Items to Share; 14 December 2014

Education Focus

• The Growth Mindset : Telling Penguins to Flap Harder ? | Disappointed Idealist 'My objection is to the way in which Dweck’s conclusions are rapidly metamorphosing into something completely different, and thus reinforcing the set of existing bonkers principles which are largely shaping education policy. Dweck’s well-meaning and perfectly reasonable research may well end up producing toxic outcomes if we don’t nip it in the bud.'

• Colour coded self-assessment | Teaching: Leading Learning 'this term I have been working with colleagues from Maths and Languages on using self-assessment to improve redrafting. The concept is based on [...] the principles of improving work over time through specific feedback. This is best encapsulated by his famous “Austin’s Butterfly” example – mandatory viewing for all teachers! Just in case you haven’t seen it...'  

•  WizIQ Launches e-Learning Tool to Create Video Lectures | Faculty Focus
  

• Fear and anxiety are the enemies of learning.pdf [seda.ac.uk] by Graham Gibbs. Also touches on my own stuff on learning as loss. 

• Donald Clark Plan B: VR is a medium not a gadget: 7 learning principles that work in VR 'Virtual Reality is a medium not a gadget; but how appropriate is it for education and training? I’ve spent a lifetime using technology in learning but am no technological determinist. [...] However, the first time I tried an Oculus Rift, it blew my mind, not just with its total immersion but its possibilities in learning. Before we get carried away with the sheer joy of the toy, what does the psychology of learning tell us about VR?' 

• Shimer College: the worst school in America? | Education | The Guardian 'This tiny, eccentric institution in Chicago was just voted the worst place to study in America. But does Shimer, which shuns lectures and has no societies or clubs, deserve such an accolade?'

Other Business

• Science News Fail: How NOT to Illustrate Your Story » Sociological Images 'Mainstream media outlets such as the Today Show, Marie Claire, and Huffington Post have been reporting on a new scientific study that claims “women talk more than men.” These media outlets report there’s new “biological evidence to support the idea that women are more talkative than men.' [...] Not quite!

• World-beating email EULA - Boing Boing 

• Watch: How to very, very, very finely chop an onion - Boing Boing by Marco Pierre White. On the radio.

• Parable of the Polygons - a playable post on the shape of society  

• Study supports the theory that men are idiots [eurekalert.org]

• Why all research findings are false | The Devil's Neuroscientist

• How risk factors drive medical overtreatment – Jeff Wheelwright – Aeon

• An exploration of the basis for patient complaints about the oldness of magazines in practice waiting rooms: cohort study | The BMJ 'No gossipy magazines were harmed in this study (although we were tempted). Some recipe pages were torn out. Please be assured that clinical staff did not remove magazines during this study, so none incurred the death penalty.' [via the Browser]

• Ronald Blythe...: Glorious tombs and an old pub draw Ronald Blythe to a small town Advent and holly and a sense of history.

• More Stormscapes 'flat-out incredible, by far the best of its kind.' Video