07:002014-03-15T11:57:18.596-07:00Learning to Learn, Learning to Trust<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oRDaGMaNS8c/UyShz7dDLyI/AAAAAAAAF70/mQnQ-M9NXgI/s1600/TRUST.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oRDaGMaNS8c/UyShz7dDLyI/AAAAAAAAF70/mQnQ-M9NXgI/s1600/TRUST.png" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
“Don’t be afraid to ask for help.” The trainee looks at me
skeptically. He’s applying a CSS stylesheet to a five-page website, the
penultimate assignment of his technology training.<br />
“You can ask me, or someone else- there are lots of resources!” I say.<br />
<br />
He’s bright. His work is good. But he’s frustrated, staring at the
screen, clenching his fists. He’s building a tricky page, so I suggest
we consult the web department about the best strategy for coding it. He
rejects this. “I’ll figure it out.”<br />
<br />
For days he refuses help, goes it alone. It seems simple enough –
just ask! Yet he doesn’t. Finally, standing in the Hopeworks kitchen
over a slice of fresh-baked bread, he confesses, “I don’t want them to
think I can’t do it by myself.” He’s worried if he asks for help, he
won’t be considered for an internship. He’s afraid of being seen as
weak.<br />
<br />
At Hopeworks, one of the most important skills Camden youth develop
is “Learning To Learn.” That is, we believe any trainee can learn to
learn and grow on their own. Hopeworks teaches and nurtures initiative,
active ownership of learning, and resourcefulness. Part of this is
knowing when to ask for help, and this is especially difficult for many
of our youth.<br />
<br />
Why is it so hard? We all know elderly folks who fall trying to do
their own painting or cleaning, young people who refuse to ask for
assistance until it’s too late. But a more revealing question is, “What
happened?” If we stop asking “Why won’t you ask?” and instead ask “What
happened to you that not asking for help makes sense?” we begin to see
that for many people – the ones we label “stubborn,” “proud,” or even
“fiercely independent” — there is a deeper, more troubling possibility:
attachment avoidance.<br />
<br />
Attachment avoidant individuals make up a fairly high percentage
(approximately 30%) of people with intrafamilial violence or other
serious trauma. They have experienced a deep, traumatic violation of
trust or traumatic loss, often during childhood. Some of their defensive
patterns include:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Relying on deactivation of attachment as strategy to cope with attachment-related distress</li>
<li>Shifting attention away from events or feelings that would trigger
the attachment system or painful emotions and memories of attachment
figures (such as childhood loss of a parent or sibling through death,
divorce or incarceration)</li>
<li>Idealizing even undeserving parents or other caregivers as a way of preserving a positive perception of them</li>
<li>“Minimizing emotional meaning of traumatic events and their
long-term implications” using a variety of strategies such as glossing
over, claiming a happy ending (“I was OK in the end”), talking around
the traumatic event, intellectualizing it (“It made me stronger”), or
focusing on other important issues (such as an upcoming exam or conflict
with a girlfriend) as a way of diverting attention from
attachment-related issues and the unmanageable emotions that accompany
them.</li>
<li>Being compulsively or insistently self-reliant, often stemming from a
worldview that others are unreliable. Hyper-invested in presenting
themselves as strong, independent, competent and normal, attachment
avoidant individuals have great difficulty acknowledging the need for
help and asking for help. (They can be like the trainee described above,
who could not risk asking for help even in a learning environment where
it was encouraged.)</li>
<li>Cutting off relationships temporarily or permanently as a way of
managing difficult emotions and, paradoxically, preserving the
relationship (We often see this several weeks into training when
sometimes trainees disappear or show sporadic attendance after a strong
start – “just as it is getting good.”)</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: right;">
(Based on Robert T. Muller, <a href="http://amzn.com/0393705730" target="_blank">Trauma and the Avoidant Client</a>)</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
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In the training room some of the effects of trauma our youth endure
as residents of a violent, impoverished city emerge as this reluctance
to ask for assistance. So often they say, “I’ll do it on my own.” When I
first came to Hopeworks it felt like rejection. Why wasn’t I connecting
with them? Was I not accessible enough? Was I approaching them the
wrong way?<br />
<br />
But after I started to get a sense of their environment — the harsh
street where any sign of weakness (particularly for young men) can mean
violence or death; the poverty, multiple traumas, neglect, adverse
childhood events, and losses so many Camden youth experience — I started
to see that, for our youth, asking for help means taking a big risk.
