Best sites for free books

Make Use Of has posted its list of "10 Websites for Free Audio Books." These sites are not only great for those of us who spend a lot of time driving or walking, they're also terrific for families with children. Here's the link: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easy-listening-pleasures-10-websites-free-audio-book-downloads/

Up close and personal...

Check out the UK Telegraph's slide show of electron microscope scans (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/picture-galleries/7924099/Creepy-crawlies-Amazing-Scanning-Electron-Microscope-pictures-of-insects-and-spiders.html). Gave me a whole new view on those with whom we share space. :)

"The Pain Chronicles": The science of pain

This one is going on my 'to read' bookshelf. Most of my life has been molded by the ever-present pain of fibromyalgia. Years before doctors decided the syndrome needed a name, I was seeking help for it and being brushed off by doctor after doctor. That was an era when it took a lot of chutzpa to argue with a doctor, so I went through a lot of them! "The Pain Chronicles": The science of pain

Week 1 - COS E1

Wow! The first week went so much better than it did last term. There were a couple of big snafus -- Bb dumped almost all student users and Banner wasn't accepting add codes -- but even so it was pretty good. I'm chalking it up to better preparation on my part this term. Unlike previously when I had waited until classes started to set up email groups, etc., this time I did it a week early. So, when the technoworld crashed, I still had all the info needed to keep in touch with students.

The second best thing was the way the students came in this time. There are still questions, but it appears students read the files (for the most part) and because of their efforts, things went pretty smoothly -- even though I asked them to create personal blogs for their reflective writing.

I think this is going to be an excellent group to work with. :)

Assessment

Here's another article about the way we learn and how that needs to figure into our methods of assessment. http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/08/testing-kids-testing-teachers I wonder if we will ever come up with a truly useful way of assessing student -- and teacher -- progress.

One thing seems self-evident, though. Our children are NOT learning what they need to learn in order to do well in a competitive world. Even worse, they are not learning what they need to learn to become thoughtful citizens. These two problems bode poorly for the future of our nation.

This is demonstrated in the slipping of the US in world education rankings. We now rank 33rd in reading, 27th in maths, and 22nd in science. http://www.geographic.org/country_ranks/educational_score_performance_country_ranks_2009_oecd.html

E1 Update

Well, after a really shaky start -- what with add codes not working and Blackboard having a major malfunction -- we seem to finally be on track. It's good to see so many getting 1a done. It's the orientation quiz and critical to staying in the class. Every class has a "first session", and the orientation quiz is mine, so to speak.

I'm a little surprised, though, that the scores are relatively low so far. After all, the assignment listed exactly which files were used to create the test, and students were told they could have any of those files available to look up answers. I would have expected everyone to earn very near 100%. Lesson learned.

Testing a hypothesis

A hypothesis doesn't have to be huge. Here's a light-hearted theory that may have interesting implications for political mavens. It's from Mother Jones, one of my favorite online reads. http://motherjones.com/riff/2010/07/elections-garden-good-and-evil

Pay close attention to the description of development of the hypothesis and the test that was created to test it. Finally, there's a cogent description of the findings and their potential use.