Author Archives: Tarantulana

This week, our discussion centered around grading and assessment issues and the potential negative effects that grading and assessment can have on learning outcomes. The Observer Effect.  The original purpose of grading was to quantify the quality of student learning. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

In class this week, we talked briefly about the importance of being “authentic” in the classroom.  I can understand some of the reasoning behind this — it makes sense to me that we are better teachers when we are playing … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This week, I’d like to continue my exploration of PBL by taking a closer look at the question:  groups or teams?  In other words, how is a group different from a team, and how do each play a role in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I just stumbled across the blog Casting Out Nines (by Robert Talbert) in The Chronicle blog network — I like it!  In particular, I was reading through a post from back in December called “We need to produce learners, not just students,” … Continue reading → Continue reading →

In our last class, we discussed the nature of stereotype threat and the effects it can have on performance, as described in Claude Steele’s Whistling Vivaldi.  One of the examples he discussed, the underperformance of women on math tests due … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Although we like to think that discrimination based on prejudice is something we only do unintentionally, when we’re on autopilot, I think we should be cautious lest we think that conscious discrimination has been eliminated from mainstream culture. What do … Continue reading → Continue reading →

When reading the chapter “Yearners and Schoolers” from Papert‘s The Children’s Machine, I was fascinated by his discussion of how digital media has transformed how we define literacy.  After reading his description of “literacy” versus “letteracy,” or the ability “to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The recent blog post “Attack of the MOOC!” really got me thinking about the MOOC revolution and what it means.  The dendrology example Brandon gives is really exciting to me as a scientist/engineer — the idea of leveraging the power … Continue reading → Continue reading →