Searching for "writing"

the fluffverse

Some fluff on the metaverse

https://skarredghost-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/skarredghost.com/2021/09/21/metaverse-fluff/amp/

I remember some years ago reading an article on The Verge saying that like 40% of startups that claim to do AI actually don’t do AI. They just use the name AI because it is cool, but they don’t actually use it. The same goes for the metaverse. I’ve seen things like a company that does AR/VR software writing on Linkedin “WE CREATE METAVERSES”.

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more on metaverse in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=metaverse

Gamification project in education

From the Higher Ed Learning Collective:

Kerry Lorette

Have any of you implemented a gamification project and lived to tell the tale? Did you publish? I’m looking for papers and case studies to share in a course I’m writing about gamification in higher education. Please share your wisdom, links, posts, papers, presentations, videos, etc and many thanks!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/onlinelearningcollective/permalink/805665876730779/

excellent thread with a lot of materials:

Statistics is puzzling: Testing a novel approach to statistics learning.

https://doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fstl0000204

Improved student independence through competitive tinkering

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8190500?fbclid=IwAR3cXin2-59lw2a84nLpqy3NzcjymGXykA9p0QT92oAYD3mGiYgC9jk_leA

Gamification in the Business Communication Course

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2329490616676576?fbclid=IwAR0nrDjPlchoHH74vse39TjuxBJpDHEpnvf9xbOxG4pu6hX8B5kyasxLmHQ

The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game

AI and paper mills

https://www.facebook.com/groups/onlinelearningcollective/permalink/761389994491701/

“What the invention of photography did to painting, this will do to teaching.”

AI can write a passing college paper in 20 minutes

Natural language processing is on the cusp of changing our relationship with machines forever.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-can-write-a-passing-college-paper-in-20-minutes/

The specific AI — GPT-3, for Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 — was released in June 2020 by OpenAI, a research business co-founded by Elon Musk. It was developed to create content with a human language structure better than any of its predecessors.

According to a 2019 paper by the Allen Institute of Artificial Intelligence, machines fundamentally lack commonsense reasoning — the ability to understand what they’re writing. That finding is based on a critical reevaluation of standard tests to determine commonsense reasoning in machines, such as the Winograd Schema Challenge.

Which makes the results of the EduRef experiment that much more striking. The writing prompts were given in a variety of subjects, including U.S. History, Research Methods (Covid-19 Vaccine Efficacy), Creative Writing, and Law. GPT-3 managed to score a “C” average across four subjects from professors, failing only one assignment.

Aside from potentially troubling implications for educators, what this points to is a dawning inflection point for natural language processing, heretofore a decidedly human characteristic.

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more on artificial intelligence in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=artificial+intelligence

more on paper mills in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=paper+mills

Formatting Styles

Discussion With PEN, SCSU Fulbright students

  1. What are formatting styles?

The more commonly-used styles include essay format APA, Chicago, Harvard, and MLA. In fact, MLA is among the most widely-used style

Each of the formatting styles has its own unique requirements in a number of areas such as:

  • Title or cover pages
  • Line spacing
  • Font style/size
  • Paragraph layout
  • Paragraph indentation
  • Page numbers
  • Margin sizes
  • Document binding
  • Editing, proofreading, and so on.
  1. Why different styles?

https://www.essay-writing-tips.com/formatting-styles/

In-text citations:

Apa style from Erika Price

Reference management tools: Zotero

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=zotero

Library Instruction ENG 191

Library Instruction delivered by Plamen Miltenoff, pmiltenoff@stcloudstate.edu

https://web.stcloudstate.edu/pmiltenoff/faculty/

ENG 191, Thursday (2PM)

 

Instructor: Kirstin Bratt

My name is Plamen Miltenoff (https://web.stcloudstate.edu/pmiltenoff/faculty/) and I am the InforMedia Specialist with the SCSU Library (https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/free-tech-instruction/).

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LIBRARY INSTRUCTION – Information, Digital and Media Literacy

  1. How (where from) do you receive your news? Do you think you are able to distinguish real news from fake news?
    1. Last year, researchers at Oxford University found that 70 countries had political disinformation campaigns over two years.
      https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2020/01/20/bots-and-disinformation/
    2. according to Pew Research Center, 68 percent of American adults get their news from social media—platforms where opinion is often presented as fact.
      results of the international test revealed that only 14 percent of U.S. students were able to reliably distinguish between fact and opinion.

