A Collaborative Editing Exercise Using Google Docs

Part One looked at how Goggle Docs compare to traditional word processors as utilities for creation and submission of student assignments. Part Two (this one) talks about the collaborative editing exercise I did with my class (2A), as well as the in-class “tutorial” that turned out to be a lot of fun (2B). Part Three goes into using Google Docs as a tool for writing co-authored papers.

I am teaching the “English” part of a communications course for first year engineers. I decided that one of the objectives in this course would be to help students become familiar with some of the 21st-century skills they will need to complete their degrees and after they graduate (see: Learning for the 21st Century, Life and Career Skills, Information, Media and Technology Skills).

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5 Lessons Professors Can Learn From Video Games -

Technology – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Nice article.

via 5 Lessons Professors Can Learn From Video Games – Technology – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The author suggests we might be in the “third level” of video games inside the ivory tower, one where people are

recognizing that games are often not the best tools in an educational setting, but when they are, they should carefully balance substance and sport.

At that level, it’s possible to deconstruct video games, looking for takeaways that professors can try in their own teaching, whether or not they ever pick up a joystick or click “play.”

I have some comment son each of those parts:

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OK, this is just too much fun.

Thanks Mark for once again posting something that makes me think (and that gives me an opportunity to tough on a favorite topic: the importance of teaching quality in higher ed).

Boredom vs. Failure Part 2: The New Demographic

From Mark’s post: “What’s striking about these four results is the huge difference for students with low knowledge.  Doing it right matters a lot for these students.  What’s also striking is how it doesn’t make much difference for the high knowledge students.  In fact, in the first experiment, the low-knowledge students even did better than the high knowledge students when given integrated text plus illustrations.”

I’ve always assumed that the good students don’t really need us – they will do fine no matter what. They possess good & varied adaption & learning skills so it doesn’t matter if the instructor is boring, selfish, stuck in the 19th century, or just plain stupid. The good students will learn what they need to. That’s why it’s not much of an accomplishment when a school only lets in the best and they all succeed (well, duh). Student success in those schools says very little about the teaching quality of the faculty.

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Now, I’m a big fan of Serious Games, but I’m also quite sure that this is one of those cases where more is not necessarily better. What is important is balance. I suppose it may be difficult to make sure students have exposure to natural things too, given that they are in Manhattan (http://q2l.org/), but I am quite convinced that ultimately, a lack of connection with nature and living things will have far more negative consequences than spending too much time online.

I’m talking negative on an epic scale.

Here is the article:

New York Launches Public School Curriculum Based on Playing Games

SHEESH!

I get a lot of papers to review in Game Studies; Serious Games; Educational Games., etc.

I used to learn a lot from reading these papers.

Not anymore.

Not only is much of what I read “old news” (i.e. it’s been done or discussed and mostly published before), but FAR too many of the papers I read now don’t even cite the other works. What’s going on?

I am finding more and more submissions (journals, conferences, etc.) from authors who have not done a thorough lit review. Many papers I’ve read appear to come from authors who are relatively new to the field, did a quicky lit. search (1st 2 screens in google scholar, or for many of the Education papers I see, it looks as though they simply went to 2 or 3 education websites (AERA, AACE, AECT) and searched a subset of the journals there. This leaves people with a fairly restricted view of what’s been done and what is known.

What’s the problem? Do people not know how to perform a lit. review anymore? Do they not care? Are they naive enough to believe they’re the first ones who thought of this?

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In Today’s MIT Tech Review: A Better, Cheaper Multitouch Interface

A new pressure-sensitive pad could improve large and small touch screens.

I’ve thought for some time that the SMART Technologies’ White Board which is marketed so vigorously to Alberta schools relies on physical technology that has become obsolete. Note the Wii mote stuff developed by Johnny Chung Lee. That technology’s been known for a few years now.

As if that’s not enough, Ken Perlin and his crew have come up with this. SMART Tech isn’t even mentioned in the article.

C’mon SMART, any chance you can try and live up to your name?

Intellagirl posted a note about this article today and I was curious, so I read it too…
She suggested that the article had entirely missed the point, and she is absolutely right!

The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 16, 2009

Students Stop Surfing After Being Shown How In-Class Laptop Use Lowers Test Scores

The article seems to be reporting on a victory in the reduction of laptop use in the classroom. Yup, you heard right, they are actually HAPPY that their students are no longer using modern technology in the classroom. The belief seems to be that using the laptop causes the students to do less well on tests.

Now, to be fair, they do admit that those students who had lower scores were in fact using their computers to check out their FB pages, ’surf’ (apparently we *still* have a problem with surfers), watch YouTube, etc.

Churchill’s Commentary on Man:
Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.

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Warning: what follows is another rant.

So here I am working at a new job.

I really like the institution (for the most part).

I really like the faculty (for the most part).

I really like the job (for the most part).

BUT (there’s always one of those when a post starts off like this)….

I have been at it for 2 months now and I am becoming more and more (and MORE) frustrated. Wanna know why? If you do, keep reading. Read the rest of this entry »

Once again, there is an article where some professor (or group of professors) laments that people won’t come to his(her) class if they have prior access to their notes.

Students profit from diligent note-taking Knetwit.com offers cash, gifts for students who submit lecture notes online, but some faculty members fume

If your concern that students won’t come if they already have notes is legitimate, IT MEANS YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG. Students SHOULD have access to your notes, slides, and any other resources you use. They should be coming to class because you ADD something. If you can’t add anything, then maybe you don’t deserve to be in the classroom.

Do you read your notes? Do you read your slides? I hereby invite you into the 21st century.

Do you really believe that the path to knowledge should go only through you? How arrogant is that?

