I’ve now completed the grading of the first round of scrapbooks that my students turned in for my Western Civ class. As one would expect, their performance was all of the map. By far their best work was for the personal history assignment I give them. Once again these essays (mostly) displayed excellent research, careful…
Subverting the Archive
After a Spring Break hiatus, edwired is back. A recent story in the Washington Post by Linda Hales (March 11 edition. I’d post the link but their archive search page isn’t working) detailed the plans by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum to turn every web visitor into their own curator. Once the site goes up…
Tests we don’t need, but probably ought to prepare for
The once and former president of Harvard, Derek Bok, published an interesting op ed piece in the Washington Post last week. Bok takes notice of the growing demands for assessment tests in higher education and neatly summarizes the reasons why they are a bad idea–at least in some disciplines. I’m all for assessment in disciplines…
Why textbook publishers should fear asteroids
One of the least fun aspects of my job as coordinator of our Western Civ course is dealing with the constant stream of textbook reps that flows through my office door. They come to see me because our course enrolls approximately 1,500 students a semester, which means that if their book wholesales for $50 and…