Category Archives: Instructional Design

Strings Attached Co-Author Offers Solutions for Education – WSJ.com

Praise makes you weak…My old teacher Mr. K seldom praised us. His highest compliment was “not bad.” It turns out he was onto something. Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck has found that 10-year-olds praised for being “smart” became less confident. But kids told that they were “hard workers” became more confident and better performers.”The whole point of intelligence praise is to boost confidence and motivation, but both were gone in a flash,” wrote Prof. Dweck in a 2007 article in the journal Educational Leadership. “If success meant they were smart, then struggling meant they were not.”

via Strings Attached Co-Author Offers Solutions for Education – WSJ.com.

Halvorson: Bad Content = Bad Design

Kristina Halvorson makes a point strongly — and with more authority — that I feel strongly about: Bad content sabotages great design every time.

Content Strategy and UX: A Modern Love Story | UX Magazine.

Khan Academy iPad App

The Kahn Academy launched an iPad app last week. The not-for-profit YouTube educational video site, which offers brief tutorials by math genius and former hedge fund manager Salman Khan is already one of the best and most lauded academic websites. Now you can access everything you love about this sensational educator and his site from your Apple tablet. The app is as simple and elegant as Khan’s lessons.

via The Khan Academy goes mobile with new iPad app – iPhone app review – Lisa Caplan | Appolicious ™ iPhone and iPad App Directory.

Education Online & the “Flip”

She’s now on her way to “flipping” the way her class works. This involves replacing some of her lectures with Khan’s videos, which students can watch at home. Then, in class, they focus on working problem sets. The idea is to invert the normal rhythms of school, so that lectures are viewed on the kids’ own time and homework is done at school. It sounds weird, Thordarson admits, but this flipping makes sense when you think about it. It’s when they’re doing homework that students are really grappling with a subject and are most likely to need someone to talk to.

via How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education | Wired Magazine | Wired.com.