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2020/01/16/fake-news-prevention/

News and Media Literacy (and the lack of) is not very different from Information Literacy

An “information literate” student is able to “locate, evaluate, and effectively use information from diverse sources.” See more About Information Literacy.

How does information literacy help me?

Every day we have questions that need answers. Where do we go? Whom can we trust? How can we find information to help ourselves? How can we help our family and friends? How can we learn about the world and be a better citizen? How can we make our voice heard?

The content of the tutorial is based on the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education as approved by the Board of Directors of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Information Literacy Standards | Field Notes

The standards are:

Standard 1. The information literate student determines the nature and extent of the
information needed

Standard 2. The information literate student accesses needed information effectively
and efficiently

Standard 3. The information literate student evaluates information and its sources
critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge
base and value system

Standard 4. The information literate student, individually or as a member of a group,
uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose

Standard 5. The information literate student understands many of the economic, legal,
and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses
information ethically and legally

Project Information Literacy
A national, longitudinal research study based in the University of Washington’s iSchool, compiling data on college students habits to seek and use information.

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  1. Developing Your Research Topic/Question
Research always starts with a question. But the success of your research also depends on how you formulate that question. If your topic is too broad or too narrow, you may have trouble finding information when you search. When developing your question/topic, consider the following:

Research always starts with a question. But the success of your research also depends on how you formulate that question. If your topic is too broad or too narrow, you may have trouble finding information when you search. When developing your question/topic, consider the following:

  • Is my question one that is likely to have been researched and for which data have been published? Believe it or not, not every topic has been researched and/or published in the literature.
  • Be flexible. Consider broadening or narrowing the topic if you are getting a limited number or an overwhelming number of results when you search. In nursing it can be helpful to narrow by thinking about a specific population (gender, age, disease or condition, etc.), intervention, or outcome.
  • Discuss your topic with your professor and be willing to alter your topic according to the guidance you receive.

  1. Getting Ready for Research
    Library Resources vs. the Internet
    How (where from) do you receive information about your professional interests?
    Advantages/disadvantages of using Web Resources

 

Evaluating Web Resources

  1. Google or similar; Yahoo, Bing
  2. Google Scholar
  3. Reddit, Digg, Quora
  4. Wikipedia
  5. Become a member of professional organizations and use their online information
  6. Use the SCSU library page to online databases
  1. Building Your List of Keywords

Keyword Searching - YouTube

    1. Why Keyword Searching?
      Why not just type in a phrase or sentence like you do in Google or Yahoo!?

      1. Because most electronic databases store and retrieve information differently than Internet search engines.
      2. A databases searches fields within a collection of records. These fields include the information commonly found in a citation plus an abstract (if available) and subject headings. Search engines search web content which is typically the full text of sources.
    1. The bottom line: you get better results in a database by using effective keyword search strategies.
    2. To develop an effective search strategy, you need to:
      1. determine the key concepts in your topic and
      2. develop a good list of keyword synonyms.
    1. Why use synonyms?
      Because there is more than one way to express a concept or idea. You don’t know if the article you’re looking for uses the same expression for a key concept that you are using.
    2. Consider: Will an author use:
      1. Hypertension or High Blood Pressure?
      2. Teach or Instruct?
      3. Therapy or Treatment?

Don’t get “keyword lock!” Be willing to try a different term as a keyword. If you are having trouble thinking of synonyms, check a thesaurus, dictionary, or reference book for ideas.

Keyword worksheet

  1. Library Resources

How to find the SCSU Library Website
SCSU online databases

    1. SCSU Library Web page

lib web page

  1. Basic Research Skills

Locating and Defining a Database
Database Searching Overview:
You can search using the SCSU library online dbases by choosing:
Simple search
Advanced search

Simple vs Advanced Search

  1. Identifying a Scholarly Source

scholarly sources

  1. Boolean operators

  1. Databases:
    CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, Health Source: Consumer Edition, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition

