May 9, 2008

Collaborative Knowledge Development

Rational/Pedagogy/Androgogy

I’m sharing this assignment guideline because I believe it accomplishes several desirable tasks.

One, it forces the students to study in a meaningful way. It is very important to practice tasks that move information into semantic memory. I also believe it helps them develop life-long learner skills. If applied correctly, it will even have them study in areas were the lecturer and the textbook author fail to teach them (see my suggested guidelines below). I believe that these types of assignments have the ability to be empowering for the learner.

Two, they develop collaboration skills and technology skills that are current at this time in our society. They learn to use online, shared document services. They learn to communicate in synchronous and asynchronous ways with a variety of students (I suggest you not let them self-select groups). This can be very frustrating for them… just like their jobs will be once they graduate (committee work anyone?).

Suggested guidelines for use in class:

Create collaboration groups for each test. Share a Google doc with each group and make it public. Share the public URL with the class (I like to post it on my class blog, but you could send an email). I give three exams during the semester, so I have three collaboration groups.

Provide the groups with guidelines that will give their media creations some direction. I am currently doing the following in my Cognition class.

  • As a group, pick the 5 most confusing topics from the material for your designated exam.
  • Share media in the Google document that will aid all of our understanding about the material.
    • Pick websites that have simple explanations (and detailed explanations).
    • Try to find material that is both verbal and visual and…
    • If applicable, find a simulation or material that will allow us to have a phenomenological experience with the construct/theory/idea/task/etc…
  • Organize the material so that it is easy to read and easy to use as a study aid. Usability is important! Remember that this is a public document and a variety of individuals may come to the site looking for knowledge.
  • When you remix information from another site (words, images, simulations, etc.) you have an ethical responsibility to cite and credit the creator of the content. It will be much better for you to paraphrase how the material on a website can aid our understanding and then provide a link, than to copy the material.
  • Plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the entire group, so monitor the groups work and help each other with APA style citations.
  • Pre-Test Review! The last class period before the exam I want each group to share what you have done with us as a serious and engaged study session. You might want to create a presentation document to aid in this endeavor. I will be happy to help you copy handouts to aid any simulations (for example, you might want to recreate a classic experiment in class). Each document and presentation should improve over the semester as we learn from the previous groups mistakes.

How Tos and other stuff to make you a Google Doc expert.

* Filed by prof_chuck at 7:35 am under Cognition, Technology, academic  Tagged , ,
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April 30, 2008

Final Grades

I left notes about grades on each classes blog… read there and see how many folks did better than you before you start complaining to me.

I’m always a little embarrassed when someone comes in saying they deserve a better grade when in reality they are the 33rd best student out of a class of 35. What should I do for the 32 students that performed better than you?

—————-
Now playing on iTunes: Billy Bragg & Wilco - My Flying Saucer
via FoxyTunes

* Filed by prof_chuck at 5:28 am under Uncategorized  Tagged , , ,
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April 21, 2008

Intro Psych Wrap-up!

Intro Scholars,

Remember that to calculate your exam score take 75% of your individual test score and add to that 25% of your collaborative exam score.

I’ll be handing back your exams today. The descriptives for our third exam score are a mean of 66.6 and a standard deviation of 8.9. That means a C was anything between a 62 and a 71. B’s are anyting between 72 and 78, A’s anything above 81. D’s range from 56 to 61.

Remember to correct your exams as prep for the final. It is important that you do this on your own if you are interested in learning the material.

* Filed by prof_chuck at 10:42 am under Intro Psych, academic, test
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April 16, 2008

Collaborative INtro Psych Exam Today

We’ll start at 3:35 sharp… bring a number 2 lead and your brain :-)

* Filed by prof_chuck at 4:36 am under Uncategorized
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April 14, 2008

Intro Exam!

Our individual exam over learning, memory, and cognition is today. Collaborative exam on Wednesday.

The exam follows the honor code. It is closed book, closed note, closed neighbor. A proctor will be there for me and I am telling her to confiscate the exams of anyone with wandering eyes…. so look straight ahead and if you believe there are cheaters around you… cover your scantron.

Remember to study as you take the exam. Think about the questions and prepare for Wednesday. Almost everyone is in great shape to pass the class and many of you are in a position to get really high marks. I’m so so proud :-)

* Filed by prof_chuck at 10:05 am under Intro Psych, academic, quizzes, test
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April 9, 2008

Chili Cookoff for Cancer — Relay 4 life

I totally need to leave town tomorrow for a conference and I’m making chili for the annual cookoff.

Can anyone help cure cancer by serving my chili up. Of course, there’s always a pirate theme and you’ll get to talk smack about the chili Dr. Lloyd an Dr. Smith serve up.

I’ll have everything ready for you… just look pretty and lick your fingers and go “yummy” put your vote in the skull.

* Filed by prof_chuck at 2:56 am under Uncategorized
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April 7, 2008

Intro psych lectures… this is how we finish

Scholars,

We will wrap up Memory today and get started on Cognition. We will finish up with cognition.

Let’s all get on the same page with our text and our cognition material. I am only going to be lecturing on and testing on the cognition material. YOU ARE NOT responsible for the language material in the second half of the chapter.

That being said the language material is very important and I would encourage you to read about it. If you take a human development class in the department a great deal of time will be devoted to language (especially language development).

See you guys later, prof_chuck

* Filed by prof_chuck at 10:40 am under Intro Psych, academic, test
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April 1, 2008

Yes it is true…

I picked all 4 final four teams!

You can even check my bracket on facebook if you don’t believe me.

* Filed by prof_chuck at 7:15 am under Uncategorized
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March 23, 2008

This week, Mental Imagery (chapter 4)

Hello Cognition Scholars,

I hope everyone had a good break. We are getting back on track this week with Chapter 4. I have your exams graded to give back tomorrow. I believe most of you performed well.

We have a faculty staff softball game on T & Tr this week so I will be running out right at 5, so let’s get in and get started on time.

I have slightly revised the semesters schedule… you can check it here.

* Filed by prof_chuck at 3:03 pm under Cognition
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Intro psych continues “learning” this week

Hello Intro Scholars,

I hope everyone had a great break (mine sucked, I had bronchitis).

We had a great class the last time we met as we began talking about learning… we will pick up from there tomorrow. I have made some slight adjustments to our scheduled outline that I believe will benefit almost all of you. You can check it here… it has always been linked from our homepage.

* Filed by prof_chuck at 3:03 pm under Intro Psych, academic
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