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Awesome Excel Chart Quick Tips for Web Display
Last week, my colleagues and I created 3 Excel spreadsheets in an effort to highlight some of VCU participants’ responses to the EDUCAUSE ECAR Undergraduate Student and Faculty Technology Research Studies Surveys. This division of labor resulted in an unfortunate consequence. Different machines, different data, and different perspectives resulted in different data presentation styles. To standardize the look of the charts, I offered to be the general editor. One set of eyes working on one machine is likely the best way to make the look and language of the charts…
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Wonder, Irresistible Learning and Heroic Imagination
The name game is an intriguing one. Word pantomime or labels? A number of people I know, and in the fields I work closely in, dislike labels. Many believe labels have the potential to subtract value from who they truly are. (Have you heard of the “Label Jars Not People” organization established by Siobhan Brady to reduce mental health stigma?) Yet, human beings like to find pattern in chaos and ways to make sense of the world. So being aware of layers of perception about organizers as starting points (versus…
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Magically Imperfect Groupwork
Team Limitless Project Prototype. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeRIMO3Gwkg Group work in Tina Seelig’s MOOC was a rewarding high-impact learning experience for me. In this post, I describe why it was so. We faced quite a few odds. Communication was a significant problem along a few dimensions. Night is day to my team mates. I want to sleep and they want to discuss potential project solutions. We used Whatsapp for synchronous and asynchronous communications after our MOOC message boards failed dismally. [I noticed that Whatsapp is popular with my international friends, but not so…
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Group Work
It is no secret that students hate group work (Check References). Mazella (2007) summarizes it cogently in his blogpost some seven years ago. Students often encounter unmet expectations and vexations: Equitable contribution Submaximal goal setting Lessened contingency between input and outcome Lack of evaluation Unequal distribution of compensation Non-cohesive group Though widely investigated, the misery of group work continues to plague courses, UNLESS group work is carefully taught, designed, supported and supervised (Check Maryellen Weimer’s Teaching Professor blogpost, July 21, 2008). Just telling students to collaborate doesn’t mean they know…
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What does Vulnerability in Learning Look Like?
The word vulnerability in learning surfaced in a recent discussion about teaching in the open world wide web. It’s the topic of my visual journal entry for the day. My reflections on this topic come in the form of questions as these ideas swirled in my head: 1. I’m glad that someone has stood up for vulnerability and recognize that it is a valid emotion that should not be frequently stigmatized as being shameful to own. Megan Boler’s book (1999), Feeling Power, focuses on the politics of emotions. In it,…
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TyRuben Ellingson: Digital Pragmata Brown Bag
TyRuben Ellingson delivered an outstanding talk today at the Academic Learning Commons 4100. I took some sketchnotes for reflection. Two major throughlines for this presentation, as I see it, are: How do you become really good at doing something? What fosters creativity? I read and think about deep learning and effective learning — constantly. TyRuben’s talk adds to that mashup of ideas from print and nonprint resources. I see a pattern in learning that is necessary for one to become an exquisite and consummate artist (or an expert in any…