Psychology:
PsychINFO

General Science
ScienceDirect
Arts & Humanities Citation Index

  1. How do you evaluate a source of information to determine if it is appropriate for academic/scholarly use. There is no set “checklist” to complete but below are some criteria to consider when you are evaluating a source.
    1. ACCURACY
      1. Does the author cite reliable sources?
      2. How does the information compare with that in other works on the topic?
      3. Can you determine if the information has gone through peer-review?
      4. Are there factual, spelling, typographical, or grammatical errors?
    2. AUDIENCE
      1. Who do you think the authors are trying to reach?
      2. Is the language, vocabulary, style and tone appropriate for intended audience?
      3. What are the audience demographics? (age, educational level, etc.)
      4. Are the authors targeting a particular group or segment of society?
    3. AUTHORITY
      1. Who wrote the information found in the article or on the site?
      2. What are the author’s credentials/qualifications for this particular topic?
      3. Is the author affiliated with a particular organization or institution?
      4. What does that affiliation suggest about the author?
    1. CURRENCY
      1. Is the content current?
      2. Does the date of the information directly affect the accuracy or usefulness of the information?
    1. OBJECTIVITY/BIAS
      1. What is the author’s or website’s point of view?
      2. Is the point of view subtle or explicit?
      3. Is the information presented as fact or opinion?
      4. If opinion, is the opinion supported by credible data or informed argument?
      5. Is the information one-sided?
      6. Are alternate views represented?
      7. Does the point of view affect how you view the information?
    1. PURPOSE
      1. What is the author’s purpose or objective, to explain, provide new information or news, entertain, persuade or sell?
      2. Does the purpose affect how you view the information presented?
  1. InterLibrary Loan

  1. Copyright and Fair Use

Copyright & Fair Use: What is it? Why should I care? - Eda Talushllari's E-Portfolio
(https://sites.google.com/site/cuin3313/resources/copyright-fair-use-what-is-it-why-should-i-care)

Author Rights and Publishing & Finding Author Instructions for Publishing in Scholarly Journals

    1. Plagiarism, academic honesty
  1. Writing Tips
  2. Dissemination of Research

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Plamen Miltenoff, Ph.D., MLIS
Professor
320-308-3072
pmiltenoff@stcloudstate.edu
http://web.stcloudstate.edu/pmiltenoff/faculty/
schedule a meeting: https://doodle.com/digitalliteracy
find my office: https://youtu.be/QAng6b_FJqs

 

Media Literacy for GLST 195

Information Media and Digital Literacy for GLST 195: Global Society & Citizenship    

Instructor: Prof. Chuks Ugochukwu   Per Syllabus:

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES:
The course meets Liberal Education Program (LEP), Goal Area 8: Global Perspective; and Goal Area 9: Ethical and Civic Responsibility objectives
Goal Area 8: Global Perspective. Objective: Develop a comparative perspective and understanding of one’s place in a global context.

Students will be able to:

  1. Describe and analyze political, economic, and cultural elements which influence relations of states and societies in their historical and contemporary dimensions.
  2. Demonstrate knowledge of cultural, social, religious and linguistic differences.
  3. Analyze specific international problems, illustrating the cultural,economic, and political differences that affect their solution.
  4. Understand the role of a world citizen and the responsibility world citizens share for their common global future.

Goal Area 9: Ethical and Civic Responsibility Objective: Understand and evaluate ethical or civic issues and theories and participate in active citizenship or ethical judgment

OUR HUSKY COMPACT

Our Husky Compact is a bond shared by St. Cloud State University and its students that a SCSU education will prepare students for a life of growth and fulfillment – intellectually, professionally, and personally. When students graduate with an SCSU education, they will:

  • Think Creatively and Critically
  • Seek and Apply Knowledge
  • Communicate Effectively
  • Integrate Existing and Evolving Technologies
  • Engage as a Member of a Diverse and Multicultural World
  • Act with Personal Integrity and Civic Responsibility

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Week ???: Information – Media and Digital Literacy

Most students can’t tell fake news from real news, study shows
Read more: https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/03/28/fake-news-3/

Module 1
video to introduce students to the readings and expected tasks

https://mediaspace.minnstate.edu/media/GLST+195+Module+1/1_32242qua

  1. Fake News / Misinformation / Disinformation
    1. Definitions
      1. Fake news, alternative facts
        https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=fake+news
        https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=alternative+facts

Mini-Assignment: After reading the information from the links above, take a minute to write out your own definition of 1. Fake News 2. Alternative Facts

      1. Misinformation vs disinformation
        https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2018/02/18/fake-news-disinformation-propaganda/

Mini-Assignment: After reading the information from the links above, take a minute to write out your own definition of 1. Misinformation 2. Disinformation. What are their main characteristics? How do they differ?

        1. Propaganda

Mini-Assignment: What is Propaganda? How do misinformation, disinformation, fake news and alternative facts fit into the process of propaganda?

        1. Conspiracy theories
          https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=conspiracy+theories

Mini-Assignment:  Using the information from the links above, can you establish the connection between conspiracy theories, propaganda, mis- and disinformation, fake news, alternative news and social media?