Asking for help can mean opening oneself to remembering a time when
others would not or could not help, where one was left vulnerable by
those who should have helped and protected. For many youth, asking for
help can feel like exposing weakness. It can make them feel vulnerable.
And yet, this vulnerable space is the space of opportunity and the
opening for change and growth. At Hopeworks it is our job to make a
space where youth can safely experience their own vulnerability as they
take risks to learn.<br />
<br />
Studying avoidant attachment in our staff study group has opened my
eyes and led me to interpret youth’s rejection of help not as a
reflection on my training style but rather as an aspect of the
experience of living and working in Camden. I’m starting to understand
what a risk it represents for so many of our youth to make the leap and
ask for help. I’m seeing how essential it is to provide a place – and to
build a community – where they can feel safe to do so. This means we
must engage the emotions that are evoked when people engage in learning.
These emotions can be powerful and can make learning, and the change
that comes from it, feel unsafe. So in a real way, for Hopeworks youth,
learning to learn means learning to trust.<br />
<br />
How does it make you feel to ask for help?<br />
<br />
<i>This post was originally published in the <a href="http://www.hopeworks.org/blog/" target="_blank">Hopeworks 'n Camden blog</a>. <a href="http://www.hopeworks.org/" target="_blank">Hopeworks</a> is a youth development organization that uses technology training and employment opportunities to partner with young men and women to achieve their dreams. </i><br />
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<br />Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-71121634548062968092013-11-11T05:33:00.000-08:002013-11-11T05:33:12.689-08:00Who's Got Your Back?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ytKAnC8ux-I/UoDZdP963tI/AAAAAAAAF20/5zEdOYIeltA/s1600/Superheroes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ytKAnC8ux-I/UoDZdP963tI/AAAAAAAAF20/5zEdOYIeltA/s320/Superheroes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
"It's not a question of whether your hard drive will crash, it's a question of when." Bright faces look up at me from the classroom seats. Some nods. Some open mouths. They're paying attention. "So if you haven't backed up your work, and it makes you hand in your paper late, too bad. Don't write at the last minute. You're responsible to allow yourself enough time to deal with the computer problems that inevitably will happen to some of you this semester." I've imparted maybe the most important thing I will ever teach in a classroom: BACK UP YOUR WORK! Yes: I am a backtivist.<br />
<br />
I've been a big proponent (read: nag) of backing up. I preach the backup gospel to my students at the start of every semester, and before every deadline. I always back up everything. Important files I'm working on go to the cloud, and I use a couple of different services such as Dropbox and SugarSync. Still haven't jumped on the iCloud bandwagon yet, but that's in the works.<br />
<br />
I also use Apple's application, Time Machine, which saves multiple versions of your files. I send my backups wirelessly to Apple's Time Capsule, the magical white box that may save my behind one day. Or will it?<br />
<br />
My dirty little secret is I'm not really sure how it works or what it's backing up, and I haven't troubled myself to find out. The burningest question is, does it back up the files of the other users on my computer? Apple compartmentalizes, so that I don't have to see my husband's stuff on my desktop or listen to his iTunes, and he doesn't have to see mine. But is his stuff going to the capsule? What about my laptop? Can I send that to the Time Capsule too? <br />
<br />
And what about how this all works with the laptop? I've mostly been backing up individual files, keeping only what I'm actually working on on the laptop and backing it up to DropBox. Then when the project is complete I transfer it to my desktop machine, where, presumably, Time Machine automatically sends a backup to the Time Capsule. <br />
<br />
I've finally decided to get serious about it and found a basic article from <a href="http://www.smith.edu/its/tara/macintosh/backup.html" target="_blank">Smith College </a>outlining the pros and cons of various backup methods in clear language. Next column - let's see what I find out.Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-124478471335315352013-09-27T08:23:00.001-07:002013-09-27T08:28:09.775-07:00Collaborating in the Cloud: Flat PaikBot and Teaching<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2aEba1mdkyw/UkWfIm0w5EI/AAAAAAAAFzs/QYsoa1VQCwE/s1600/Paikbot-pinterest.com.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2aEba1mdkyw/UkWfIm0w5EI/AAAAAAAAFzs/QYsoa1VQCwE/s320/Paikbot-pinterest.com.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PaikBot at a stockton tricking session by @Gronnana</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This striking image was created by my student, photographer Glenn Armstrong, as part of an optional assignment in Art History: Renaissance to the Present, a survey course I
