Time for science in the time of pandemic
Of the challenges that face us during this pandemic, balancing a full time job with young children at home has to be right up there on the difficult list. Listening to my friends and colleagues, bravely managing that tight-rope act, I looked …
Peeling back the layers on something very old and rendering a very large virtual object in the middle of your living room might, at first, feel like activities without much in common. However, two new online tools designed for those activities do share an important theme: a new way of …
Terry Gross. Photo from WHYY, Philadelphia.
No doubt you’re familiar with the NPR podcast series, Fresh Air. Terry Gross, the host of Fresh Air, has been on the radio with the show since 1975. From rock stars to politicians, artists to economists, the roster of the Fresh-Air-interviewed is long and …
Until recently, I didn’t give much thought to my forearm. And I’m guessing that you haven’t either. Consider it with me for a moment. Take a minute to appreciate the engineering marvel that is your arm.
Roll up your sleeve and extend your right arm out straight in front of …
Do you know about Work-In-Progress (WIP) photos? This is, apparently, a widespread phenomenon in the art world. The idea is to capture images of your progress, as you work, and share the photos with other artists. What a simple idea – loaded with insights about how we learn.
In June …
What all goes into online course construction? How much work is it and what skills do you need? What are the best tools for the job? And what makes for effective online learning? The following video segments take a stab at answering these questions.
My colleague Natasha Collette and I …
Yup, my 75-year old stepmother.
In working with teachers and learners of all stripes, I read extensively, listen carefully to experts, and experiment with methods for most effectively coaching the effective use of computer technology, social media, and online interaction in learning. My goal is to arrive at useful principles …
Homo naledi skull replica.
Sixty biologists in a New Orleans hotel conference room with a paleoanthropologist, a replica of an early hominin skull, and a revised story of our human ancestry? Does it get any better than that?
John Hawks at BLC 13
Last week, Dr. John Hawks (University of …
Al Filreis and ModPo students at The Center for the Book gathering.
Something unusual was going on at The Center for Book in San Francisco yesterday. In a museum devoted to the fine art of print book making, a group of 60 people, who’d never met before, gathered over their …
Felice Frankel with Kelly Krause
That’s what motivates Kelly Krause, Creative Director at the international science journal, Nature.
During week 5 of our course, Making Science and Engineering Pictures, we staged a live event on the MIT campus. Felice Frankel arranged to interview Kelly and bring her perspective …
Felice Frankel with Kelly Krause
That’s what motivates Kelly Krause, Creative Director at the international science journal, Nature.
During week 5 of our course, Making Science and Engineering Pictures, we staged a live event on the MIT campus. Felice Frankel arranged to interview Kelly and bring her perspective …
Week 2: Camera Basics
The second and third weeks of our course, Making Science and Engineering Pictures (MITx0.111), are the most challenging. It’s here where the students dig into the inner workings of their cameras and grapple with the relationships between aperture, exposure, lighting, and depth of field.…
Week 2: Camera Basics
The second and third weeks of our course, Making Science and Engineering Pictures (MITx0.111), are the most challenging. It’s here where the students dig into the inner workings of their cameras and grapple with the relationships between aperture, exposure, lighting, and depth of field.…
0.111x VoiceThread environment
Flatbed scanner
Our online course, Making Science and Engineering Pictures, has just wrapped up week 1 and we are rolling into week 2 (of 6 weeks total). Week 1 marks the first photographic assignment: choose a small object (3-10 cm) and create an image of your …
0.111x VoiceThread environment
Flatbed scanner
Our online course, Making Science and Engineering Pictures, has just wrapped up week 1 and we are rolling into week 2 (of 6 weeks total). Week 1 marks the first photographic assignment: choose a small object (3-10 cm) and create an image of your …
Images by Felice Frankel
We are launched. Making Science and Engineering Pictures, an MITx MOOC, is now officially underway. What a contrast to consider the differences between memories of “first day of class” versus what we’re experiencing with this online course. Trudging my way to school with new Pee …
Images by Felice Frankel
We are launched. Making Science and Engineering Pictures, an MITx MOOC, is now officially underway. What a contrast to consider the differences between memories of “first day of class” versus what we’re experiencing with this online course. Trudging my way to school with new Pee …
“This is a…global tel-link, prepaid call from…Adnan Syed…an inmate at… a Marilyn correctional facility. This call will be monitored and recorded…”
That’s the opener for the new NPR podcast program, Serial. One story, told week by week. The series follows a single story, a murder and its aftermath, over an …
When I first read the NYT headline, “Academic Science Isn’t Sexist” in the Sunday Review this weekend, I thought it was a joke. Or maybe an ironic goad to draw the reader in? But no. The authors, Wendy Williams and Stephen Ceci (both researchers at Boston University and …
Coffea canephora. Bali – Indonesia – July 2007 – Guy Sabattier
Like many people around the world, I begin my every morning with a rather large cup of coffee. Caffeine – found in coffee, tea, mate, and chocolate – is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the world. So …
Connecting…
OK, I’m on board. Alan Levine, Jim Groom, and Howard Rheingold have organized a seven-session (run over four months), distributed course to serve up a curriculum on how to create an open, online, connected courses. It’s called ConnectedCourses. A learn by doing experience, go-at-your-own pace, facilitated by …
From July 18,2014 NYT, Sunday Review
Last month, the NYTimes ran an education article entitled How Tests Make Us Smarter, by Henry Roedigger [July 18, 2014]. The basic idea put forth in the article was that frequent testing begets frequent retrieval of the tested information; the more often we …
New garden installation.
We’ve recently installed a new front garden – a nice bevy of native and drought-tolerant plants, along with a bit of functional hardscape (I’m learning the landscaping terminology) in the form of a meandering pathway to the front door. In addition to improving the patches on all …
FutureEd
Week #6 brings the end of the History and Future of Mostly Higher Education MOOC (#FutureEd). Time for reflection on what I’ve learned as well as the experience of the course itself (since that was part of the mission).
First, a few facts. This was a free, six-week course, …
FutureEd
Week #6 brings the end of the History and Future of Mostly Higher Education MOOC (#FutureEd). Time for reflection on what I’ve learned as well as the experience of the course itself (since that was part of the mission).
First, a few facts. This was a free, six-week course, …
“Badges? …Badges?”
Unlike the bandits in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, it looks maybe we do need some badges.
Girl Scout sash.
Week #5 of the History and Future of (Mostly) Higher Education MOOC focused on innovations in pedagogy and assessment. As part of our study this week, …