          1. Bots, trolls
            https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/11/22/bots-trolls-and-fake-news/
            https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2020/04/30/fake-social-media-accounts-and-politicians/
            https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2020/01/20/bots-and-disinformation/

Mini-Assignment: using the info from the links above and/or information you have collected, can you define the role of bots and trolls in social media in regard to propaganda and conspiracy theories?

        1. Clickbait
          Filter bubbles, echo chambers
          (8 min) video explains filter bubbles
          https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter

Mini-Assignment:: based on your own information and experience, as well as the information offered in the links, can you define your own resistance to clickbaits?

Assignment: which challenges do you identify with?
The Challenge of Teaching News Literacy:
https://soundcloud.com/edsurge/the-challenge-of-teaching-news-literacy

25 min podcast.

In a short paragraph, identify the issues you see as important to address in order to improve your own news literacy.
time to accomplish the assignment: ~45 min (including listening to the podcast).

  1. Why is it important to understand these processes?

Assignment: why is it important:

In a short paragraph, share your initial feeling about Fake News / Misinformation / Disinformation. 1. Do you think, it is important at all? 2. If yes, why; if not, why. 3. If yes, what is the importance, the impact?
time to accomplish the assignment: ~5-10 min

  1. How to deal with these processes
    1. how do we apply hands-on critical thinking to withstand these processes?
      1. What is critical thinking

disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/critical-thinking

  1. Ability to research

Ability to find reliable information

  1. Popular media

How to spot fake news:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/03/15/fake-news-bib/
Can machines create fake news?
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2019/10/24/fake-news-generator/
Can machines “clean up” fake from real?
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2020/11/16/identifying-fake-news-by-90/
What can humans do to distinguish fake from real? Consider these five factors:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/06/26/fake-news-real-news/

Considering the second factor (who published it), here is a scale to consider when evaluating the veracity of your sources:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/08/13/library-spot-fake-news/
(can you find your favorite magazine/newspaper on the graphic?)

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2016/12/14/fake-news-2/

(can you find your favorite news organization on the graphic?)

Factcheckers/Factchecking Organizations:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/03/28/fake-news-resources/

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2016/12/14/fake-news-2/

  1. Peer-reviewed literature

Similarly to the assessment of popular information sources, academia requires vigorous vetting if the sources you will be using for your academic work. In the 21st century, your ability to find information in peer-reviewed journals might not be sufficient to assure accurate and reliable use of information from those resources for your research and writing. After your selection of peer-reviewed literature, you must be able to evaluate and determine the veracity and reliability of those sources.
How do you evaluate a source of information to determine if it is appropriate for academic/scholarly use. There is no set “checklist” to complete but below are some criteria to consider when you are evaluating a source.

Here is a short (4 min) video introducing you to the well-known basics for evaluation of academic literature:
https://youtu.be/qUd_gf2ypk4

  1. ACCURACY
    1. Does the author cite reliable sources?
    2. How does the information compare with that in other works on the topic?
    3. Can you determine if the information has gone through peer-review?
    4. Are there factual, spelling, typographical, or grammatical errors?
  2. AUDIENCE
    1. Who do you think the authors are trying to reach?
    2. Is the language, vocabulary, style and tone appropriate for intended audience?
    3. What are the audience demographics? (age, educational level, etc.)
    4. Are the authors targeting a particular group or segment of society?
  3. AUTHORITY
    1. Who wrote the information found in the article or on the site?
    2. What are the author’s credentials/qualifications for this particular topic?
    3. Is the author affiliated with a particular organization or institution?
    4. What does that affiliation suggest about the author?
  4. CURRENCY
    1. Is the content current?
    2. Does the date of the information directly affect the accuracy or usefulness of the information?
  5. OBJECTIVITY/BIAS
    1. What is the author’s or website’s point of view?
    2. Is the point of view subtle or explicit?
    3. Is the information presented as fact or opinion?
    4. If opinion, is the opinion supported by credible data or informed argument?
    5. Is the information one-sided?
    6. Are alternate views represented?
    7. Does the point of view affect how you view the information?
  6. PURPOSE
    1. What is the author’s purpose or objective, to explain, provide new information or news, entertain, persuade or sell?
    2. Does the purpose affect how you view the information presented?

In 2021, however, all suggestions above may not be sufficient to distinguish a reliable source of information, even if the article made it through the peer-reviewed process. In time, you should learn to evaluate the research methods of the authors and decide if they are reliable. Same applies for the research findings and conclusions.

