Professional development resources
Educators resources
These resources from Nurse Education are designed
to help educators with professional development and copyright
issues on the Internet.
We are pleased to include a collection of resources from
CTL 1609 Fall 2001. Focused resources from colleagues at this
level extend a unique opportunity to professionally develop
... and save you enormous amounts of precious time!
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Don't forget to take a look at our Educator's
Toolbox for some super time-saving educational tools.
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Note: To avoid losing your thread, the following links will
open in a new browser window.
Lesson plans
Lesson
Planz.com
A useful directory that helps teachers to find online lessons
in different topics such as science, art , computer, etc.
It also includes a collection of articles related to the teaching
profession. The site has a search tool that allows visitors
find the material easily.
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One stop shopping
www
for Teachers
This site educates teachers on technology as well as offering
them tools for education.
Online
Educational Resources
The resources in the ION Online Resources section represent
a selected list of resources dealing with various aspects
of online education and the online environment in general.
It also has the capability to search.
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Exam questions
Writing
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) That Demand Critical Thinking
An excellent resource from the University of Oregon's Teaching
Effectiveness Program.
Designing
Test Questions
This site offers descriptions and follows with uses, advantages,
disadvantages, and tips for writing test questions in all
formats.
Assessing
Learning Objectives: Bloom's Taxonomy
Bloom's Taxonomy provides a useful structure in which to categorize
test questions when assessing student learning. Here are some
examples of test questions reflecting the six levels of learning
according to Bloom.
*
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Objectives
Bloom’s
Taxonomy for Educational Objectives and Test Questions
Benjamin Bloom created this taxonomy for categorizing level
of abstraction of questions that commonly occur in educational
settings. The taxonomy provides a useful structure in which
to categorize test questions, since professors will characteristically
ask questions within particular levels, and if you can determine
the levels of questions that will appear on your exams, you
will be able to study using appropriate strategies.
How
to write Behavioural Objectives
Dr. Bob Kizlik offers an excellent understanding of behavioural
objectives, their importance, as well as how-to write them.
Worth checking out!
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Search engines
Annotated
List of Search Tools
An annotated bibliography of all search engines including
an explanation of each and what they are best used for.
Boolean
Searching on the Internet
Of all the readings, we found this URL to be the simplest
Boolean search method. It stated the fact, gave an example
and then showed a Venn diagram demonstrating the meaning.
Virtual
Search Engines on the Internet
A convenient repository of a large assortment search engines.
It has them all on 1 page and provides a description for each
listing.
Search
the Internet - 3 Powerful Approaches
A wonderful guide from Berkeley on how to understand and
dramatically improve your search strategies and perform effective
Internet searches.
Recommended
Search Strategy
Analyze Your Topic & Search with Peripheral Vision. The
5-Step approach to Internet searches ... again, recommended
from UC Berkeley.
Mondo
Search
Site search engine for corporate web sites, intranets and
extranets by Mondosoft.com.
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Research
Guidelines
of Critique for Research Report
A very simple 1 page description of how to critique a research
report.
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Assessment
Assessing
Learning Objectives - Bloom's Taxonomy
Bloom's Taxonomy provides a useful structure in which to categorize
test questions when assessing student learning. See some examples
of test questions reflecting the six levels of learning according
to Bloom.
Assessing
Learners Online
More and more teaching and learning are taking place at
a distance, especially on the World Wide Web. How do educators
measure what distance learners know? This issue of the Practitioner
File looks at issues and techniques related to the assessment
of online learning for adult, career, and vocational education.
Student
Assessment in Online Courses
Explores Basics, Tools & Problems
Evaluating
Learning in Virtual Environments
This document by M. A. Syverson and John Slatin, Division
of Rhetoric and Composition University of Texas at Austin,
describes a project funded through the Computer Education
and Training Initiative sponsored by DARPA for 1995-1997.
Online
Evaluation Resource Library
The Online Evaluation Resource Library (OERL) was developed
for professionals seeking to design, conduct, document, or
review project evaluations. OERL is funded by the National
Science Foundation (NSF). OERL's mission is to support the
continuous improvement of project evaluations. Sound evaluations
are critical to determining project effectiveness.
Eric
Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation
Ericae.net provides balanced information concerning educational
assessment, evaluation and research methodology.
The
Case for Authentic Assessment – Grant Wiggins
Mr. Wiggins, a researcher and consultant on school reform
issues, is a widely-known advocate of authentic assessment
in education. This article is based on materials that he prepared
for the California Assessment Program.
Testing
on Computers
A follow up study comparing performance on computer and on
paper [48 pages]
Principles
for fair student assessment practices in Canada
Created by a collection of nationally renowned educational
organizations and endorsed by the Canadian School Boards Association,
the Canadian Teachers Federation, the Canadian Association
for School Administrators, and the Canadian Society for the
Study of Education, this document puts forward a number of
practices and guidelines that can be used to ensure that the
assessment of students in Canadian classrooms is authentic,
accurate, and fair.
