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Lindsay Davidson

Article on professors posing as students in online environment

Parry, M. (2009). Online Professors Pose as Students to Encourage Real Learning. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 55(38), 10.

ipod touch applications will rescue the world and make teaching and learning way funner!!!

I think the applications associated with mobile devices like the touch - that are coming at us fast and furiously are finally putting us on the cusp of transforming the traditional classroom into group learning interactions. for example, my five second download of the app skitch - linked to from Doug's magazine article - creates a website for me that enables me to screen capture, share, edit, collaborate, etc...simply and quickly.

a poem about class participation

Hi all: I noticed that several of you had active class participation as one of your learning objectives. Here's a poem about being present in or absent from class. The poet cautions however, that he stopped reading it to students. It made them more aggressive. So read it just for yourselves to know that this happens to all of us...:)

Did I Miss Anything
Tom Wayman

Originally from: The Astonishing Weight of the Dead.
Vancouver: Polestar, 1994.
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/wayman/poem5.htm

articles and sites by physicists Wieman and Mazure

Hi all: As promised, here are articles by Physicist Carl Wieman (et al), Eric Mazur (Peer Instruction) and articles on how to assess concept maps.

best,
Sheila

1. Some articles by Carl Wieman:

• STLHE Conference Keynote summary: http://www.mcmaster.ca/stlhe/documents/Number%2047.pdf
• Professor My Brain is Full: http://update.estrategy.ubc.ca/2006/02/06/professor-my-brain-is-full/
• C.E. Wieman, K.K. Perkins, W.K. Adams. (May, 2008). Oersted Medal Lecture 2007: Interactive simulations for teaching physics: What works, what doesn't, and why. American Journal of Physics, 76, 393.
• C. E. Wieman and K. K. Perkins. (2006). A Powerful Tool For Teaching Science. Nature Physics, p. 290-292 , May.
• C.E. Wieman and K.K. Perkins (2005). Transforming Physics Education. Physics Today. 58: 11.
• And, going back a bit, Wieman acknowledges R. Hake, "Interactive-engagement vs. traditional methods: A six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses," Am. J. Phys. 66, 64-74 (1998).

2. Here is Eric Mazur's website about Peer Instruction, where students solve problems collaboratively after 10 minutes of lecture:

• http://mazur-www.harvard.edu/education/educationmenu.php
• and Peer Instruction: Ten Years of Experience and Results http://web.mit.edu/jbelcher/www/TEALref/Crouch_Mazur.pdf

3. How to assess Concept Maps:
Please see:

• Classroom Assessment Techniques: Concept Mapping: under Analysis and Scoring Concept Maps:

http://www.flaguide.org/cat/conmap/conmap4.php

• Ruiz-Primo, M. A. (2004). EXAMINING CONCEPT MAPS AS AN ASSESSMENT TOOL Procedures of the First International Conference on Concept Mapping. Spain.
  

http:// cmc.ihmc.us/papers/cmc2004-036.pdf
There is a rubric on page 4, figure 3, that is useful.

• Angelo, Thomas A. and Cross, K. Patricia (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers. 2nd edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

• Austin, L.B. and Shore, B.M. (1995). Using concept mapping for assessment in physics. Physics Education 30 (1): 41-45.

Assessing for learning quality

Here is a link to the article, Teaching for Quality Learning at University-Assessing for learning quality: II. Practice by John Biggs. The article has a great section on diverse strategies (like gobbets) for assessing in large groups. Enjoy! Gobbets!!

Student Perspectives on Instructional Strategies

Andrew Kirk's research on student perspectives on various instructional strategies used in Engineering.