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Valentines in the classroom: inclusive or intrusive?

Prior to Valentines Day, one of our kid’s teachers sent home this: “I have spoken to the students and have stated that if you bring a Valentine for one student you must bring one for everyone. This ensures that this day of celebrating friendship and caring makes everyone feel included. I will send students home…

It ain’t the length, it’s the lecture

Some research out of the University of Rochester recently suggests that optimal video length to ensure engagement is about 6 minutes. This is not a cognitive study, simply an observation of how long students can sit through a video on EdX without turning off or dropping out. Tell that news to any good classroom teacher…

Towards a litmus test for when to issue an open badge

Please note: This is an abridged version of a previous blog, focussing here purely on the issue of finding a litmus test for open badges. In discussions around the development of an approach to Open Badges the same worries and examples of poor practice that trivialize the value of a badge come up again and…

Using Open Badges to Add Meaning to Descriptor-Based Assessments

One thing that excites me about the Open Badges movement is how is can help to remedy, rather than merely challenge, the paucity of descriptor-based assessment that has been the norm these last twenty years. To ensure this, we need to insist that badges, especially in this early phase, escape becoming merely descriptor-based in themselves….

Weary of online learning ‘environments’? Who’s for dim sum?

I’m growing weary of traversing online-learning environments. I’ve built them. I’ve used them. I’ve explored them. I’ve got lost in them. I’ve spent a lot of time wandering these environments, frequently spending way too much time finding my way to, through and back to the content and tasks when all the time I just want…

Avoid the confusion of generational cusps!

A little generational analysis goes a long way in managing teams of disparate ages. But the edges get kinda blurry. No two sources can quite seem to agree when the precise cut off dates are, which is only right given all the factors that can make one either at the heart or the toenails of…

How reliable are multiple intelligence ‘quick’ tests?

Note: This text is from a larger dissertation. Labeling of figures retains original system. One of the legacies of prevalent learning styles theories on Multiple Intelligences Theory is the assumption that a student’s MI profile can be uncovered by the use of a quick test or checklist. The central challenge of applying MI theory to…

Open badges – giving is as good as receiving.

One of the less mentioned but absolutely integral aspects of the Open Badges concept is not simply that it rewards learners, or rather ‘earners’ for their ‘non-formal’ learning endeavors, but that it rewards the ‘issuer’ that is the organization or business that creates the course of learning leading to the award of the badge. This…

Discourse analysis in the classroom?

Discourse analysis in the classroom? I think that, at best, discourse analysis in class will be fragmentary and inconsistent because this field cannot be/ is not adequately covered in realistic teacher education, and at present it is under-represented in teachable materials or accessible methodology. As a practical example I would like to examine some materials…

10 simple suggestions for online instructional design

Simply, I feel that online learning should be: community anchored peer assessed and peer negotiated expert assessed and expertise driven human as well as automated lateral as well as linear now as well as then brought to you, not you to it both map and terrain graceful, simple and beautifully connected beyond LMS There is…