Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 43

• RIP, Douglas (2004-2020)

  By ljd42 on August 17, 2020

  He was a very good cat. He helped me build my model railroad, and he loved to sit on my lap. He was so affectionate that we often called him Huggie Dougie. He will be missed.

• Buffy and Star Trek — and the Jews

  By ljd42 on August 16, 2020

  

  Until recently I hadn’t thought about any connections between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek, nor about any connections between Star Trek and the Jews. So what happened recently to update that pluperfect verb “hadn’t realized”? Well, as I’ve mentioned before, one of my… Read More ›

• Looking back over a summer of teaching remotely with Zoom and Canvas

  By ljd42 on August 15, 2020

  

  So my course is over now, and I’m in the midst of final grading, which means I have a little perspective about how this new experience went. Twice this summer I’ve written about Zoom-based teaching and learning, first on July 3… Read More ›

• Sigh, Gone

  By ljd42 on August 13, 2020

  

  A coming-of-age memoir by a Vietnamese refugee. That’s a flat, factual description of this powerful book. It doesn’t capture much of what it is like. The full title — Sigh, Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the… Read More ›

• Should everyone in your class be able to earn an A?

  By ljd42 on August 12, 2020

  

  This question was inspired by a very interesting post in Computing Education Research Blog (anonymous, but probably by Mark Guzdial). There are (at least) three ways in which you might be interpreting it: Is it OK if everyone in the class… Read More ›

• Eve (my great-niece)

  By ljd42 on August 11, 2020

  

  Starting early on her STEM preparation:

• On not playing poker

  By ljd42 on August 10, 2020

  

  Can a psychology Ph.D. who has never played poker before become a championship poker pro? Apparently so! Maria Konnikova has been making the rounds, promoting her new book, The Biggest Bluff. I heard her on NPR and on Freakonomics, but you might… Read More ›

• What— hieroglyphics in AI??? (and in Google?)

  By ljd42 on August 9, 2020

  

  You’ve heard of Fabricius, right? Actually, probably not. I hadn’t either. Here’s Google’s description of it: Fabricius, a Google Arts & Culture Lab Experiment that uses machine learning to help translate ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. That sounds implausible, but it’s true…. Read More ›

• Stories are sticky. Statistics, not so much.

  By ljd42 on August 8, 2020

  

  Last month I was listening to a Freakonomics episode that really stuck with me. That’s what it was about. Stickiness. As teachers, we would like our lessons to be sticky. As citizens, we would like certain political messages to be… Read More ›

• The Existential Joss Whedon: Evil And Human Freedom in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly And Serenity

  By ljd42 on August 7, 2020

  

  Don’t go away! OK, a reasonable response to this book title might be “How geeky can you get‽” I mean, the pop-culture-plus-intellectual combo inherent in The Existential Joss Whedon: Evil And Human Freedom in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly… Read More ›

• Nobody sends messages by fax anymore… or do they?

  By ljd42 on August 6, 2020

  

  I was wrong. I admit it. For years I’ve been saying that it’s ridiculously archaic to be using fax technology. I said that in 2020… and in 2019… and in… well, I’ve been saying it since 2010 at least. It… Read More ›

• School-reopening plans

  By ljd42 on August 5, 2020

  

  Harvard staff writer Colleen Walsh asks whether we are “agonizing over school-reopening plans.” We certainly are! In fact, that’s all I seem to be reading about these days. Should schools open in-person, remote, or hybrid? Whether it’s Donald Trump’s screeds… Read More ›

• Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso

  By ljd42 on August 4, 2020

  

  Two or three weeks ago I wrote a piece about the complications of Hispanic surnames. Despite the complications, there is definitely something appealing about taking your surname from both parents, not just from the father. The problem, of course, comes… Read More ›

• Model trains are not cat toys!!!

  By ljd42 on August 3, 2020

  You can skip to 1:20 if you’re impatient:  

• High school students! You can learn linguistics online!

  By ljd42 on August 2, 2020

  

  Linguistics is the science of language. While most often classified as a social science, it’s really an interdisciplinary field that sits at the intersection of social sciences, humanities, and STEM – language is such a fundamental piece of our collective… Read More ›

• The myth of “learning styles”

  By ljd42 on August 1, 2020

  

  It says here that 90% of teachers believe two related claims: There are four different learning styles — visual, auditory, reading/writing, kinesthetic. Lessons need to address all four. For several reasons I have long been skeptical of statements like the… Read More ›

• He’er, his’er, him’er: Pronouns in the news, 1912 edition

  By ljd42 on July 30, 2020

  

  Pronouns again! There are (at least) two different issues swirling around pronouns: Singular they, which I wrote about in 2018 Calling someone by their preferred pronouns (in terms of gender), which I wrote about earlier this month Both of these issues… Read More ›

• I can’t give secure assessments in a remote teaching-and-learning setting!

  By ljd42 on July 28, 2020

  

  Don’t tell anyone: there’s a dirty little secret here! I have some bad news: people cheat. More specifically, students cheat on tests and other assessments. So, how do you give secure assessments in a remote teaching-and-learning setting? It’s all too… Read More ›

• Stuck in the past

  By ljd42 on July 27, 2020

  

  You say you didn’t learn cryptography in high school or college? And you didn’t learn it on your own, as some of us did? It isn’t too late! In that case you’ve probably never heard of the Vigenère Cipher, so… Read More ›

• A comfortable pillow?

  By ljd42 on July 26, 2020

  

  Vincent is ignoring William, who thinks that he’s resting his head on a comfortable pillow:  

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