Together/fair.html
Item Bias Review
This article by Ronald Hambleton and Jane H.Rodgers, University
of Massachusetts at Amherst, introduces three issues to consider
when evaluating items for bias -- fairness, bias, and stereotyping.
The issues are presented and sample review questions are posed.
A comprehensive item bias review form based on these principles
is listed in the references and is available from ERIC/AE.
This Article and the review form are intended to help both
item writers and reviewers.
Web
Page Rubrics
Now that we are using the Internet in
the classroom to support instruction, it is important that
the area of assessment be addressed. The natural tendency
for teachers is to provide a rubric for student use and for
assessment purposes. Look at this collection of assessment
rubrics for use of the World Wide Web that may be helpful
for you as you design your own.
Sample
Rubrics
One method designed to make grading easier and faster, as
well as to provide more useful feedback to students is the
use of rubrics. Especially when grading projects, rubrics
offer an easy, fast and consistent grading method.
Online
Resources - Rubrics Resources
How often have you attempted to grade your students' work
only to find that the assessment criteria were vague and the
performance behavior was overly subjective? Would you be able
to justify the assessment or grade if you had to defend it?
The Rubric is an authentic assessment tool which is particularly
useful in assessing criteria which are complex and subjective.This
site discusses rubrics in many forums (e.g. web, oral etc.)
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Writing Clearly & Simply
Writing
Tips - The Fog Index
The Fog Index is a proven method of analyzing written material
to see how easy it is to read and understand. This tool measures
it.
Clear
Language and Design
Run your report or document through and it will highlight
(fog) words that are not at a grade 6 level.
Clear
Writing -- 10 principles of clear writing
This succinct writing guide comprises 10 principles of
clear statement.
Principles
of Clear Writing - Office of the
Federal Register
The active voice eliminates confusion by forcing you to name
the actor in a sentence. This construction makes clear to
the reader who is to perform the duty. The passive voice makes
sentences longer and roundabout. Who is responsible is much
less obvious. See some great examples here.
Seven
most common business writing mistakes and how to avoid them
Guidelines on how to write good business letters and how to
avoid the common pitfalls.
Writer's
Handbook
The correct usage of grammar and style.
Introducing
Plain Language
Plain Train online Training teaches how to write in plain
language. Plain language matches the needs of the reader with
your needs as a writer, resulting in effective and efficient
communication. It is effective because the reader can understand
the message. It is efficient because the reader can read and
understand the message the first time. Get some great tips
here.
Think
Clearly. Write it Right
Writing effectively doesn't have to be an elusive
goal. Good writing is not strings of lengthy, convoluted,
complicated sentences intertwined like spaghetti in a bowl.
Clear writing is simple writing. (Not simplistic, simple.)
It's a matter of knowing what we mean to say and then saying
it. A great resource from Insite Training re: critical thinking
as it pertains to writing.
Plain
Language Action Network
Stay informed about plain language in technology, health,
government, education, business and more.
The
Word Centre. Success Through Plain Language
Read more about the importance of communication through plain
language writing and how to become more adept.
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Educational research journals
Canadian
Education on the Web
The purpose of Canadian Education on the Web is to bring together
everything relating to Canada and education that has a presence
on the World Wide Web. The page is developed and maintained
by Marian Press in the Education Commons of the Ontario Institute
for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto.
Education
Journals
Marian Press's website listing URLs of online full text educational
journals
Journal
of Educational Leadership
Journal for teachers and administrators provides selected
articles from each issue. Learn how to subscribe or how to
submit articles.
Journal
of Technology & Teacher Education
Take a look at this academic journal that specializes in the
implementation of technology in teacher education. Subscription
instructions provided. The cost is $45.00/journal.
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Learning styles
Learning
Style Questionnaire
Take this learning style questionnaire to see where you fit.
Learning
Style Counseling
What is learning styles
Know
your learning styles
People learn in different ways. Just as we prefer different
hair styles, clothing styles, managerial styles, and music
styles, we also feel much more natural and comfortable acquiring
information in ways that fit our preferred "styles" of learning.
Learning
Styles - Great Minds Don't Think Alike
This workshop deals with the work of Dr Rita Dunn from St
John's University in New York and Dr Ken Dunn of Queen's College
in New York. They are leading American educators in the area
of learning styles. (Whitefield, 1993)
Learning
Styles and the Online Environment
Online learning environment and learning styles.
CTL
Learning Style Site
Using Learning Styles to Adapt Technology for Higher Education.
