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All posts for the month January, 2010

The H1G Final Exam Review Mindmap

Posted by Mr.V on 28 January 2010
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Many students had the opportunity to contribute to the construction of this mindmap prior to the final exam. By adding and editing content, students reviewed course topics while working on the map. I’m pleased by the results on multiple levels.

  1. Many students got experience working collaboratively with others. In cyberspace, that means that many of the participants didn’t ‘know’ each other.
  2. Work proceeded with minimal input from me. I was proud knowing that the students can interact with each other, software, and the Internet to PRODUCE content driven by a goal, not a micro-managing teacher.
  3. The performance of the 9th Grade class of (Fall) 2009, outperformed the 9th Grade class of (Fall) 2008 on the final exam. This improved performance was achieved on a test that was 25% longer than its 2008 counterpart (100 ques. vs. 80 ques.).

Below is a copy of the mindmap in its completed form dating to 25 Jan. 2010, the day prior to the scheduled final exam. A job well done by all!

http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/public_map_shell/37645124?width=600&height=400&zoom=1

Google Wave "Invitation" contest.

Posted by Mr.V on 27 January 2010
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Google Wave is an incredible online application that is a hybridization of EMail, Instant Messaging, Live Chat, etc. It is only available via invitation during this early release.

I would like to reward hard-working students who are as interested in cutting-edge productivity software as I am. However, I only have 19 invitations left. Therefore, I will award these invitations to student that score within the top 10% of the H1G Final Exam or H1G course average.

Let me know of your interest by ‘replying’ to my tweet on this topic. You’ll need to have a twitter account and ‘follow’ WorldHistReview. I’ll award the invitations before the start of the Fall term, next week.

"Latest Updates" Section of the Course Website

Posted by Mr.V on 27 January 2010
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Due to issues involving a vulnerability in Adobe Flash code, Twitter widgets that depend on that code have been disabled periodically. This is why the twitter widget on the course website appears ‘blank’. Therefore, I will remove that feature from the website and ask all students, and other users of that feature, to:

  1. Open a twitter account at  https://twitter.com and ‘follow’ https://twitter.com/WorldHistReview
  2. Setup a connection between your twitter account and your cellphone (if you have one and are permitted to do so) using the ‘Mobile’ menu found in the twitter ‘Settings’ tab. This permits you and I to communicate directly- which is extraordinarily faster than email.
  3. If you prefer not to open a twitter account, you may still view the twitter updates on this blog (side bar) as long as twitter doesn’t disable flash-based widgets again; in that case, the widget on this blog will go ‘blank’. However, if you choose this option, all announcements regarding contests, special extra credit activities, polls, enriching content, up to the minute changes, etc. (aside from core academic work) will not be accessible to you in a timely fashion. If for no other reason, the speed and convenience of information flow via twitter is “worth the price of admission” (which is FREE). Whether one has a twitter account or not has NO impact on the course grade.

Read this article for more info on this issue.

Questions on the H1G Final Exam

Posted by Mr.V on 25 January 2010
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I erroneously told my classes that the Final Exam will have 80 questions. That has been the norm in the past, but not now. There will be 100 questions with 10 of them dedicated to maps.

I apologize for this. Though I don’t think this will alter any outcome (I never tell students the number of questions on my in-class exams), some of you believe that this bit of information is pivotal.

The additional questions should be viewed in a positive light:

  1. Each question is worth 1 point each. Therefore, you could possibly absorb a greater number of incorrect responses and still achieve mastery.
  2. You have an extraordinary amount of time to complete the exam. 60 minutes to complete 100 questions is twice as much time compared to exams I’ve issued.
  3. A greater likelihood you’ll see questions that are relatively easy. Added questions don’t mean they have to be more difficult.

So, don’t accept this info negatively. There is a ‘bright’ side.