Stuck on a Problem? Get Unstuck

http://www.slader.com/ is a free, user-generated source of step-by-step solutions to homework problems in popular math and science textbooks (history and english are on the way!)  The content is contributed by students, for students.  Share it with your classes (or not, and keep it just to yourself).

The ListServe: What Would You Say To One Million People?

I learned about The Listserve at a conference I attended last fall. Created by a group of students in the ITP program at the Tisch School, it is a mailing list that currently has just over 25,000 subscribers. (When the subscriber list reachers 1 million, the list admins will no longer accept new members.) Every day there is a lottery and one member has the change to send a message to the list.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I first signed up. Over the past 3 months, I have been touched by stories, thoughts, and ideas that have been shared. In the beginning I assumed that if I ever won, I would try to write something funny and pithy, my version of "So long and thanks for all the fish." But a few months in, the power of the project has really sunk in. Everyday, after reading the daily message, I spend a few minutes time reflecting on my life and ponder what I could share that might make a difference to 25,000+ people.

I highly recommend signing up for the Listserve. In a life of too much email, it is a message I enjoy reading everyday. Plus, I would love to know what you would write to a million people!

Project Information Literacy: The Freshman Study

If you assign a research paper, I recommend taking a look at new study from Project Information Literacy called LEARNING THE ROPES: How Freshmen Conduct Course Research Once They Enter College. The researchers look at the challenges and skills gaps that college freshmen face across as they learn to do college-level research.

AMHS Technology in Print

Ed Tech magazine has a very nice story about our iPad program this month. We should have print copies later in the month, but the story is on their website now. When you read the article, you may find that you recognize a few people as well as a certain technology blog...

Rubrics for Assessing Technology Based Student Work

I came across a article on EdTechTeacher.org full of helpful links for creating rubrics to assess digital student work (video, blogs, wikis, Voicethread). From the article:

A common question that we get with regard to technology projects is "how do I grade it?" The 21st-century communication and collaboration skills which are used with most technology based projects are, in many ways, real-world problem-solving skills. The standard, multiple-choice type tests simply are not going to be able to assess students' learning. Instead of thinking of the assessment itself as the measurement, we are going to need to examine our students' performances of understanding. In other words, the assessment is the tool through which we can gauge how much our students have learned.

 I'm including a few links from the original page that I thought were interesting.

• Rubistar - create your own customized rubrics.
• Teacher Checklist for Blogging Projects
• Media-Making Rubric (from KQED) - mix and match to make your own rubric for video or presentations
• Blooms Digital Taxonomy & Blog Journaling Rubric with Examples
• 7 Things you should know about VoiceThread
• Scoring VoiceThread discussions

If you have any rubrics or assessment strategist for student digital work please share your thoughts in the comments.

FutureMe.Org: Letters to the Future

If you have a few minutes this week, check out FutureMe.org.

FutureMe is a low key website which allows you to create an email message that will be delivered to your address at a future date. Imagine writing an email message as a Freshman and having it be delivered the night before graduation? Or writing a message after Kairos and receiving it a year later.