Assignment: seeking reliable information

From your syllabus weekly themes: 1. Food; 2. Health; 3. Energy; 4. Environment; 5. Security, chose a topic of your interest.
For example: Food: raising cattle for food contributes to climate changes, because of the methane gas, or Health: COVID is the same (or not the same) as the flu; or Energy: Fossil energy is bad (or good) for the environment; etc.
Please consult with me (email me for a zoom appointment: pmiltenoff@stcloudstate.edu), if you need to discuss the choice and narrowing down of the topic.
Once you decide on the topic, do the research by collecting four sources of information:

The first couple of sources will be from popular media, whereas each of the two articles will be having an opposite approach, arguments and understanding of the issue. For example, one article will claim fossil energy is bad for the environment and the other one will argue fossil fuel has insignificant impact on climate change. You must be able to evaluate the veracity and the leaning of each source. The source can be a newspaper or magazine article, video (TV or Social Media), audio (podcasts, TV, etc.), presentations (PowerPoint, SlideShare, etc.).
Having troubles finding opposing resources? Feel welcome to search for your topic among these news outlets on the conservative side:
https://www.conservapedia.com/Top_Conservative_news_websites
and the https://aelieve.com/rankings/websites/category/news-media/top-liberal-websites/
In the same fashion, you will evaluate the second couple of sources from peer-reviewed journals. Each source will have different approach, argument and understanding of the issue and you must evaluate the robustness of the research method.

time to accomplish the assignment: ~30 min

Module 2 (video to introduce students to the readings and expected tasks)

  1. Digital Citizenship, Global Citizenship and Multiculturalism
    1. Definitions
    2. Global Citizenship
      seek global sources:

start reading:
e.g. start following and reading several news outlets from other countries and with time, you should be able to detect differences in opinions and facts presented at those outlets and your current sources for information:
Spiegel International (German, left-leaning)
https://www.facebook.com/spiegelinternational
Le Monde Diplomatique
https://www.facebook.com/mondediplo
El Pais (Spanish, left leaning)
https://www.facebook.com/elpaisinenglish

Moscow Times (Russian, left leaning)
https://www.facebook.com/MoscowTimes
The Epoch Times (Chinese, far-right)
https://www.theepochtimes.com/

Start watching (smart phone, laptop) news feeds, live or vlog (video blog):

Africa News
https://youtu.be/NQjabLGdP5g
Nigeria Live (you can seek any other country on YouTube by typing the name of the country adding “live”)
https://youtu.be/ATJc9LyPZj8
Al Jazeera in English
https://youtu.be/GXfsI-zZO7s

Deutsche Welle
https://www.youtube.com/user/deutschewelleenglish

BBC
https://www.youtube.com/user/bbcnews

Russia Today
https://www.youtube.com/user/RussiaToday

China Today
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBOqkAGTtzZVmKvY4SwdZ2g
India News
https://www.youtube.com/user/IndiaTV
you can also follow specific people’s vlogs, e.g.
Alexei Navalny’s vlog has English subtitles
https://www.youtube.com/user/NavalnyRu

France 24 Live
https://youtu.be/HeTWwH1a0CQ

 

Start listening (smart phone, laptop):
BBC
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.bbc.android.iplayerradio&hl=en_US&gl=US (Android app)

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/bbc-sounds/id1380676511 (iOS app)

Deutsche Welle
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.exlivinapps.deutschewelleradioappde&hl=en_US&gl=US (Android app)

https://apps.apple.com/us/developer/deutsche-welle/id305630107 (iOS app)

 

Assignment:
Global Citizenship and Multiculturalism and Information and Media Literacy

Study the following tweet feed
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2021/02/18/facebook-google-australia/
If the information from the tweet feed is insufficient, research the issue by seeking reliable sources. (In a short paragraph defend your choice of reliable sources).
What do you see as more important issue: the Facebook stance that it can be a subject of Australian law or the Australian government stance that Facebook is interfering in Australian life with its news delivery? Is Facebook a news outlet or a platform for news outlets? Does Facebook need to be regulated? By who; each country do have to regulate Facebook or Facebook needs to be regulated globally?

time to accomplish the assignment: ~30 min

 

Module 3 (video to introduce students to the readings and expected tasks)

  1. Assistance for work on the final project / paper

 

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Here a list of additional materials and readings on Fake News
https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter

Online HE about learning

Why online HE should be about learning, not teaching

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210126142422302

The gate is now wide open

Teachers used to be the gatekeepers to information, to knowledge. The successive inventions of writing and reading, print, the library, and then the World Wide Web, mean that we teachers are no longer the gatekeepers.