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Adult learning principles
From
Novice to Expert. An Exploration of How Professionals Learn
An excellent resource, this article is written by Barbara
J. Daley for Adult Education Quarterly. This is an Adobe pdf
file and requires Acrobat Reader to view it. Download
Acrobat Reader here FREE.
Adult
Learning Principles
Part of being an effective instructor involves understanding
how adults learn best. Compared to children and teens, adults
have special needs and requirements as learners. Despite the
apparent truth, adult learning is a relatively new area of
study. The field of adult learning was pioneered by Malcom
Knowles. He identified the following characteristics of adult
learners:
A
learning Style Survey for College
A learning style questionnaire.
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Critical thinking
Fundamentals
of Critical Thinking
The Library provides K-12 educators with a range of articles
on critical thinking. The Library is an informative resource
center for all those interested in learning how to improve
the quality of their student's, and their own, thinking.
3
Definitions of Critical Thinking
In thinking critically we use our command of the elements
of thinking to adjust our thinking successfully to the logical
demands of a type or mode of thinking. Find out more.
Content
is thinking: Thinking is content
Critical thinking approaches all content explicitly as thinking.
It takes thinking apart. It weaves new thinking into old.
It assesses thinking. It applies thinking. It is thinking
about thinking while thinking in order to make thinking better:
more clear, more accurate, more relevant, more deep, more
broad, and more effective.
Critical
Thinking Resources
A site made up of critical thinking resources.
Helping
Students assess their thinking
There are two essential dimensions of thinking that students
need to master in order to learn how to upgrade their thinking.
They need to be able to identify the "parts" of their thinking,
and they need to be able to assess their use of these parts
of thinking. This article explains this concept.
Universal
Intellectual Standards
Universal intellectual standards are standards which must
be applied to thinking whenever one is interested in checking
the quality of reasoning about a problem, issue, or situation.
To think critically entails having command of these standards.
To help students learn them, teachers should pose questions
which probe student thinking, questions which hold students
accountable for their thinking, questions which, through consistent
use by the teacher in the classroom, become internalized by
students as questions they need to ask themselves.
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Citing sources
The
Elements of Citation
All about citing from Columbia University Press. Part 1 of
The Columbia Guide to Online Style by Janice R. Walker and
Todd Taylor (Columbia UP, 1998) presents a guide to locating,
translating, and using the elements of citation for both a
humanities style (i.e., MLA and Chicago) and a scientific
style (APA and CBE) for electronically-accessed sources. The
unique element approach used makes this a useful reference
for citing electronic sources regardless of the specific bibliographic
style you may be required to use.
A
Guide for Writing Research Papers
This guide is based on a document prepared in 1995 by Patricia
S. Burgess, Ph.D., a volunteer staff member for America Online,
and subsequently modified and updated for use on the World
Wide Web by members of the Humanities Department and library
staff at Capital Community College in Hartford, Connecticut.
In March and April of 1997, it was modified to its present
question-and-answer format.
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Educational Databases
There are 4 databases for searching your
topic need in education. Each database hosts research
based refereed journals in education, some more than others.
You may have to search all 4 to find your exact topic. As
with any service there is a cost to obtaining the articles.
Hospital - Find out from your
librarian if these databases are available through your organization.
If they are ask your librarian to set up a proxy server so
that you can perform searches and download the online articles
free at home.
Students - If you are a student
you will be able to obtain free access through your university
and set up a proxy server to perform searches and download
the online articles free at home.
If your hospital does not pay for the service and/or you
are not a student, the individual prices are listed below:
- ERIC
This is an A1 site! The ERIC
database is the world's largest source of education information.
The database contains more than 1 million abstracts of education-related
documents and journal articles. This database has the best
variety of research in education available.
Cost: Available to the individual.
Pay as you go cost is $9.55 per article
- Wilson
Web
Use this database when you are unable to find your information
in ERIC. Full cover-to-cover text of articles from hundreds
of journals, makes this a one-stop source for research!
Wilson Web includes 95 journals that are not covered by
ERIC’s CIJE.
Cost: Available to the institutional
market only.
- Psycinfo
For information on the cognitive theory/application
and the psychology of learning.
Cost: Prepaid annual
subscriptions fees are $499 for one full year of access.
There is also a "one-shot" transactional
basis enabling you to browse the tables of contents
for free but to view, print, or save a full article, there's
an $11.95 per article charge.
- CBCA Full Text Education
This database is Canadian albeit limited. The CBCA database
encompasses a broad scope of Canadian-specific information
on a wide range of subjects including: Humanities, Social
/ Behavioural Sciences, Business, Medicine and Health, Science
and Technology, Education, and General Interest.
Cost: CBCA is primarily available
only to the institutional market. If you are interested
in individual access, please contact your local public
or school library and request a trial.
- The World Wide Web
Experienced educators share excellent information over the
Internet. Good search engine techniques
will reap a bountiful harvest of resource-rich results.
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