Category: General

The “Open Source” movement has encouraged some to offer educational resources and tools for general use much in the same way that open source programmers offer programs or operating systems for common use. I have made reference to such resources (see previous post highlighting Merlot) in previous posts.

Edu-Source Canada describes itself as a repository of “learning objects” (note new vocabulary word). “A repository differs from standard web materials by providing teachers, students and parents with information that is structured and organized to facilitate the finding and use of learning materials regardless of their source location.”

Jeanie Olson is one of the teaches we featured in our “Integrating the Internet …” book (Our feature on Jeanie Olson’s class.). Our story about Jeanie’s classroom described her interest in the Iditarod and the online and hands-on projects she created using the Iditarod as a theme.

This year she realized a personal dream and is viewing the race as it happens. Her posts on her experiences appear on Jeanie’s own web site.

The New York Times Women’s History Site offers resources related to women’s history. Original articles describing actual events are a useful feature of this site. Lesson plans are also included.

Time for another post about hand helds. I offered comments a couple of weeks ago more complaining about a specific company than offering anything constructive concerning the educational potential of these devices I guess “potential” would be the word I would presently use to describe educational hand-held devices. I buy the arguments that ubiquitous technology is valuable and laptops are a little too expensive. However, I have yet to develop an appreciation for productive applications — my own personal experiences have not convinced me that handhelds offer the ease of use necessary for me to use one as a learning tool. Others feel otherwise — check out the Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education at the University of Michigan (Hi-CE). I am still waiting for “good data” or a “killer app” I can’t live without.

The recent death of Fred Rogers has brought a number of web based tributes honoring his work. This collection of cartoons is particularly touching.

Merlot – Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching – is based on the philosophy of open source and provides online learning materials and reviews for higher education (and I would guess secondary classrooms). I have only reviewed material listed under Psychology, but there are certainly things here I would use when I teach the Intro class.

A Netscape News article for today caught my eye. The article concerned the pros and cons of a new online service – rate your professor (or teachers for the high school crowd). My own institution has been in an uproar over just such a service (Pick a Prof). The student body voted to spend some of the money they pay to support technology on campus to fund this program. The faculty objected (at least collectively). Among some of the specific issues raised by the faculty was the lack of accountability on the part of students in submitting ratings/comments. Unlike the evaluation forms handed out in class, the online service does not offer a way to assure that those providing the ratings are actually in the class being evaluated. Examples of ratings found on the site were also offered as evidence that the process is not entirely constructive and some inappropriate comments seem to be ignored by the individuals who are supposed to assure meaningless and spiteful comments are not included.

The Netscape News article offers comments on Rate My Prof (a related site called Rate My Teacher also exists). The opportunity to rate faculty members on physical attractiveness (how many chili peppers if I remember the comment from the article correctly) is the kind of thing that does annoy faculty members. I suppose some consider this good clean fun, free speech, a way to inform class selection, etc.

Your 5 chili pepper ed psych prof signing off for the day.