Schools, universities and teachers to some extent remain the gatekeepers to knowledge, the definers of what comprises valid knowledge. We do this, of course, through holding the ultimate educational power – the power to assess.

But it is not clear how long we teachers will, or should, hold this power. Increasingly, students, and employers, nations, cultures, many groups in our societies, rightly want a say in defining what is valid knowledge, a valid curriculum.

Knowledge isn’t enough

Each year, vast amounts of new knowledge are produced. Also, each year, vast amounts of current knowledge become wrong, or redundant, or both. Knowledge dies. In some subjects, a significant proportion of what was taught in the first year will have died by the time the students who learned it graduate. So, what is education for?

Machines are doing more and more of the work

The bad news is, we are getting squeezed out of work. The good news is, we are getting squeezed up, into ever more interesting work. We will be able to stay ahead for a long time; because there are always still more difficult and important and exciting things for us to do, increasingly with the support of our increasingly capable machines.

Employers want graduates to be job-ready. They also want graduates to be fluent in the five Cs: Creativity, Communication, Collaboration and Criticality as well as Competence. Not all university education currently develops the first four Cs. Very little university education currently gives high priority to their development. Rarely are they formally assessed.

Changing outcomes, changing pedagogies

The architecture of a university expresses its views about pedagogy. This remains true with the great leap online. The old pedagogic architecture – of teaching as (mainly) telling, of learning as (mainly) listening and reading, of access in and through the library to specified stored knowledge, and of assessment as (mainly) recalling, repeating back what has been learned, perhaps with some application or interpretation – has for the most part been recreated in digital form, with varying degrees of success

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more on online education in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=online+education

APA 7th

https://www.facebook.com/groups/onlinelearningcollective/permalink/734573083840059/

“As I create and modify my course syllabi, I want to make sure my students use APA 7th ed. when writing their formal assignments. For those of you who also use APA, what do you say in your syllabi? What matters to you with your students giving proper credit to sources, images, or videos? I’m trying to do better and expect better”

There’s a new OER that I used with my students in the fall that introduces them to APA and has examples to work through.

http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/oer/2021/01/15/apa-style-citation-tutorial-7th-edition/

In case this is helpful, my university has a video on using APA. (I haven’t watched it yet.)

Julie Herskovitz

I never assume the they learned the format, and I build in an APA workshop. I use OWL Purdue and go over a sample paper first, then the APA PowerPoint. Then I give them a low stakes assignment (like a discussion post) to practice.

I talk about documentation more as a convention of their discourse community, not just citations. There is a certain structure and way of writing in APA, that along with citations, represent the values of a particular discourse community. Those are the things that matter to me. (I also get more buy in from students.)

I was happy to discover that APA now has decent examples online, free, at their website. So in my instructions to students, I linked to the main page and also 3 specific pages with commonly used items, such as newspaper articles online, and YouTube videos. So step 1 is providing tools. Step 2 is clearly expressed grade penalties.

I actually don’t say anything my syllabus. What I do is in my LMS: give them a template and links to the Purdue OWL and other relevant websites. I have also written a “Dr. Kaminski’s APA 7th Ed Guide”. It’s more of my pet peeves and what they should be focusing on that students often miss. I give a lot of grace on the first (low stakes) written assignment, with more focus on the APA portion than the actual content. After that, I’m expecting them to have it down.

I say it (and link to resources) in my assignment sheets and have a spot in my rubric to reflect what I am asking of my students.

I post resources to our LMS. Mostly the usual subjects (APA, Purdue OWL, etc). I often add a short video on the bias-free writing chapter because that’s often not covered in their intro to research writing courses. For citations, I’m more a stickler for complete information than semicolons and whatnot. I don’t feel good about deducting points for anything that students were taught with APA 6 that is different in 7 since we changed the rules on them.

I provide a free workshop at the beginning of the semester to explain the ‘why’ and provide practice. It carries a rather high weighting in our rubrics so…some understanding and ‘free points’ if they use it appropriately.

I have a different document I refer to in the syllabus titled “Writing Expectations”. I briefly explain the importance of using APA and the characteristics of academic writing (e.g. paraphrasing, avoiding over usage of direct quotes, and other things I see in student writing). The second page is an APA job aid that shows the basics for citations, reference lists, and leveled headings.

 

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more on APA 7th edition in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=apa+7

Assessment Is a Waste of Time?

