Math redesign - interesting comments from NCAT

Interesting report from Carol Twigg at NCAT.  Summary here, but the whole thing is worth a read.

NCAT: Learning MarketSpace, October 2011

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE PILOT IMPLEMENTATIONS OF CHANGING THE EQUATION

Changing the Equation is a major program to engage the nation’s community colleges in a successful redesign of their remedial/developmental math sequences. Institutions participating in the program will improve student learning outcomes while reducing costs for both students and institutions using NCAT's proven redesign methodology. Each participating institution has redesigned its entire developmental math sequence--all sections of all developmental courses offered--using NCAT's Emporium Model and commercially available instructional software. Each redesign has also modularized the curriculum, allowing students to progress through the developmental course sequence at a faster pace if possible or at a slower pace if necessary, spending the amount of time needed to master the course content.

Blackboard and OER? Cool.

In what is a very confusing time for the makers and users of learning management systems, this move from Blackboard makes some sense, in some ways, to some people.  To me, though, it represents only toe in the water for Blackboard.  I can certainly understand how difficult this whole arena must be for commercial vendors.  I think it's almost day to day - something new each morning.  Scary, but exciting.  Here's the Chronicle's version of the announcement from Blackboard about their "share" feature. 

Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Professors who use Blackboard’s software have long been forced to lock their course materials in an area effectively marked, “For Registered Students Only,” while using the system. Today the company announced plans to add a “Share” button that will let professors make those learning materials free and open online.

The move may be the biggest sign yet that the idea of “open educational materials” is going mainstream, nearly 10 years after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology first began giving away lecture notes online. Blackboard made the change after college officials complained that the company’s software, which more than half the colleges in the country use for their online-course materials, was holding them back from trying open-education projects.

Ed Tech Magazine - Blended Learning

Thanks to the folks at EdTech Magazine for hearing us out on the topics and issues related to blended learning.  The discussion was good and the article turned out okay. 

EDTECH: Focus On Higher Education - The Right Mix

Faculty and students incorrectly assume that online classes are easier, adds Mike Simmons, senior associate director of the Center for Learning Enhancement, Assessment and Redesign at the University of North Texas.

"They really aren't. They are harder to deliver, and the courses are harder for students," says Simmons, who adds that the Denton, Texas, university has offered blended courses since the 1990s. "They require greater self-discipline."

Instructor Broadcasting: courses about participants, not instructors

Nice and short from George Siemens (http://www.elearnspace.org/) in talking about Stanford U. (http://www.ai-class.com/) massive open AI course.  His point is not so much about the specific course, but about the overall direction of course design.  Or, to paraphrase another famous quote: "it's the learner, stupid"

"Quick advice to Know Labs: whatever your platform becomes, design it to optimize learner sharing of their sensemaking artifacts, not instrutor broadcasting. It's an obvious statement, but if you want to unleash the creativity of participants, tools need to be designed for them, not for instructors"

Spaced Repetition and Retrieval Practice (a.k.a. making students work to learn)

Nice to see some real innovation in learning discussed on the main thought pages of a major newspaper.  It's this kind of research, and this kind of information sharing, that can make a difference in the work of schools and teachers.  This seems like common sense, doesn't it? 

"When we first acquire memories, they are volatile, subject to change or
likely to disappear. Exposing ourselves to information repeatedly over
time fixes it more permanently in our minds, by strengthening the
representation of the information embedded in our neural networks."

and...

Every time we pull up a memory, we make it stronger and more lasting, so
that testing doesn’t just measure, it changes learning. Simply reading
over material, or even taking notes and making outlines, doesn’t have
this effect.

and...

When students can’t tell in advance what kind of knowledge or
problem-solving strategy will be required to answer a question, their
brains have to work harder to come up with the solution, and the result
is that students learn the material more thoroughly.

In recent years, neuroscientists, cognitive scientists and educational psychologists have made a series of remarkable discoveries about how the human brain learns. They have founded a new discipline, known as Mind, Brain and Education, devoted to understanding and improving the ways in which children absorb, retain and apply knowledge.

Mind, Brain and Education methods may seem unfamiliar and even counterintuitive, but they are simple to understand and easy to carry out. And after-school assignments are ripe for the kind of improvements the new science offers.

Thanks to Annie
Murphy Paul: Teasing the brain to make homework count | Dallas Morning
News Opinion and Editorial Columns - Opinion and Commentary for Dallas,
Texas - The Dallas Morning News for good work in bringing these small but important findings to the fore.