Targeted Skill Development: Building Blocks to Better Learning: I’ve never quite thought of my course syllabus in these terms. It argues against the “firehose” that could describe most of the classes I took. Certainly in engineering, the point of many university classes seems to be to add as many new equations and concepts as there… Continue Reading muraPOI: November 14, 2012
iPhone 5 Hex Grid Wallpapers: Matt Gemmell designed some gorgeous iPhone 5 wallpapers. Here’s the one I’m currently using: [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] (via Brooks Review, October 2012)[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
Some articles on failure. I got interested in the topic of failure of projects, specifically educational technology projects a few years ago. And more importantly, I believe that learning the lessons from projects that didn’t work, is as important as learning the lessons from what did. Back in 2006, I participated in a workshop on… Continue Reading muraPOI: November 12, 2012
Things Great Engineers (almost) Never Say: Dave Fecak at dZone suggests a series of statements, the ones I like are: “I’ve used _____ but I have no idea how it works” and “______ works, I just don’t know how to explain it” “There is no solution” (via dZone, October 2012) 12 Guidelines for Deciding When… Continue Reading muraPOI: November 10, 2012
What’s Your Problem? Putting Purpose Back into Your Projects: Whitney Hess writes about defining a problem before trying to solve it. “What is a problem in the first place? A gap between the current state and the desired state, AND The problem owner wants to do something about it In order for it to be… Continue Reading muraPOI: November 9, 2012
A focus on education… [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fusion_youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sXpbONjV1Jc/] Stop Stealing Dreams: Seth Godin’s talk to TEDx-Youth@BFS asks, “What is school for?” On schools as products of the industrial age: School about teaching (respect and)… Continue Reading muraPOI: November 8, 2012
Teaching Metacognition to Improve Student Learning: Maryellen Weimer’s summary of Kimberly Tanner’s article on “Promoting Student Metacognition“. To get things started, we might ask students to address these two questions before class: How have I prepared for class today? What questions do I have? And then post exams, asking students to answer: Why did I… Continue Reading muraPOI: November 7, 2012
Interesting article: OWC Mercury Electra 3G MAX 960GB Review: 1TB of NAND in 2.5″ Form Factor TL;DR: Current consumer grade disk controllers are limited to how much memory they can access from solid-state drives. Until higher density NAND memory chips or different controllers are available, SSD’s (especially in laptop-friendly form factors) will mostly be limited… Continue Reading Tuesday Technology: On limitations of large SSD’s
Five Questions to Ask Before Flipping a Lesson: Ben Stern provides five questions. Why am I lecturing? What are students doing while watching the lecture? Would I watch this? Why do the kids need to understand this idea or skill? What will we do in class that will take advantage of being together and also… Continue Reading muraPOI: November 5, 2012
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fusion_youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV3SKcJD9rw] Unfortunately I missed this EdStartup 101 talk live because of some meetings last week. Fred Wilson is awesome, I’ve been following his AVC blog for a year and a half… Continue Reading My notes from Fred Wilson’s talk to EdStartup 101