Category Archives: Teaching & Learning

Students fail at writing.

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Katrin Becker

Students failing because of Twitter, texting – Canada – Canoe.ca “Thirty per cent of students who are admitted are not able to pass at a minimum level,” says Ann Barrett, managing director of the English language proficiency exam at Waterloo … Continue reading →

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Fun with Google Docs (Part 1)

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Katrin Becker

OK, this is just too much fun. It also has the potential to shift how we work together in some interesting and fundamental ways. This is the first of a multi-part post outlining my experiences with Google Docs in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Distance Education, Doing it Right on the Web, Education, Educational Technology, General, Google Docs, Higher Education, Teaching & Learning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Teaching Introductory Programming: We’re Doing It Wrong (still)

Posted on October 3, 2009 by Katrin Becker

I just read Mark Guzdial’s excellent post on some of what’s wrong with how we teach introductory programming courses. Question Everything: How We Teach Intro CS is Wrong The notion that we should be modeling expert behaviour when teaching programming is … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Computer Science, Higher Education, Programming, Teaching & Learning | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

All Videogames, All the Time?

Posted on September 21, 2009 by Katrin Becker

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 … Continue reading →

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On Schools of CS using only “useful” laguages…

Posted on August 16, 2009 by Katrin Becker

This is an older post I’ve been hanging on to, and since I have forgotten why I was hanging on to it, I no longer see any reason to keep it private. This stems from a post Mark Guzdial did … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Computer Science, Private, Software Industry, Teaching & Learning | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

In Class Laptop Use Shown to Lower Test Scores…

Posted on March 16, 2009 by Katrin Becker

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 … Continue reading →

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What’s the Difference Between a College and University?

Posted on November 28, 2008 by Katrin Becker

OR: Growing Pains: How to Evolve from a College into a University And, in particular, how to become a university of which everyone can be proud. I’ve been pondering this question as I am now at an institution (which I … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Becoming a University, Higher Education, Teaching & Learning | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

How to avoid the 70-hour work week.

Posted on November 3, 2008 by Katrin Becker

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 … Continue reading →

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