Hi from Jennifer Dixey
Hi all,
I have been at Western for just over two years. I began just after earning my Masters in Library and Information Studies from the University of British Columbia. Prior to my work supporting Blackboard on campus, I was the web developer for the Integrated Laboratory Network, an NSF-funded project that allows undergraduate students in remote locations to access scientific instrumentation here at Western. I am a veteran web and new media developer with experience in information technology, networking, interactive video, and open source software. I welcome questions about anything technology-related and am a big fan of both iOS devices and good, old-fashioned paper books.
Gabe Gossett
I'm the librarian for Extended Education and Human Services here at Western and still fairly new to the University (I started in fall 2009). A lot of my work with students involves one form of technology or another, so I like to keep up to date with what is going on. I teach online and in-person and like to integrate collaborative technologies into those classes. We primarily use Googledocs, Zotero, and Mendeley. I'm also a heavy user of Elluminate for office hours, database assistance, presentations, and workshops.
I also have a scholarly interest in the history of information networks and the impact technology.
Hello from Geology
Hi gang,
I'm an associate prof. in Geology. I use technology extensively in both my Introductory courses and my majors courses. I use clickers in my non-majors courses extensively, even giving quizzes for credit on the clickers at times. I have created my own Moodle server as a result of my Blackboard dissatisfaction. I also podcast my 101 lectures, and I do other tech-related teaching gymnastics, like having students create websites in lieu of papers for some course projects. I'd be glad to share techniques with the group.
-Dave Hirsch
P.S. I'm also a big fan of Zotero!
P.P.S. I'm also the Geology Dept. webmaster.
Hello
Hello everyone,
I'm an associate professor in history. I teach courses on the American Revolution, the early American republic, and American intellectual history. For most of my upper-division courses, my approach is Socratic, which means that I have banished all technology-- even PowerPoint and lectures.
In my introductory GUR course-- HIST 103: US History to 1865-- however, the challenge is greater. With 75 students, I want to find new ways to engage them and make them work through the moral and conceptual problems of American history. I am hoping that this group might give me ideas of how technology might help me find ways to use my time in class more productively.
I remain committed to writing as the primary mode of student learning, and thus also want to find ways that technology might offer creative ways to engage students in writing more-- especially reflective writing that could supplement and/or lead up to more formal paper assignments.
Thanks!
Sincerely, Johann
Calibrated Peer Review
Hi Johann-
You might look into Calibrated Peer Review. I used it for a few years in a 100-seat 101 course, to which it wasn't well suited, but it might work well for you. In this setup, students do peer review on each others' work, and the "calibrated" part is that they also review a set of sample writing that you have already reviewed. Those who are better reviewers (as revealed by close matching between their reviews of the samples and your reviews of the samples) have their reviews of peers' work weighted more heavily.
The CPR system is run out of UCLA: cpr.molsci.ucla.edu
-Dave
RE: Calibrated Peer Review
What an interesting tool! Dave, could you please elaborate on why CPR wasn't well suited for your course? I'd like to know in what setting it might work best.
It looks as if a certain "Dr. John Farquhar" is listed on their site as a user; perhaps he can offer some insight as well?
Thanks,
Justina
CPR New Topic
I started a new discussion topic about Callibrated Peer Review here:
http://wwulearningtech.drupalgardens.com/node/96
jf
CPR perspectives
Yes, John helped me out with the system back in the day. I can't quite recall, but I think that there is an institutional administrator for CPR, one per institution.
The primary obstacle I encountered was that the system involves a good deal of reading (evaluating 6 essays, plus your own) and writing (writing both your own essay and writing comments on others'). In a 101 course, that was a lot to swallow. Basically, I had tons of negative student feedback, and as a junior, untenured prof., I had to bow to the pressure. CPR would be very good in a higher-level course, I think. I might try it out again in a 400-level course.
Another hurdle was that the assignment I created asked everyone to write from the same sources and on the same topic. This made the reading extremely boring after the first couple of readings. Offering a variety of topics would have improved the experience.
-Dave
P.S. Sorry I couldn't make it today. I didn't get my lab exam prepped in time to attend and still have it ready at 2 pm.
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