Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts

Thursday, January 8, 2009

The pen is mightier than the sword. The RED pen that is...

I thought this was from The Onion, at first.  At some point in time, I'm guessing the practice of even pointing out mistakes will become too psychologically damaging to a young child's development (which I think someone in this article almost inferred).  I was actually surprised this nonsense didn't originate from the U.S.  From The Daily Telegraph:

Marking in red ink banned in case it upsets schoolchildren
Hundreds of schools have banned their teachers from marking in red ink in case it upsets the children.

They are scrapping the traditional method of correcting work because they consider it "confrontational" and "threatening".

Pupils increasingly find that the ticks and crosses on their homework are in more soothing shades like green, blue, pink and yellow or even in pencil.

Traditionalists have condemned the ban sweeping classrooms as "absolutely barmy", "politically correct" and "trendy".

They insist that red ink makes it easier for children to spot errors and improve.

The red pen goes back further than most schools, having been developed during the mid-19th century when ammonia-based dyes became available.

But the opposition to using red ink is now a worldwide trend with recent guidelines to schools in Queensland, Australia warning that the colour can damage students psychologically.
Of course, if this theory was actually true, I figure I should have been one of the more confident students in our class given the fact that I was a pretty good student and had less red marks on my papers than most.  

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

So it was OK for us to have those fantasies about Winnie Cooper?

Remember Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years? Who knew she's about the same age as us here in the Gang? At age 32, Danica McKellar is set to debut a book she wrote to encourage young girls to enjoy math. From The Washington Post:

"When girls see the antics of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, they think that being fun and glamorous also means being dumb and irresponsible," the 32-year-old McKellar told Newsweek for editions to hit newsstands Monday.

"But I want to show them that being smart is cool," she said. "Being good at math is cool. And not only that, it can help them get what they want out of life."

Apparently, she knows a thing or two about mathematics--she graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in the subject.

I guess it's pretty neat that she's trying to get girls to think being brainy is cool. Personally, I think it's sexy. Unfortunately, I don't think one could use the same approach with boys to make math interesting. Well, unless Winnie came out with a math book with her teaching algebra in this (slightly NSFW--click at your own risk). It would sure beat our junior high math teachers--"Pack 'em up, stack 'em up, put 'em in a pile..."

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

If only my own college life was a video game...


To continue on my "video games are mainstream" theme, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is offering an online course for its Principles of Microeconomics (ECON 201) class. What's the kicker? It's taught in the format of a video game.

Brilliant new method to teach or just a gimmick to get some press?