Hapgood

Mike Caulfield's latest web incarnation. Networked Learning, Open Education, and Online Digital Literacy

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  • Skills-banking

    Skills-banking Chomsky via Leigh Blackall: “On the contrary, our so-called democratic schools are based on an instrumental skills-banking approach that often prevents the development of the kind of thinking that enables one to ‘read the world’ critically and to understand the reasons and linkages behind facts.”  I’m not sure I would trust Chomsky’s view on… Continue reading

  • San Diego State To Roll Out New Wave of Classroom Clickers

    San Diego State To Roll Out New Wave of Classroom Clickers A reminder that with Classroom Response Systems reliability is more important than extra functions. Continue reading

  • Just Breathe

    Just Breathe Ze Frank is still one of the coolest people on the planet. That is all. Continue reading

  • The Wrath Against Khan: Why Some Educators Are Questioning Khan Academy

    The Wrath Against Khan: Why Some Educators Are Questioning Khan Academy Nice commentary on the Khan backlash, both from Downes and Audrey. The problem is that Khan solves the simple part of the problem (wonderfully well); but it seems like some people are making much broader claims of impact. Why do people think that a… Continue reading

  • CINAC: Correlation is not a Cause

    CINAC: Correlation is not a Cause Sue Blackmore on the one thing everyone should have in their cognitive toolkit that they don’t currently…..CINAC (Correlation is not a Cause). One reason for this lack is that CINAC can be surprisingly difficult to grasp. I learned just how difficult when teaching experimental design to nurses, physiotherapists and… Continue reading

  • Penile Length Leads to Little Economic Growth

    Penile Length Leads to Little Economic Growth Probably not going to use this one in my Stat Lit class, but it is a shame. It’s obviously a good example why identifying probable mechanism is important. Less obviously it’s a great example of cherry picking — if you click through to the paper it is the… Continue reading

  • When Gamification Goes Wrong

    When Gamification Goes Wrong I like Gamification in theory, b/c it deals with feedback, incentives, and customization — all really important things in education. But this recent Google idea reminds us that 90% (or more!) of all gamification ideas are absolute crap. Continue reading

  • What Nick Carr (maybe) Misses About Memory and Integration

    What Nick Carr (maybe) Misses About Memory and Integration Nick Carr on the recent Science article on the effect of Google on memory: If a fact stored externally were the same as a memory of that fact stored in our mind, then the loss of internal memory wouldn’t much matter. But external storage and biological… Continue reading

  • Spaced retrieval: Absolute spacing enhances learning regardless of relative spacing.

    Spaced retrieval: Absolute spacing enhances learning regardless of relative spacing. Sorry, no online version. But the abstract says it all — spaced retrieval matters, but these systems to perfectly control the spacing (through gradually increasing it) may be hooey: Repeated retrieval enhances long-term retention, and spaced repetition also enhances retention. A question with practical and theoretical significance… Continue reading

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  • Assessing the sort of engagement that matters

    Assessing the sort of engagement that matters I was looking at the new BioScience article on how useless self-reports on pedagogical style are as an assessment of impact, and I got interested in the tool they used to double-check the results, the RTOP — a method of coding videotaped classes for the frequency of different… Continue reading