Assessment Is an Enormous Waste of Time

https://www.chronicle.com/article/assessment-is-an-enormous-waste-of-time/

The assessment industry is not known for self-critical reflection. Assessors insist that faculty provide evidence that their teaching is effective, but they are dismissive of evidence that their own work is ineffective. They demand data, but they are indifferent to the quality of those data. So it’s not a surprise that the assessment project is built on an unexamined assumption: that learning, especially higher-order learning such as critical thinking, is central to the college experience.

the Lumina Foundation’s Degree Qualifications Profile “provides a qualitative set of important learning outcomes, not quantitative measures such as numbers of credits and grade-point averages, as the basis for awarding degrees.”

article in Change, Daniel Sullivan, president emeritus of St. Lawrence University and a senior fellow at the Association of American Colleges & Universities, and Kate McConnell, assistant vice president for research and assessment at the association, describe a project that looked at nearly 3,000 pieces of student work from 14 institutions. They used the critical-thinking and written-communication Value rubrics designed by the AAC&U to score the work. They discovered that most college-student work falls in the middle of the rubric’s four-point scale measuring skill attainment.

Richard Arum and Josipa Roska’s 2011 book, Academically Adrift, used data from the Collegiate Learning Assessment to show that a large percentage of students don’t improve their critical thinking or writing. A 2017 study by The Wall Street Journal used data from the CLA at dozens of public colleges and concluded that the evidence for learning between the first and senior years was so scant that they called it “discouraging.”

not suggesting that college is a waste of time or that there is no value in a college education. But before we spend scarce resources and time trying to assess and enhance student learning, shouldn’t we maybe check to be sure that learning is what actually happens in college?

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more on assessment in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=assessment

and critical thinking
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=critical+thinking

