Archives: Bookmarks

Ability-Based Curriculum Alverno College

Saved on March 25, 2011

Alverno doesn’t use standardized tests and traditional exams. Each student is unique, each learns in unique ways. But life is competitive, and so are we. Rather than measure performance as a snapshot in time, against a curve that strips away individual achievement, we focus on measurement that’s about you, and only you. The lessons you learn are applicable in real life, they become part of who you are. Alverno students learn more in class and retain the lessons longer. Our eight cornerstone concepts represent the very building blocks needed to create an effective and relevant learning experience.

…the Alverno College faculty have been developing and implementing ability-based undergraduate education, redefining education in terms of abilities needed for effectiveness in the worlds of work, family, and civic community. The distinctive feature of an ability-based approach is that we make explicit the expectation that students should be able to do something with what they know.

Civil War Alternate Reality Game in May! | The History Teacher’s Attic

Saved on March 23, 2011

There will be an educational Civil War “alternate reality” game beginning May 15th, 2011, hosted by the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA.

The game, titled “The Jewel of the Valleys,” is being run in support of the fundraiser “In Their Footsteps: On the March in Pennsylvania,” which benefits the education department of the Museum.

The brave museum curator, Brett Kelley, will choose to live the life of a Civil War soldier for two weeks. Last year, Brett chose to live outdoors as a Union soldier (and it coincided with two of the nastiest northeastern blizzards) last February. This year, Brett will be traveling as a Confederate soldier by foot from Fredericksburg, VA to Harrisburg.

The game will kick off with a “QR code” and web address being sent to educators and students around the country. The website will detail a dark and mysterious puzzle to be solved through the use of Civil War era communication technologies and authentic Civil War documents in the Museum’s archives.

Don’t Call Me, I Won’t Call You – NYTimes.com

Saved on March 23, 2011

Phone calls are rude. Intrusive. Awkward. “Thank you for noticing something that millions of people have failed to notice since the invention of the telephone until just now,” Judith Martin, a k a Miss Manners, said by way of opening our phone conversation. “I’ve been hammering away at this for decades. The telephone has a very rude propensity to interrupt people.”

Incentives Offered to Raise College Graduation Rates – NYTimes.com

Saved on March 23, 2011

In addition, as part of its 2012 budget, the administration has proposed the $123 million “First in the World” initiative for programs that hold down tuition, increase completion rates and move students through college faster. Last, the $50 million College Completion Incentive Grants would reward states and schools for reforms that produce more college graduates.

LMS Market Share Trends 2011-2014, Part I | e-Literate

Saved on March 23, 2011

 If you read what the majority of sell-side financial analysts1 are writing, you may see the claim that “open source” is not putting a major dent in Blackboard. If you talk to Moodle or Sakai advocates, you might hear that they are crushing the company in sales. Neither account is really capturing what’s happening in the market, so I’m going to try to explain what we know about what’s really going on in a two-part series. In this post, I’ll talk about what the data are telling us so far about the recent shifts in the market, describe how colleges and universities come to decide that they need to go to market for an LMS, and assess the degree to which we may see an uptick in the number of schools that decide to look around and evaluate our options.