The Latest Cark Weiman study
Summary: “Science” just published (May 13, 2011) a fascinating article:  Improved Learning in a Large Enrollment Physics Class, Louis Deslauriers, Ellen Schelew, and Carl Wieman
Carl is a Physics Noble prize winner, now working in science education.  The article is on an experiment they did in physics education.
They waited until week 12 in a traditional lecture course, and then changed 1 week of class sessions. They used what they called “deliberate practice”, meaning: posing good application problems for students, letting them see if they could solve them individually, recording their answers with “clickers”, talking about their answers with 1-2 other students, and getting immediate feedback from the teacher.
With just 3 days of those changes, they had the following impact in the experimental groups:

• attendance went up 20%
• student engagement went up 100%
• student performance on tests was better (2.5X)
• when students were later asked if they liked these changes and thought they would learn more if they were used in the whole course, said in essence: “Of course!”

This has resulted in fascinating discussion in the HETL group on LinkedIn and following a Chronicle article with an appalling and inflammatory title:  “Postdocs Can Be Trained to Be More Effective Than Senior Instructors, Study Finds,”

Two other different coverages in the press:

www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2011/05/12/interactive-teaching-methods-double-learning-engagement-in-large-undergraduate-physics-class/

www.nzherald.co.nz/the-changing-world/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502962&objectid=10725393

The article itself is three pages, has 12 references and comes with 26 pages of supporting material and detail (only online, not in the printed journal).

• Divide the board into sections
• Hold the chalk at the horizontal
• Use the same colours for headings and subheadings each time
• Underline with a squiggly line rather than a straight line (because nobody can draw a straight line)
• Keep a section for first appearance of terms, vocab
• Throw the blackboard duster at a student
• Rub off section by section so slow scribblers can catch up on copying what you wrote 10 minutes ago
• Have blackboard monitors or helpers, beacause kids love erasing and clapping out dusters
• Colour in a new blackboard with side of a piece of chalk, then erase normally to ³prime² it for use
• Fun fact: chalk is not actually made from chalk rock (calcium carbonate), but from calcium sulfate in its dihydrate form, gypsum.

From an e-mail Mike Dickison http://www.giantflightlessbirds.com/

1. Write collaboratively in a wiki.  (In this case a script for a soap opera)
2. Blog (in character, in german) for a month.  [This is an interesting genre]
3.  Shoot the video and put it on YouTube.  (Complete with Bloopers)

See it here: http://seifenoper.wikispaces.com/  
Fictional Blogging.  An interesting use of blogs, a little outside of my direct experieince.  I did hear Angela Thomas in 2005:

Fictional Blogging and the Narrative Identities of Adolescent Girls – Angela Thomas -University of Sydney
Abstract: This paper explores the emergence of fictional blogging such as blog novels and the diaries of fictional characters as a new form of narrative construction. A typology of blog fiction is first presented to outline the scope of this emergent genre. The paper then introduces a case study of two fictional diaries kept by adolescent girls who use the diaries as one of the means to co-construct and add depth to their crossover and alternate universe fan fiction based on the fantasy worlds of Middle Earth and Star Wars. The case study examines the range of discursive and social practices used by the girls in their collaborative narratives using a combination of narrative theory and post-structural feminist theory. The paper also explores the ways in which these practices embedded in fiction also reflect aspects of the girls’ real identities.
From Blogtalk downuner: http://incsub.org/blogtalk/?page_id=109