Hamlet on the HoloDeck

Murray, J. H. (1997). Hamlet on the holodeck: The future of narrative in cyberspace. Free Press.
https://mnpals-scs.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01MNPALS_SCS/qoo6di/alma990011592830104318
Since 1992 I have been teaching a course on how to write electronics section. My students include freshman, writing majors, and media lab graduate students.
As I watch the yearly growth in ingenuity among my students, I find myself anticipating a new kind of storyteller, one who is half hacker, half bard. The spirit of the hacker is one of the great creative wellspring Safari time, causing the in animate circuits to sync with ever more individualized and quirky voices; the spirit of the bard is eternal and irreplaceable, telling us what we are doing here in about we mean to one another.
p. 12 A New Medium of Storytelling
p. 18 Aldous Huxley Brave New World
(more on it here https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=huxley)
Set 600 years from now, describes a society that science has dehumanized by eliminating love, parenthood, and the family in favor of generating engineering, test tube delivery, and state indoctrination. Books are banned, and science has come up with a substitute form of storytelling to delete the masses.
p. 20 Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451
p. 22 this accounts of a digital dystopia but eroticize and demonize the computer. Cyberpunks surfers are like Cowboys on the new frontier motorcycle hoodlums with a joystick in their hand instead of a motorcycle between their legs. They are outlaw pirates on an endless voyage of exploration throughout the virtual world riding and plundering among the invisible data hoards of the world in many states by the stronger pirate parents who reach in and reprogram their minds.
p. 22 William Gibson Neurmancer
p. 28 The Harbinger on the the Holodeck
The technical in economic cultivation of this freestyle new medium of communication has led to several new varieties of narrative entertainment. This new storytelling formats very from the shoot them up video game in the virtual dungeons of Internet role-playing games to the post modern literary hypertext. This wide range of narrative art holds the promise of a new medium of expression that is S varied SD printed book or the movie picture.
Books printed before 1501 or cold incunabula; the word is derived from the Latin for swaddling clothes and is used to indicate that this books are the work of a technology still in its infancy.
The garish video games in tangled websites of the current digital environment or part of a similar period of technical evolution, part of a similar struggle for the conventions of coherent communication.
p. 29 now, in the incunabular days of the narrative computer. We can see how 20th century novels, films, and please have been steadily pushing against the boundaries of linear storytelling. We therefore have to start our survey of the harbingers of the holiday back with a look at multiform stories, that is, linear narrative straining against the boundary of pre-digital media like a two dimensional picture trying to burst of its frame.
p. 30 The multiform story
Frank Capra’s It’s a wonderful life
p. 34 Robert Zemeskis Back to the Future
p. 35 Harold Ramis’s Groundhog Day
Multi forms stories often reflect different points of view of the same event.  p. 37 Kurosawa Rashomon, the same crime is narrated by four different people: a rape victim; her husband, who is murdered; the bandit who attacked them; and a bystander.
p. 37 Milorad Pavic’s Dictionary of the Khazars
p. 37 Multi form narrative attempts to give a simultaneous form to this possibilities, to allow us to hold in our minds at the same time multiple contradictory alternatives.
p. 38  active audience
When the writer expands the story to include multiple possibilities, the reader assumes a more active role.
p. 40 although television viewers have long been accused of being less active engaged in readers or theatergoers, research on thin culture provides considerable evidence that viewers actively appropriate the stories of their favorite series. In addition to sharing critical commentary and gossip, fans create their own stories by taking characters and situations from the series and developing them in ways closer to their own concerns.
p. 42 role playing games or theatrical in a non-traditional but thrilling way. Players are both actors and audience for one another, and events the purple tree often have the media seat of personal experience.
p. 43 Live theater has been incorporating the same qualities of spontaneity and audience involvement for some time.
p. 43 MUDs have allowed distant players on the Internet to share a common virtual space in which they can chat with one another in real time. A the social psychologist Sherry Turkle has persuasively demonstrated, mods are intensely “evocative” environments for fantasy play that allow people to create and sustain elaborate fictional personas.
p. 44 movies three dimensions
p. 51 dramatic storytelling in electronic games
p. 55 story webs
p. 59 computer scientist as storytellers
p. 65 Chapter 3 From Additive to Expressive Form
beyond multimedia
Sept 28, 1895 Arrival of the Train at La Ciotat Station
p. 66 photoplays
p. 67 one of the lessons we can learn from the history of film is that additive formulations like photo play or the contemporary catshall ‘multimedia” or a sign that the medium is in an early stage of development and it is still depending on the format derived from earlier technologies instead of exploiting its own expressive power. Today the derivative mindset is apparent in the conception of cyber space is the place to view “pages” of print or “clips” of moving video end of cedar rooms is offering “extended books.”
p. 60 ELIZA, 1966 Joseph Weizenbaum
p. 71 the four essential properties of digital environments
Digital environments are procedural
Digital environments are participatory
Digital environments are spacial
Digital environments are encyclopedic
p. 90 Digital structures of complexity
p. 95 part to the aesthetics of the medium
chapter 4 immersion
definition
The experience of being transported to an elaborate please simulator please it’s pleasurable in itself regarding of the fantasy contact. we Refer to this experience as immersion. Immersion is a metaphorical term derived from the physical experience of being submerged in water. We seek the same feeling from a psychologically immersive experience that we do from a plunge in the ocean or swimming pool: the sensation of being surrounded by a completely other reality, as different is water is from air, that takes over all of our attention, our whole perceptual apparatus.
p/ 99 entering the enchanted place
my note: ghost in the machine
The computer itself, even without any fantasy content, is an enchanted object. Sometimes it can act like an autonomous, animate being, sensing it’s environment in carrying out internally generated processes, yet it can also seem like an extension of our own consciousness, capturing our words through the keyboard in displaying them on the screen as fast as we can thank them.
p. 110 the active creation of belief
In digital environments we have new opportunities to practice this active creation of belief. For instance, in an interactive video program set in Paris that may research group designed in the 1980s for language learners, we included a working telephone, represented by a photograph of a phone who’s keypad could be clicked on .
p. 112 structuring participation with a mask .
p. 119 regulating arousal According to Winnicott, “the pleasurable element in playing Carris whit eight employee Kasian that the instructional a razzle is not excessive”; that is, the object of the imaginary world should not be too enticing, scary, or real let the immersive trance be broken. This is true in any medium. If a horror movie is too frightening, we cover our eyes or turn away from the screen.
p. 126 chapter Agency
Agency is the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices. We expect to feel agency on the computer when we double click on a file and seat open before us or when we enter numbers in a spreadsheet and see the totals readjust. However, we do not usually expect to experience agency within a narrative environment.
p. 129 the pleasures of navigation
One form of agency not dependent on the game structure yet characteristic of digital environment is spatial navigation. The ability to move through virtual landscapes can be pleasurable in itself, independent of the content of the spaces.
p. 130 the story of the maze
the adventure maze embodies a classic fair-tale narrative of danger and salvation. as a format for electronic narrative, the maze is a more active version of the immersive visit (chapter 4).
p. 134 Giving Shape to Anxiety
p. 137 The Journey Story and the Pleasure of Problem Solving
p. 140 Games into Stories
p. 142 Games as Symbolic Dramas

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