Over the past decade, academic research has increasingly examined issues of multitasking and distraction as people try to squeeze more activities into their busy lives. Prior to the Internet age, some cognition science research focused on how behavior might be better understood, improved and made more efficient in business, hospital or other high-pressure settings. But as digital technology has become ubiquitous in many people’s daily routines — and as multitasking has become a “lifestyle” of sorts for many younger people — researchers have tried to assess how humans are coping in this highly connected environment and how “chronic multitasking” may diminish our capacity to function effectively.
It has become a platitude by now to say that massive open online courses largely failed to achieve the promise many advocates saw to expand access to high-quality education democratically throughout the world. But now two researchers have provided the analysis and data to prove it. Source: Study offers data to show MOOCs didn’t achieve…
Today’s digest revisits the idea of inquiry methods. Why? Because a quick Google search resulted in the very clear impression that many instructors still believe (or at least blog about) the idea that students learn more when they discover new knowledge on their own, without being explicitly taught. Given this apparent pervasive belief, we share here a…
Today’s updates for the Class Notebook add-in for OneNote desktop update include: Grade scale support for Canvas and Skooler. Skooler joins the OneNote add-in family. Stickers—now includes the ability to customize. Source: OneNote Class Notebook add-in now includes grade scales, improved LMS integration and sticker customization – Office Blogs Some great additions to OneNote Class…
Harvard’s CS50 class, Introduction to Computer Science I, has become very popular, swelling in size to 636 students this past term. Unfortunately, the increase in popularity hasn’t been without its problems. More than 60 students enrolled in Computer Science 50: “Introduction to Computer Science I” last semester appeared before the College’s Honor Council in a wave…
The dinosaurs pair over Bluetooth to a new Jurassic World companion iOS / Android app, and kids can drag and drop code to make them do things. The robots can move, light up, make noise, or engage in different interactions. I particularly loved their dancing mode. Source: Dancing dinosaurs will teach your kid to code –…
Using a database of past tweets, they were able to effectively pick out the next words a user was likely to use. But they were able to do so more effectively if they simply had access to what a person’s contacts were saying on Twitter. Source: Social media can predict what you’ll say, even if you…