taught at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in fall 2012. The assignment asked students to contribute to the Smithsonian American Art Museum's online project, <a href="http://americanart.si.edu/multimedia/games/paikbot/" target="_blank">Paikbot Travels,</a> in connection with <i><a href="http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/paik/" target="_blank">Nam June Paik: Global Visionary</a></i>, its 2013 retrospective of the work of Paik, a pioneering video artist.<br />
<br />
My goals were to urge the students to explore the web resources typical of a large national museum, and to gain an understanding of some of the ways art and art worlds are changing in the digital age. To counteract the tendency of large lecture courses to create passive recipients, I designed the assignment to urge students to participate in art worlds - and to be a part of American art history - by creating and contributing. We had research projects and presentations, but I wanted them to experience new media as well. <br />
<br />
To see more of these images, check out the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Pinterest board for <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/americanartpin/paiklandia-paikbot-travels/" target="_blank">Paiklandia: Paikbot Travels</a>. The project drew participants from all over the globe. So proud of Glenn's arresting contribution!Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-12447731307935046652013-06-20T09:36:00.001-07:002013-06-20T09:36:18.165-07:00The Great Wiknik Wikipedia Picnic is coming to Penn Park!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6LHFZJosdTg/UcMve_za2xI/AAAAAAAAFtQ/BHVBQOkSSqg/s1600/pennpark_large_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6LHFZJosdTg/UcMve_za2xI/AAAAAAAAFtQ/BHVBQOkSSqg/s320/pennpark_large_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Philadelphia/Wiknic/2013" target="_blank">Wikipedia Wiknik Meetup</a><br />
<br />
Every year thousands of contributors to Wikipedia meet all over the world to celebrate. This year Philadelphia will host one such gathering on June 22: The Wiknik, a huge picnic in <a href="http://www.pennconnects.upenn.edu/find_a_project/alphabetical/penn_park_alpha/penn_park_images.php" target="_blank">Penn Park</a> allows people who use, contribute to, or otherwise love Wikipedia to meet up, have fun, and share a picnic. Head out there and bring your lunch, sunscreen, blanket, a Frisbee, and sense of camaraderie! Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-43120356774786823622013-04-05T07:11:00.002-07:002013-04-05T07:27:13.391-07:00Another Great Library Goes Online: Netherlands<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SrMth9OONbw/UV7bev8wT-I/AAAAAAAAEQA/gxp7uDsmQ0w/s1600/kbnl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SrMth9OONbw/UV7bev8wT-I/AAAAAAAAEQA/gxp7uDsmQ0w/s400/kbnl.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
<br />
Research mavens rejoice! Publishing Perspectives reports that yet another of the world's great libraries has made its collection accessible online. Read this <a href="http://publishingperspectives.com/2013/04/80000-titles-from-the-national-library-of-the-netherlands-now-online/?et_mid=611019&rid=234759464" target="_blank">Publishing Perspectives article</a> to learn how the National Library of the Netherlands has made 80,000 titles available, some from the 18th century. Another 80,000 are in the pipeline to be digitized and made accessible in the near future. Before you start whining that you don't read Dutch, some of them are bound to be in Latin, if that helps. The illustrations alone are worth a peek.<br />
<br />
I don't read Dutch, either, but as the inimitable <a href="http://www.sas.upenn.edu/arthistory/people/profile/renata-holod" target="_blank">Renata Holod</a> taught me as an undergrad, "Don't let the fact that you don't know a language stop you from using a book." She said, "Get a dictionary. If it's in Russian, you can learn the Cyrillic alphabet." I took that advice to heart and I've never looked back. Now we have online sites like Google Translate to help us get the gist of what we read, although I still recommend breaking out a really good dictionary - and your judgment - if you really want an accurate understanding. <br />
<br />
But to get a taste of the riches in store for all of us, click <a href="http://boeken1.kb.nl/nl/results/index/coll/boeken1/query/english/sortfield/datedesc" target="_blank">this link </a>to see what I found when I typed "<a href="http://boeken1.kb.nl/nl/results/index/query/english/coll/boeken1/sortfield/datedesc" target="_blank">English</a>" into the National Library's searchbar on its <a href="http://boeken1.kb.nl/">http://boeken1.kb.nl/</a> page<br />
<br />
