http://www.the-wests.net/rick Educational Evaluator, Researcher, & Teacher Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:39:14 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Today's menu for my children at school: Breakfast - donut and gogurt; milk (chocolate/strawberry/regular) Lunch - Cheese and Fruit plate; Doritos; Pudding Pop; milk (chocolate/strawberry/regular) Yesterday's menu at school: Lunch - Cheese pizza and ice cream; chocolate milk In the News recently: "About one-third of children and teens in the USA — about 25 million children ... http://www.the-wests.net/rick/2008/08/08/someone-tell-the-school-cafeteria/ There's a great discussion going on at Jon Mott's Blog about how to improve course management systems. Jon's original post made the very correct observation that CMS vendors often fail because their customers are not students, but institutions. I have seen this as well as I have researched CMS technologies, ... http://www.the-wests.net/rick/2008/08/06/how-can-we-improve-course-management-systems/ The other day a friend of mine took a predictable swipe at those of my ilk in the "soft sciences" as not doing really "important" research. What I wanted to say, but couldn\'t phrase very articulately, is exactly what I just barely read in a booklet by John Flanagan: "Mankind has ... http://www.the-wests.net/rick/2008/07/17/mankinds-most-important-problem/ With AERA proposal deadlines looming near, I have a question for any readers of this blog: How much of prior conference presentations can be used in a new proposal? What if it was presented at a different conference? What if it wasn't published as part of the proceedings? I am ... http://www.the-wests.net/rick/2008/07/11/reusing-conference-presentation-material/ I am working on some suggested revisions for an article that was recently accepted (pending revisions). I noticed one reviewer thought I had some typos, when really, s/he missed my meaning. For example, the reviewer thought that when I wrote that "computers will envelope our society" that I meant "envelop." ... http://www.the-wests.net/rick/2008/06/26/missing-the-meaning/ I thought today's Off the Mark comic was really funny in the perspective of virtual identities and communities--it poignantly raises the question, "how do we talk about the passing of a friend that we only knew by his online username?" Powered by Qumana http://www.the-wests.net/rick/2008/02/26/when-virtual-identities-pass-on/ Our little boy was born today at 12:52 p.m. All went well, and he and my wife are doing great. He was 21.5 inches long and 7 lbs, 3 oz. He's also got a thick mop of curly hair!And get this -- I got to deliver him! I was "Dr." ... http://www.the-wests.net/rick/2008/02/15/our-baby-son-is-born/ In an interesting twist, Harvard is mandating that its professors in Arts and Sciences post their published papers online, or at least allow online access. This will require faculty to publish only in journals that allow online access. I say this is a twist because it seems that usually faculty ... http://www.the-wests.net/rick/2008/02/13/harvard-papers-now-online/ This website's design is amazing, as an example of creative advertising. Tip of the hat to Clif for pointing it out.  I can't say whether this creativity works or not. On the one hand, it seems less usable, and I struggled to be able to click on any of the ... http://www.the-wests.net/rick/2008/02/13/innovative-website/ For an evaluation project I am working on, I need to be able to pretest and posttest teachers' digital literacy improvements from some professional development in this area. Can anyone recommend a resource, method, or person in this area? Powered by Qumana http://www.the-wests.net/rick/2008/02/11/evaluating-teachers-digital-literacy/