WEEK 06 (9 – 15 November 2009)

READINGS

TASKS

Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions. Please work on both topics this week.

Readings

Learning Style/Multiple Intelligences

• Tech tools that support multiple intelligences:
  eduscapes.com/tap/topic68.htm 
  Understanding different learning styles is an important part of effective teaching, with and without technology.
• While there are a number of different ways of exploring learning styles, this article from Richard Felder explores the impact of different learning styles on classroom performance:
  www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm

Alternative Assessment

• Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students – these techniques are forms of alternative assessment
  Engaging Students Handout.pdf
• Rubrics PBL assessment tools – web project rubrics and more:
  www.globalschoolnet.org/Web/pbl/plan/assres.htm

Additional Resources

• Learning styles assessment chart
  www.chaminade.org/INSPIRE/learnstl.htm
• More on learning styles from Richard Felder
  www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Learning_Styles.html
• Using learning styles to adapt technology for higher education – from Equity and excellence in Higher Education:
  iod.unh.edu/EE/articles/learning-styles.html
• A longer scholarly article that also compares different learning style inventories: Student Learning Styles and Their Implications for Teaching
  www.crlt.umich.edu/publinks/CRLT_no10.pdf
• Rubric Tutorial
  health.usf.edu/publichealth/eta/Rubric_Tutorial/default.htm
• Alternative Assessment and Second Language Study: What and Why? by Charles R. Hancock (CAL Digest – 1994)
  www.cal.org./resources/digest/hancoc01.html
• Background on formative assessment (select pp 2-7 for focused reading)
  www.caslt.org/pdf/Background_Formative_Assessment.pdf

Weekly Requests and Reminders: 
Continue your blog at www.blogger.com. Post a reflective comment on this week’s work, where you talk about what you did, what you learned, and how you might apply that information in your teaching. Post at least one comment on another participant’s blog. Add good sites to your Delicious.com page. Remember to have tags and notes for each site you add.

You’ll need to start thinking about your Action Plan this week – what can you do to apply some of the things we’re talked about in this course to your own classes?

Discussions: Go to Nicenet, log in, and participate in this week’s topics.

1. Technology can help provide a range of learning styles in the classroom. Share your ideas about ways that you could use technology to address a variety of learning styles in your classes. What do you think would work best? Remember that using technology can also mean finding material online to bring into class as well as using technology in class.
2. Read Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students. How could you use technology tools to enable some of these techniques? For example, think about small group discussions => online discussion, creating concept maps with mind mapping software, and adding Minute Papers to your PowerPoint shows. Would these or other techniques work for you?

Make sure you save good sites on your Delicious.com page!