So, teachers: Age of Discovery or World History projects? Botany projects? Geography, anybody? The resources available to our students boggle the mind. And almost none of it was online even 20 years ago. Happy hunting!Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-47351518036571482932013-03-12T09:28:00.001-07:002013-03-12T09:42:00.677-07:00Getting rich off of schoolchildren<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SK7xGtymAVU/UT9YYZR21TI/AAAAAAAAD9Q/K1w2RFk-2mA/s1600/AAAAC1W1k7QAAAAAATnFGQ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SK7xGtymAVU/UT9YYZR21TI/AAAAAAAAD9Q/K1w2RFk-2mA/s1600/AAAAC1W1k7QAAAAAATnFGQ.jpg" /></a></div>
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If you follow educational technology, by now you will have noticed the competition for school technology dollars heating up. In <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/03/11/getting_rich_off_of_schoolchildren/">Getting rich off of schoolchildren</a>, <i>Salon</i>'s David Sirota asks if some big-bucks reform advocates aren't really wolves in sheep's clothing. <br />
<br />
He blasts what he calls the pervasive media myth of "Greedy Teachers vs. Altruistic Billionaire" and questions the motivations of the bumper crop of super-rich technology satraps swooping in to "save" education from venal, moneygrubbing teachers:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The first reason to scoff at this mythology should be obvious: It simply
strains credulity to insist that pedagogues who get paid middling wages
but nonetheless devote their lives to educating kids care less about
those kids than do the Wall Street hedge funders and billionaire CEOs
who <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ravitch-billionaires-and-millionaires-for-education-reform/2011/11/15/gIQAlDAHPN_blog.html">finance</a>
the so-called reform movement. Indeed, to state that pervasive
assumption out loud is to reveal how utterly idiotic it really is, and
yet it is baked into almost all of today’s coverage of education
politics.</blockquote>
If there wasn't huge profit, it why all this interest? Sirota continues:<br /><a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/03/11/getting_rich_off_of_schoolchildren/"></a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This is why the tech site <a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2012/coming-tech-bubble-education/">Geekwire</a> predicts another full-scale tech industry bubble, thanks to “K-12 and other education segments now being chased by a mob of investment capitalists.” </blockquote>
I can't help noticing that a lot of the free webinars and other teacher-ed and pedagogical help I'm offered online is really shilling a particular product. Of course advertisers have the right to market their products. But when does it cross the line into distorting educational policy?<br />
<br />
What do you think? Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-172603774838645602013-02-08T19:28:00.001-08:002013-02-19T10:18:18.364-08:00FOE is DOA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M7SCDKDirEM/USO66wC7aNI/AAAAAAAADo8/9BGnafOnJA8/s1600/120830+-+Driving-Nail-Coffin%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M7SCDKDirEM/USO66wC7aNI/AAAAAAAADo8/9BGnafOnJA8/s320/120830+-+Driving-Nail-Coffin%5B1%5D.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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So my first MOOC didn't go that well. After a confusing and frustrating week, Fundamentals of Online Education (FOE) went down in flames. Technical issues and course design flaws bedeviled the course from the start: videos failed to load, groups couldn't form because students crashed the Google Docs forms the instructor set up, it was hard to navigate to the course elements, and students complained about the reading load and pacing. Ironically, Fundamentals of Online Education was the first Coursera course ever to be suspended. Georgie Tech and Fatimah Wirth, the instructor, evidently have slunk off to do a redesign, and the course will be offered again at some unspecified date. To learn more, check out these articles:<br />
<br />
Salon's report: <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/02/08/the_internet_will_not_ruin_college/" target="_blank">"The Internet Will Not Ruin College"</a><br />
<br />
Chronicle of Higher Education: <a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/georgia-tech-and-coursera-try-to-recover-from-mooc-stumble/42167" target="_blank">Georgie Tech and Coursera Try to Recover from MOOC Stumble</a> <br />
<br />
I feel for Fatimah Wirth. I just hope she already has tenure.Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-81301986295833057132013-01-30T06:53:00.000-08:002013-01-30T07:11:59.196-08:00Greetings from the MOOCpocalypse!*<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y14DkhKxlzs/UQkxoN1hctI/AAAAAAAADWY/QtMarxhfKC8/s1600/RtSideCowArt2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y14DkhKxlzs/UQkxoN1hctI/AAAAAAAADWY/QtMarxhfKC8/s320/RtSideCowArt2.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'm ready for my MOO-c, Mr. De Mille.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
