More conference stuff...
Today several of the presenters discussed the need for more research that is replicable, aggregable, and data-driven. This means that compositionists are adopting more quantitative measures to analyze,...
View ArticleApril 4
April 4, 2008The first presentation I attended was about assessing writing centers, teaching information literacy in the writing center, and designing a writing program that covers about three years. I...
View ArticleWho vs. Whom (or Why Yoda Would Want to Keep Whom)
Who vs. Whom (or Why Yoda Would Want to Keep Whom)Edward Sapir tells us that we don’t “chafe” at using sentences like “Whom did you see?” “without reason.” We hesitate to use “whom” in an interrogative...
View ArticleComps Preparation
I have been doing more reading about the teaching of composition since my syllabus will focus on teaching writing teachers. A daunting task, in some respects. What are all of the things that they need...
View ArticleA break from academics...
I went to Hawaii for my cousin's wedding and had the opportunity to go snorkeling at Waikiki Beach where I saw many varieties of tropical fish, including surgeonfish, butterfly fish, Golden Butterfly...
View ArticleGetting through the PhD
Things I learned at the panel on the last year of being a graduate student:Take resume to WCogBeh for feedback. Make sure you look at the calendar and carve out time for the professional conferences....
View Articlereadings
After reading the William's article, I am interested more in examining the relationship between time, the tutorial, and the revision. Williams piece is wonderful and I think that my research study...
View ArticleMore on Language
Talking about the language of the writing conference: a lot is said during a writing conference, but very little is done in terms of revision. Or perhaps I never noticed that talking about language...
View ArticleLanguage, without its outward garb...
is thought, according to Sapir. From Language: "thought is nothing but language denuded of its outward garb." (223)And he defines language. (Who is bold enough to do that?) "Language is a purely human...
View ArticleRevisiting Vygotsky and the Forbidden Colors Task
It is fun to read the work of researchers who revisit studies conducted by big-name people in our field of learning theory. In this case someone as returned to study conducted by Leontiev that Vygotsky...
View ArticleInelegant Variation
A recent conversation reminded me of Fowler's concept of "elegant variation" that today is known as "inelegant variation"--the practice of substituting an awkward word or phrase to avoid repeating a...
View ArticleNCPTW Fun
I enjoyed this conference immensely and went to several excellent presentations. One was a presentation about how peer tutors receive training from librarians in how to help students with research...
View ArticleStats and Diss
Today am trying to analyze another writing center student's revision work. Got 97 on stats exam. Maybe I have a new calling?
View ArticleDiss Progress
Today I met with co-researcher. Discussed codes and beginning of process went very well. He has 040129 and 040103's texts and will get the rest in two weeks.
View ArticleMy progress on MITx: Lab Tutorial
Today I worked on the lab tutorial in which you practice using a tool that lets you build and test circuits. It's a point-and-click interface in which you drag and drop things like voltage sources and...
View ArticleInto the First Unit
It's amazing how far I can get by understanding basic relationships in equations. Such as, I have no idea what a linear resistor, but when I'm asked to identify a graph of current over voltage, I know...
View ArticleCreating My Own ZPD?
How hard it is to not just look up answers! In the practice problems, there are links to the discussion forum where people put up the answers to people's questions. Today I was working on a problem...
View ArticleMITx Homework 1 and Lab 1 are finished. Whew.
his weekend I finished both the first homework and the first lab, and I received perfect scores on both. This was not without a lot of work, and several late nights while I scoured the textbook,...
View ArticleWeek 2 in MITx: Feedback in the System
So homework 2 has proved to be quite a bit more difficult. There is no easy question like there was in the first homework. Now I must apply the Thevenin Method to solve a circuit with input and output...
View ArticleWhere's the show-your-work-for-partial-credit button in MITx?
I stayed up late on Sunday trying to complete the second lab, which--how do I explain i?--involved building a circuit with a set of resistors that produced a certain maximum and minimum output voltage....
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Completing Labs in MITx: Thank Heaven for Trial and Error
Well, I solved Lab 3 with help from my wife and a hint from the discussion forum, and some late night persistence. In this problem we needed to build a series of digital gates that are connected to...
View ArticleTaking Time to Reflect on Learning in MITx
Last week, I decided to return to practice problems in week 1 and complete some of the problems that I did not have time to finish. (Each week I do as many practice problems as I can until working on...
View ArticleE-text Unconference (Day 1)
I graduated from the University of Illinois, where this unconference is being held, about 17 years ago. I jogged through campus this morning and saw that most of the businesses that were here are...
View ArticleYou clicked on a link, so you read this, right? (Or, some thoughts on...
Most recently, I sat through a series of webinars about learning analytics that was sponsored by EDUCAUSE as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and IBM, too. At my institution, there is...
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