EdTechatouille
Three Issues for Effective Development of Curriculum & Assessment
Oct 18th
At the 2011 Texas Community College Instructional Leaders annual conference in Fort Worth, October 5-6, I had the opportunity to present and discuss three issues I think are important to the effective development of curriculum and assessment. The three issues are those which I have identified over the past year as I’ve worked more in depth with my local institution’s curriculum and assessment initiatives. The highlights of the discussion and presentation: More >
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Loading ...What @GoogleBooks’ NGRAM viewer could be . . .
Oct 15th
A few weeks back, the @GoogleBooks team released a lab product related to the Books Project: the NGram Viewer. According to the NGram site,
When you enter phrases into the Google Books Ngram Viewer, it displays a graph showing how those phrases have occurred in a corpus of books (e.g., “British English”, “English Fiction”, “French”) over the selected years.
In short? Put words or phrases into the search box, separated by commas, select a time range, and the NGram viewer displays the frequency at which each appears in the corpus of text contained in the Google Books database. A few quick searches, with predictable results, that I did when I first experimented with the tool included: (a) groovy, (b) laptop, and (c) hillbilly.
My question, “Where does @GoogleBooks plan for this project to go in the future? And, do they realize this could be a killer app for qualitative research?” Imagine two things.
First, rather than only laying the tool over the top of the Google Books database, enable it’s use with any database; in particular, I’m thinking in terms of a research database that contains the texts and transcripts of interviews or other qualitative research data.
Second, add algorithms that flip the search function around; rather than user input dictating the results, develop algorithms that identify the most used words *and/or* phrases. If you’re familiar with Wordles, think something similar to what Wordle.net does but with the added feature of identifying phrases and not just individual words.
The results could be an invaluable starting point for qualitative researchers with large quantities of data. NGram used in that manner would identify for researchers the most frequently used words or phrases which takes a significant step toward identifying recurring themes across artifacts whether it be interview transcripts, texts, or documents etc.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Technology makes “Tests” obsolete, or should…
Aug 11th
Technological progress makes many things obsolete: horse drawn carriages as a means of regular transportation, broadcast television or printed newspapers as a primary or sole source of news and information, tests as reliable and valid forms of assessment . . .
Wait? What?
Yep. Tests are an anachronism of an assessment era that is or should be fading into the past. They no longer effectively serve the purpose they were intended to serve. Why? More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Learning Outcomes ARE NOT Learning Objectives
Aug 8th
The simple fact that Learning Outcomes are NOT the same as Learning Objectives is a key principle to “Developing Effective Learning Outcomes & Objectives.” As noted in that presentation outline,
The differences lie in the level of specificity each provides and the relationship of each to assessment methods and instructional activities. Failure to understand and accommodate the differences can restrict academic freedom of faculty and complicate institutional efforts to manage curriculum and assessment.
Using the course I teach – COSC 1401 Introduction to Computers – I want to briefly illustrate the difference and the relationship between a learning outcome and a learning objective. More >
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Leveraging Quality Matters Certified Courses
Aug 6th
Short version: An institution that facilitates and supports Quality Matters (QM) centered reviews of online courses could leverage those courses by licensing a QM certified course from the faculty developer on a semester-to-semester basis and distribute that QM certified course to any faculty – including or perhaps especially adjuncts – teaching the course. For me, that would be a win-win-win solution for the institution, the faculty developer and all other faculty teaching the same course.
Long version and a few issues are described below. After I explain all of this, please comment and tell me what sort of things I don’t know about QM or licensing issues etc that preclude an institution from doing this ;-) More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Assessing Online Discussions
Aug 4th
I recently re/developed the rubric I use to assess learner performance in the online discussion for my “Introduction to Computers” course; I wanted a more generic approach suitable for many of the discussions in the course – particularly with the course going through a Quality Matters review. I developed a holistic rubric with two primary criteria supported with a number of descriptors at each level of proficiency. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Proving a Learner’s Plagiarism
Aug 3rd
A two-week old post on the Texas Community College Teachers Association blog caught my attention this morning: Charge of Plagiarism Upheld in Court. My initial reaction was that I do not understand how it’s “a good thing” that accusations of learner plagiarism not be supported by identification of a plagiarized document. Reading the court opinion, however, adds critical information not mentioned by the TCCTA blog; considering the additional information, the issue is a great deal more complex. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Problems with Bloom’s Taxonomy?
Jul 31st
Last week or so, I came across an older article (December, 2002) from International Society for Performance Improvement that challenged the utility of Bloom’s Taxonomy on several levels. In short, Dr. Brenda Sugrue argues that Bloom’s Taxonomy is not valid, reliable or practical. Dr. Sugrue offers two alternatives which both suggest an emphasis on the application and use of knowledge. I believe there’s a great deal of truth in Dr. Sugrue’s argument, and I have a few additional thoughts. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Searching for a new camera . . .
May 15th
After officially graduating yesterday, my days as a graduate student are O-V-E-R, thankfully. I now have more time on my hands and am looking forward to spending my time on a few hobbies. Photography will be one of them. Task #1? Identify and buy a new camera. Of course, I’m looking for any and all advice on which camera to purchase. If you have some, given my personal photography profile which I’ll describe below, I’d certainly appreciate the input via comments.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Conference Twitter Backchannel’s Almost Useless
May 7th
Over at EduGeek Journal, Matt Croslin posted several weeks ago about using Twitter as a conference backchannel. That stirred up a frustration I’ve had with the last several times I’ve tried to engage colleagues at a conference via Twitter. I posted a comment there that provides more explanation and context to my argument.
The long and short of it is that, for me, the twitter backchannel at conferences has become damn near useless. It’s not because Twitter’s useless or irrelevant, and it’s not because of the conference; it’s a matter of how people at conferences are using… well… not using the Twitter backchannel effectively, in my opinion. Rather than an engaging backchannel shared by colleagues and professionals engaging each other in meaningful discourse related to conference presentations, by and large, the Twitter conference backchannels have become nothing more than a “mindlessly-broadcast-whatever-the-speaker’s-saying-channel.” Your thoughts?
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