I've joined a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), Fundamentals of Online Learning, and the first week has been a whirlwind, starting with the technical issues:<br />
Says our instructor:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It has been an exciting few hours. The course has just started and some
of you have managed to delete entire rows and columns in Join A Group
Google spreadsheet , removed people from their groups, crashed the
Google server, and rebuilt the page back up.<br />
<br />
This is exciting for me because you are figuring out how to work with
each other. I am also excited to see that you are personalizing your
groups.</blockquote>
Ultimately the Google Spreadsheet idea had to be abandoned, and the instructor, Fatimah Wirth (of the Georgia Institute of Technology) had us form groups in forums.<br />
<br />
Interesting to see how people worked together. Scores of groups were started. To attract like-minded participants, some chose informative group names ("Humanities and Social Sciences Higher Ed") while others inadvertently warned away prospective members ("How do I Join a Group?"). Or maybe not: maybe the technically forlorn gravitated to the comforting company of other confused people, just like in September where the awkward kids find each other clumped together in the far corner of the schoolyard.<br />
<br />
I clicked into several tempting but already-full groups (curses!). I tried to stay away from groups where it seemed like the members were challenged by the basic forum technology "I'm so confused!" "Me too!" I don't want to sit through a lot of plaintive spam and mis-posted threads. I also stayed away from groups where the people gave little info about themselves: I wanted people who were at least a little familiar with being part of an online community.<br />
<br />
Choosing a group made me think through what I want out of this MOOC, and out of my group:<br />
<ul>
<li>International - I want to learn from people who teach and learn in educational systems outside of the U.S., and who have different perspectives from me about technology, education, and what is the ideal dinner.</li>
<li>Serious - I want articulate group partners who care about the subject and will do the work.</li>
<li>Sense of humor - no trolls, a little fun here and there. Witty is good.</li>
<li>Friendly: I want a group that's not likely to start flaming each other. </li>
<li>Functional: I want an active group that has a steady volume of on-topic posts, and a core that won't drop out and leave me stranded.</li>
<li>Diverse - my interests are broad - I don't want only K-12 teachers, or only university types, or only corporate trainers. I want to learn from other pedagogical perspectives.</li>
</ul>
I chose a group that called itself "Spain, Latin America, and the Rest of the World." The organizer seems energetic and personable and has done other MOOCs before, and has a background in both education and the corporate world. So far there are three of us, but with 40,000 people the boards are *very* active so that's probably changed as I write this. <br />
<br />
Interestingly, a thread has already started about privacy concerns - will we have our identities stolen? Who owns the rights to work we post? Good questions. Some have expressed a lack of confidence in the instructor, given the first-week glitches. I'm not feeling that way - MOOCs are new for all of us, and I'm with her: it *is* very exciting.<br />
<br />
MOOC on!<br />
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*Had to steal that tagline from my friend - sorry, Ian, it was just too good to resist. Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-75473891735890665662012-12-27T18:56:00.003-08:002013-01-03T08:11:39.458-08:00Drowning in Email? The Email Charter Aims to Save Our Inboxes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rvfac5bgQTo/UN0Ck-lBw4I/AAAAAAAADCA/oDrPZ9K63AY/s1600/755px-Watsonandtheshark-original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rvfac5bgQTo/UN0Ck-lBw4I/AAAAAAAADCA/oDrPZ9K63AY/s400/755px-Watsonandtheshark-original.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
In grade school, every kid learns how to write a letter: heading, date, salutation, body, closing. They're taught to address an envelope properly. Later, they might learn how to write a business letter, and be instructed in the use of the subject line ("Re:"), "Cc:" "Bcc:" and "Enclosures:" lines, and to put "Attention" on the envelope so it gets to the right department or person.<br />
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It's not unusual for me to receive over 100 emails in a day, and a lot of these are complete time wasters. I'm not alone. We're all drowning in email.<br />
<br />
It's time for us to start teaching how to write and use email the right way. But how? Business letter conventions evolved over time, and email -as both a convenience and a festering plague - is pretty new. <br />
<br />
I first began using email in the late '80s at the University of Pennsylvania. Faxing and voice mail were pretty new, too, and while this may be hard to believe, phone messaging had only just
