Blog posts

<p>Professor Diane Reddy has replaced the traditional lecture format with an online version of Psych 101. Students learn at their own pace but also have to obtain mastery, demonstrated by passing a quiz on each unit, before they can move on to the next.</p> <p>Along the way, students get help from teaching assistants who monitor their online activity, identifying weak spots and providing advice - even if the students don't seek it.</p> <p>Initial evidence says it works: In a study of 5,000 students over two years, U-Pace students performed 12% better on the same cumulative test than students who took traditional Psych 101 with the same textbook and course content, even though U-Pace students had lower average grades than those in the conventional course.</p> <p>The online model, the study found, was particularly successful for disadvantaged or underprepared students - low-income students, racial and ethnic minorities, and those with low grades or ACT scores. And students in general do better in the class, too, earning a higher percentage of As and Bs than students earn in traditional Psych 101.</p>

One of those is threaded comments. This is rapidly bringing my blogs to the level I had always hoped to acheive–one where the students are talking to each other and not just talking to me.

"Media is the language of kids," Torres adds, saying that students who may not take to learning by reading a textbook or listening to a lecture often jump at the chance to understand complex concepts by presenting finished products in the form of a film or a Web documentary or a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

Teachers are learners. If they’re not, they shouldn’t be teachers.

<p>When writing, let’s say, to the teacher, you are communicated to be evaluated.&nbsp; Assessment is the outcome, based on some set of expectations involving skills and/or knowledge. </p> <p>However, when writing to an authentic audience, what you are trying to earn is not an evaluation (though there may be one coming in the process).&nbsp; What you are writing for is a <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">response</span>, and that response will be directed toward what you have invested in the work, not just the facts you have included or the skills you have demonstrated.</p>