May 2012
3 posts
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Stereotype threat
As I am involved in a project that aims to raise the math level of so-called ‘vulnerable groups’ in Latin America, this is a rather relevant topic. Stereotype threat is a phenomenon in social psychology that describes how an experience of anxiety or concern emerges in a situation where a person has the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about their social group (Wikipedia). It...
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Embodied cognition - the pencil and the smile →
Embodied cognition reflects the argument that the motor system influences our cognition, just as the mind influences bodily actions. For example, when participants hold a pencil in their teeth engaging the muscles of a smile, they comprehend pleasant sentences faster than unpleasant ones. And it works in reverse: holding a pencil in their teeth to engage the muscles of a frown increases the time...
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April 2012
15 posts
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“Knowledge is a treasure, which can only be safeguarded by giving it away”
– @jorrit_mulder - Master Thesis “Knowledge Dissemination in Sub-Saharan Africa : What Role for Open Educational Resources (OER)?”
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World of E's: (Working) Learning Design Principles →
Great post and insightful (working) learning principles.
Source worldofe:
I posted a braindump a few weeks ago on things that felt like important considerations for our learning offerings. I’ve built on that list a bit more and presented it on the Learning Community call today. We got some great feedback and are looking for even more insight as we continue to…
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Anonymous asked: Thieme, wat voor vragen krijg je nou het liefst?
Anonymous asked: Thieme, waarom is de lucht blauw?
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On #badges - another email
I had an email discussion today with some partners in a EU project I am involved in. We are discussing the option of giving badges to learners and teachers who participated in the project. We have some disagreement about the (potential) value of using badges in this particular project (aimed at dropouts). I summed up my ideas about it in an email, which I share below.
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First, on the...
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#Crowdfunding #science and more
I just sent an email to my colleagues and thought, it’s publishable. See below.
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dear colleagues,
I just stumbled upon an recently launched online initiative that supports crowdfunding research projects: something like Kickstarter for science projects. There is an enormous growth in crowdfunding platforms, Kickstarter.com being one of the major ones. Just last week, a watch called...
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Anonymous asked: waarom is de regenboog krom?
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“We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology, and yet...”
– Conversations with Carl Sagan
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Self-selection @tudelft
I have an cool seminar this month (18th) at my faculty, the topic is interesting enough to share with the world.
Title: Self-selection: What is it, why should we care, and what should we do about it?
Abstract: Wherever there is freedom of choice, self-selection is a potentially-relevant phenomenon. Self-selection occurs when people are not randomly-distributed with respect to conditions relevant...
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“The days of old Google hiring smart people and empowering them to invent the...”
– James Whittaker on why he left Google (via soupsoup)
sofieblaisse asked: how tall are you?
March 2012
4 posts
5 tags
The future of 'knowledge'?
I was thinking over this quote I stumbled upon yesterday;
The difference between IM and KM is the difference between a recipe and a chef, a map of London and a London cabbie, a book and its author.
from: http://jbordeaux.com/im-v-km/
I remembered a picture (below) I came across last year, about the development/growth of the Web, not in quantity, but in quality and potential. As the web grows...
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Illeris on society and learning
.. learning is an important mediating connection in a most topical question about whether human qualities are able to match and cope with current societal structures which the very same human capacities have been the incentives for developing - or whether societal development has taken over the last bit of power from the human basis that has created it and is about to destroy its own existence.
...
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School without classrooms and grades
More pictures: http://archen.mr926.me/2012/01/vittra-telefonplan-rosan-bosch/
A new school system in Sweden eliminated all of its classrooms in favor of an environment that fosters children’s “curiosity and creativity.”
Vittra, which runs 30 schools in Sweden, wanted learning to take place everywhere in its schools — so it threw out the “old-school”...
February 2012
15 posts
1 tag
Sense, Essence, and Existence: Free Will Studies →
@brembs
Animals in very tightly constrained niches, such as maybe gut parasites, have among the most deterministic behavioral repertoire compared to other animals, because any variation in behavior might be deadly.
s33:
Laypersons’ belief in free will may foster a sense of thoughtful reflection and willingness to exert energy, thereby promoting helpfulness and reducing aggression, and so...
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My favorite podcast series
There you go:
BBC:
Click, Discovery, FOOC (From Our Own Correspondent), Infinite Monkey Cage, Documentaries, Philosophy Bites, One Planet, A Point of View, Science in Action
Other
FORA.tv, Nature Podcast, TED Talks
Dutch podcasts
Metropolis, VPRO 1 Minuut
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Learning online - a startup guide
I just wrote this email to a friend of mine, who is considering to educate himself online. As I have investigated this topic for a while, I have created a list with references that might interest him. I think the list is pretty nice, so I share it here as well. For privacy reasons I have omitted some texts.
I think you should consider the Web design course, as it is quite comprehensive, and...
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“…Understanding. Coherence. Sensemaking. Meaning. These elements are prominent in...”
– George Siemens - Connectivism (through Connectiv)
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What people remember - debunking an urban myth
I just came across this quite old (2006! :)) blog post that debunks the idea that people remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they see, 30% of what they hear, etc.
That information, and similar pronouncements are fraudulent. Moreover, general statements on the effectiveness of learning methods are not credible—-learning results depend on too many variables to enable such...
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“Be warned that if you wish, as I do, to build a society in which individuals...”
– Richard Dawkins - The Selfish Gene (1976)
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“I get frustrated when people talk about OpenCourseWare or the Khan Academy as...”
– Uncollege Newsletter
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Back to behaviorism? #LAK12
“… The students’ feelings and attitudes, which are hugely important to the educational process, cannot be measured by clicks at all.”
http://libraryanalytics.blogspot.com/2012/02/behaviorism.html
My reply:
Clicks, ok, but fortunately ‘social learners’ do more than clicking: they write, comment, repost, blog, etc. There are many different methods and...
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“The relationship of one course’s content to another’s goes unexplored—there is...”
– The Accidental Learner (Wonderful Brain)
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Sense, Essence, and Existence: Knowledge question... →
s33:
Knowledge: How do you perceive knowledge, is it an object that need to be preserved or process that need to be managed? I perceive that the word ‘knowledge’ has several connotations. To know something can be contingent upon a memory of an experience of having learned something. This kind of…
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“We are teaching our children in a curriculum style that isn’t vastly different...”
– Ben Betts… is stoatly different (BLOG)
January 2012
3 posts
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MIT Mints a Valuable New Form of Academic Currency →
Meanwhile, it will be fascinating to watch MITx mint a brand-new form of academic currency. What happens when it enters circulation? Will other universities accept it as transfer credit, or employers as proof of skills? How will those credentials affect the fast-growing market for online credits and degrees, much of which is driven by the expensive for-profit sector?
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Innovation and analytics in farming
Very interesting recording from yesterday’s session on data and analytics in agriculture is now available. Chris Perry - a potato farmer - detailed how they use analytics to transform their farming operation, moving to “biomimicry” (following the natural biological process) and reducing the impact of chemicals on farming.
From the Learning Analytics Course 2012...
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“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”
– Bertrand Russell
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970)
December 2011
6 posts
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Louie vindt het grappig.
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“Design: the marriage of aesthetics and functionality”
– Keith Hampson
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Winners of the Open Badge contest #dmlbadges →
The winners of the Open Badge contest have been announced. Very cool competition to support innovative projects that aim to develop tools and methods for open assessment and recognition of skills through an Open Badge Infrastructure (OBI). The OBI is developed by the Mozilla Foundation (with funds from the MacArthur foundation) in collaboration with P2PU.org (Peer2Peer University). It is a very...
September 2011
3 posts
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August 2011
3 posts