established itself as standard practice. (A few quaint cranks still sniffed
that <i>they</i> never left messages on answering machines, but their numbers were dwindling.) I wasn't sure why the guy in charge of our brand new humanities computing was making such a fuss over "electronic mail" (and some other thing he called the World Wide Web), but I gave it a shot. I still remember the thrill of receiving a note from a prof at Temple University with whom I was organizing an event. We called each other on the phone to celebrate: e-mail worked! <br />
<br />
A year or two later, I was using it regularly. No more rushing to make early phone calls to catch Europeans in their offices. No more worrying about whether the fax had gone through when the power went out in Tegucigalpa every afternoon. It made working internationlly so much easier. Eliminating phone tag was another big plus. Inboxes at the time were manageable - I remember being shocked to learn that a friend had 80 messages in hers. I can't help feeling the stab of nostalgia when I think of it. Only 80?<br />
<br />
Fast forward a couple of decades. My inbox contains 5000+ emails, and that's in just one of my half-a-dozen other email accounts, not counting the messages in Facebook and Yahoo. This isn't entirely voluntary - every time I work as a contractor or an adjunct, I'm given an e-mail account that I'm required to use for communications with my department and with students. The nature of my work means I'm on a lot of mailing lists. I tried dividing my account into an email for lists and a personal email. That worked great, until I lost 60,000 airline miles because I got busy and skipped checking my "lists" account for a few weeks. Filters, too, don't solve the basic problem of overload. It's like trying to filter a tsunami.<br />
<br />
So I went back to a single main account. Since then, I've spent entire mornings deleting old emails, left over from the days when I didn't realize storing stuff in my inbox or folders was going to turn into a Sorcerer's Apprentice situation. I've made rules or myself (e.g. I delete any list emails that I haven't read within 24 hours) and I break them regularly. This makes me very cranky. I mean, I've flamed my own mother for sending me heartwarming e-mail or nonsense about using my car door remote through my telephone. I'm feeling like old Watson in the painting up there. <br />
<br />
So I sat up and took notice when I saw <a href="http://www.emailcharter.org/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.emailcharter.org</a> There have been many attempts to instruct users in netiquette, but so far it hasn't been standardized - no Emily Post of the Internet has emerged. In the meantime, people like TED curator Chris Anderson have tried to create some rules for keeping our inboxes under control. The Email Charter was put together after a <a href="http://tedchris.posterous.com/help-create-an-email-charter" target="_blank">TED post</a> by Anderson in 2011. The Charter has 10 proposals, such as "Respect Recipients' time," "Slash surplus CCs," "Cut contentless responses" and "Celebrate Clarity" (this last, ironically, is about using a meaningful subject line. And yes, you are detecting an unfortunate fixation with alliteration). Oddly, there's no mention of avoiding the plague of leaving header after header after header in the body, of or sending out emails with all the recipients' information clearly visible in the To: or Cc: line instead of using a Bcc: to protect their privacy. But it's a valiant start.<br />
<br />
Check it out and let me know: What is the one email etiquette rule you wish everyone would follow?<br />
<br />
<i>Illustration: John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark, 1778, oil on canvas. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Source: Wikipedia.org</i>Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787148694304715638.post-42108032705661513652012-10-30T15:44:00.002-07:002012-10-30T15:44:25.863-07:00Facebook for Teachers: Everything You Didn't Know You Need to Know (and Everything You Do)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ever wonder how to use Facebook for your teaching? Ever wonder if you should? Has a student tried to friend you? If you've ever scratched your head over these questions, you'll want to check out this article on <a href="http://mashable.com/" target="_blank">Mashable</a>, the very thorough <a href="http://mashable.com/2012/10/29/facebook-for-teachers/" target="_blank">The Teacher's Guide to Facebook</a>. It tells you how to maintain your privacy and discusses when it's appropriate or not to friend students. But it goes beyond that to explore ways to use Facebook for teaching and other common situations like running activities or clubs. <br />
How have you used Facebook in your teaching? Have you ever friended a student, and did that work out well or poorly for you? We'd love to hear from you!Anne Pushkalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17578603651169248116noreply@blogger.com0