The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 20th issue, highlights the teaching experiment of Indiana University professors at Bloomington to teach cores skills in history: assembling evidence and interpreting it. Their work has attracted attention from educators worldwide.
An article by Joan Middendorf and David Pace about the Indiana experiment is on reserve in the library:
"Decoding the Disciplines: A Model for Helping Students Learn Disciplinary Ways of Thinking" from New Directons for Teachers and Learning, no. 98, Summer 2004.
Monday, November 23, 2009
National Book Award Winners
Last Wednesday winners of the National Book Awards:
Fiction Winner
Colum McCann Let the Great World Spin about daring, luck and mortality in the world of 1970s New York. AVAILABLE IN THE LIBRARY
Nonfiction
T. J. Stiles The First Tycoon, a biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt. AVAILABLE IN THE LIBRARY
Young People's Literature
Claudette Colvin Twice Toward Justice,story of a teenager arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus months before Rosa Parks.
Poetry
Keith Waldrop Transcendtal Studies: A Trilogy
A special prize, voted on by the public, was given to "The Complete Stories" of Flannery O'Connor as the best of all fiction winners in the awards' history.
Gore Vidal and Dave Eggars received lifetime achievement awards.
Fiction Winner
Colum McCann Let the Great World Spin about daring, luck and mortality in the world of 1970s New York. AVAILABLE IN THE LIBRARY
Nonfiction
T. J. Stiles The First Tycoon, a biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt. AVAILABLE IN THE LIBRARY
Young People's Literature
Claudette Colvin Twice Toward Justice,story of a teenager arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus months before Rosa Parks.
Poetry
Keith Waldrop Transcendtal Studies: A Trilogy
A special prize, voted on by the public, was given to "The Complete Stories" of Flannery O'Connor as the best of all fiction winners in the awards' history.
Gore Vidal and Dave Eggars received lifetime achievement awards.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
National Book Awards Announced Tonight
The winners of the National Book Awards for 2009 will be announced tonight. This seems like good time to give some statistics. In 2009, 193 publishers submitted 1,129 books for the 2009 National Book Awards. The total number by genre:
236 fiction
481 nonfiction
161 poetry
251 young people's literature
I will announce the winners here tomorrow.
2008 winners included:
Fiction--Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country
Nonfiction--Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Poetry--Mark Doty, Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems
Young People's Lit--Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied
236 fiction
481 nonfiction
161 poetry
251 young people's literature
I will announce the winners here tomorrow.
2008 winners included:
Fiction--Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country
Nonfiction--Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Poetry--Mark Doty, Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems
Young People's Lit--Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
ECAR Report: Undergraduates and the Mobile Revolution
Among students, desktop computer ownership is down, laptop ownership is way up.
Most students have new computers (79% of freshmen own a laptop one year old or less, two-thirds own a laptop or desktop 2 years old. 18% say their computer is four years old or older).
51% own an internet-capable handheld device, with 12% more planning to purchase one within a year. Among those who own one, 35% say they never access the internet on it. Cost and other ways to access Net were the most cited reasons.
Cell phone ownership is nearly ubiquitous. One-third say that they use their cell phones in class for non-class activities.
SNS’s (Social Networking Sites) and texting are up (nearing saturation), while Instant Messenging is declining. SNS’s were used by 90% of students outside class, and wikis by 42%, but only around a quarter of students used SNS’s or wikis in a course. One-third of students used podcasts personally but only 6% in courses.
Students generally like Course Management Systems! Students don’t think instructors use IT well. The percent that say their instructors effectively use IT or have adequate IT skills– 45%. Only one-third say instructors adequately train them for the IT used in their courses.
Students who say the greatest benefit of IT in education is convenience – 70%. Only 49% agree or strongly agree that IT improves learning. One possible reason for this low number is that only 53% of students agree or strongly agree with the statement “My institution’s IT services are always available when I need them for my coursework.”
Source: Mobile Libraries Blog and [http://purdueetech.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/ecar-study-of-undergrads-and-it/]
Most students have new computers (79% of freshmen own a laptop one year old or less, two-thirds own a laptop or desktop 2 years old. 18% say their computer is four years old or older).
51% own an internet-capable handheld device, with 12% more planning to purchase one within a year. Among those who own one, 35% say they never access the internet on it. Cost and other ways to access Net were the most cited reasons.
Cell phone ownership is nearly ubiquitous. One-third say that they use their cell phones in class for non-class activities.
SNS’s (Social Networking Sites) and texting are up (nearing saturation), while Instant Messenging is declining. SNS’s were used by 90% of students outside class, and wikis by 42%, but only around a quarter of students used SNS’s or wikis in a course. One-third of students used podcasts personally but only 6% in courses.
Students generally like Course Management Systems! Students don’t think instructors use IT well. The percent that say their instructors effectively use IT or have adequate IT skills– 45%. Only one-third say instructors adequately train them for the IT used in their courses.
Students who say the greatest benefit of IT in education is convenience – 70%. Only 49% agree or strongly agree that IT improves learning. One possible reason for this low number is that only 53% of students agree or strongly agree with the statement “My institution’s IT services are always available when I need them for my coursework.”
Source: Mobile Libraries Blog and [http://purdueetech.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/ecar-study-of-undergrads-and-it/]
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