Coming to class is typically (even with a merely average teacher)  the most efficient way to get the information one needs for that course. Trying to make up the difference by NOT coming to class and then “studying” on one’s own takes at least three times as long. Class = 1 hr VS self-study = >= 3hr. If, on the other hand, as an instructor, all you do is read your notes, shame on you.

The scary part is that HALF of everything is below average – including teachers and professors.

Maybe there should be student tuition options….. – Pay 25% more tuition to get the Premium Education – get taught only by our GOOD instructors! (not those economy instructors)

Net Gen kids cheat, they say….

OK, this annoys me.  Apparently, we learn very little through the millennia.

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” ( Attributed to SOCRATES by Plato ~400BC)

Some years ago I was at a conference where Dmitri Williams was talking about the social history of videogames. He made reference to this song as a way of illustrating how the societal reaction to videogames isn’t really new. Since then I’ve thought about re-working (OK maybe perverting a little) the lyrics to match the current denunciation of our newest medium (with apologies and all due respect for the original composer Meredith Willson (1902-1984). For a dictionary of the original terminology, see: http://www.sewickley.org/~kcerny/LowerSchool/divisionmusical/TheMusicManDictionary.htm

Ya Got Trouble (original lyrics found here)

Read on to see my updated lyrics….

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KEEP THEM CURRENT!!!!

Sheesh.

How can someone claim to be “with it” technologically when their webpages were last updated a YEAR ago? These are modern times. And your webpage is your public face. Do it right.

First, if you are in a technological discipline (computer science, ed tech, etc.) and you do NOT have a web page, that gives a bad impression. Shame on you. I know several people who do not maintain webpages, at least partly because they DON’T KNOW HOW. Someone looking for information on you can’t tell why you have no web presence, only that you don’t have one.

Second, understand that you will be judged by what you do and do not put on your webpages. You need not bare your soul, but also make sure you don’t look so clinical that you appear boring (unless of course, you really ARE boring in which case it is an honest reflection).

OK. So I did a little experiment (just now)…..

I took a look at a CS department of an online university. I won’t identify which one; the important thing here is that these values are representative – understand that the results are far from unique.

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I was asked this question yesterday. I may be paraphrasing, but this was the essence of it.

It was a good question.

I was among a group of peers, but I was also in a position where I didn’t want to offend anyone – at least partly because these were people I had just met. I have been attacked in the past (both verbally and physically) by so-called colleagues for expressing my opinions about what a university should be and do, so I am, not surprisingly, a little head-shy.

I have fairly old-style and idealistic views about what an institution of higher learning should be and how it should serve the society in which it operates. These include honesty, integrity, and sharing knowledge. They also include asking hard and sometimes embarrassing questions so that we may examine them and become better (see also dangerous ideas). Universities are supposed to advance knowledge, and teaching universities are supposed to help prepare the next generation.

I did of course have a lot of ideas flood into my wee brain when the question was first asked, but ended up struggling for an answer as I tried to gauge how forthright I could be without sounding overly critical. I hate it when people who haven’t really been there and done that come in and try to tell me what I’m doing wrong. I did not want to come across as one of those.

Also, people who ask such questions often claim to want suggestions for improvement, but secretly want to be told about what a wonderful job they are doing. I didn’t know if the people I was talking to wanted my opinions or flattery. One of my strengths — or weaknesses, depending on how you look at it, is that I refuse to say something I don’t believe to be true. I equate this with honesty (don’t ever let anyone tell you life is easier if you are committed to being honest – it is in fact WAY harder, but I happen to believe it is how we should live.) I’ve had to give up more than one job because I won’t lie. I’ve also gotten into a lot of trouble for refusing to lie, but I have finally begun to learn a little about tact in my old age and I am better at keeping my mouth shut than I used to be.

Obviously, given the existence of this post, I still have trouble with it. The list below is an attempt to post my ideas in a neutral way – I really don’t want to poke at any particular institution, but I DO think online institutions have tremendous potential, if they are willing to meet the challenges. On the other hand, if they do not embrace new technologies with enthusiasm and a sincere willingness to experiment and discover whether and how a new technology can be used to advantage in distance education, they will get left behind in the same way that parochial-minded conventional institutions are being left behind.

I have, of course, been considering this question all day (since it was posed to me). So, here are some answers (in no particular order)….

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What is a Game?

Games are classified in many different ways and even after going round and round repeatedly, we still can’t seem to agree on what a game actually is.

Here are a few examples:

Some examples of casual (or mini) games: (posted by Clark Aldrich on seriousgames May 20, 2007

> Tips on Tap: http://www.webcourseworks.com/tipsontap/
> Binary numbers: http://forums.cisco.com/CertCom/game/binary_game.swf
> Other Cisco games: http://www.medcalf.com/games/cisco_games/

“Tips on Tap” isn’t so much a game as a contest – here the object is to see how quickly you can click the right things in the right order. The addition of scores and time constraints seems to make this into a game. I tried it – un-doing an action is difficult and frustrating.

The “Binary Game” isn’t really a game at all, in my opinion. It is an exercise – in fact, it is a worksheet. True, there is a score, and the challenge is to see how fast you can solve the problems. It appears that the introduction of scores and time keeping allows this electronic worksheet to be viewed as a game.

The “Cisco Games”, while posing more complex (and possibly interesting) problems suffer from functional complexity as well. I did not find the gameplay intuitive. Of the three groups, I’d consider these the most game-like, although I am currently at a loss to explain exactly why. If we remove the time pressure what do we have left? In many cases, what we have left is a puzzle. If we remove the score-keeping, it appears to stop being a game.