C4T #4

Elizabeth Lawley: "Just Press Play" - Adding a Gaming Layer to the Undergraduate Experience

Howard Rheingold is a teacher at Stanford and at UC Berkley's School of Information. The first time I commented on Mr. Rheingold's blog his post was about Elizabeth Lawley and how she is experimenting with game mechanics in education. She is using gaming to enrich the learning experience for undergraduate students. To me this is such a neat idea. Students can learn through gaming and use it for social networking as well. It is a great way to incorporate technology into the learning environment.

Assessment: Turning a Blunt Instrument Into a Powerful Learning Tool

The second time I read and commented on Mr. Rheingold's blog, he was discussing assessment and how he is trying to veer away some from the traditional aspects of grading. He talks about how he gave a mid-term that was for no grade, where the students had to grade them themselves. This had great success in his classroom. I think it is good to keep some structure in grading so students can know where they stand in their classes, but I like the ideas of peer grading and keeping to focus on learning and the learning experience rather than the grade.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mr. Rheingold's blog, he had some great ideas and insight.