Tech-Neill-ogy

For educators, by an educator, about education... and technlogy...

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Feedback v. Correcting

This is a very interesting post from a very interesting website. I’m struck by how my own thoughts about “grading” differ so dramatically from “teaching” for many of the reasons this blog identifies. I appreciate the emphasis on process and progress over the final product. Keeping this approach in mind certainly makes grading and feedback much more enjoyable, as well!

“The greatest sign of a success for a teacher … is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.’

I’m toying with grading papers through screencasting software, such as Explain Everything on my iPad, as well as providing feedback through privately shared GoogleDocs with my students. Both of these things seem to provide the proper vehicle for this sort of feedback.

  1. Where am I going?
  2. How am I doing?
  3. What actions do I need to take next?

Filed under WhileTheBabySleeps explain everything screencasting grading feedback googledocs

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TechTip #3: Threaded Discussion

I was unable to make it to class due to the flu, but I was up early, early in the morning with some time to figure out an alternative, so I set up a way for my class to utilize class time in an online environment. We were still working on thesis statements at the time, so I asked each student to post their thesis statement in our class conference (a FirstClass system) and then to have each student in the class read and comment on every other student’s thesis with an eye for helping them to improve it.

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Filed under techtip threaded discussion

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I used to think that technology could help education. I’ve probably spearheaded giving away more computer equipment to schools than anybody else on the planet. But I’ve had to come to the inevitable conclusion that the problem is not one that technology can hope to solve. What’s wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology. No amount of technology will make a dent. It’s a political problem.
Steve Jobs | 1996 interview with Wired.com (via courtenaybird)

(via courtenaybird)

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thedailywhat:

This Is Important, You Should Watch It of the Day: Salman Khan offers the most succinct and straightforward rundown of how the language in SOPA’s current iteration leaves wide open the possibility that, despite its ostensible intention to block foreign sites trafficking in pirated content, completely legal websites operating inside the United States could easily be labeled “enablers” of “U.S. property theft” and subjected to crippling sanctions that would effectively shut them down.

(Worried? Do something.)

[khanacademy.]

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TechTip #1: GoogleDocs for Group Exploration

A project that we used to begin the semester was to share a Google Doc among the class. All students had the privileges to edit this document. What we ascertained early in our work was that there existed a large degree of anxiety, apprehension, and uncertainty in regards to the term “thesis.” As such, we embarked on a group exploration of the term. What this assignment asked was for students to research the term in three different ways: 1. find and share a definition of the term from an online source; 2. find and share a definition from a book; and, 3. interview and share a definition from a reliable, human source such as a teacher. The one caveat was that students had to browse those items already posted to ensure that they were not posting duplicate information. (See my current syllabus here.)

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Filed under techtip Google GoogleDocs