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Monday, April 28, 2003 |
Wear A Nametag, Make More Friends. 
Identity is a key component of reputation: unless you know who you are dealing with today, you don't know whether they cheated you yesterday. According to CNN.com, Scott Ginsberg, a recent college graduate, discovered that wearing a simple name tag makes most other people act in a more friendly manner. Clearly, this is an area where controlled studies could yield valuable information about the relationship between identity, reputation, and sociability.
(Thanks, Mike!)
[Smart Mobs]
8:50:40 PM 
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Understanding University Success
What must students know and be able to do in order to succeed in entry-level university courses? It is a difficult question because admissions requirements only hint at what is actually expected once students reach college. Traditional measures of high school achievement do not necessarily address this question very well either because they reflect each individual high school's notions of what constitutes college readiness. Even the best, brightest and most diligent high school students who easily meet admission requirements may find themselves struggling in entry-level courses. They may be eligible for admission and still not be prepared to succeed.
Knowledge and Skills for University Success, developed by Standards for Success (S4S), is the result of a two-year study in which more than 400 faculty and staff members from twenty research universities, all members of the Association of American Universities (AAU), participated in extensive meetings and reviews designed to identify what students must do to succeed in entry-level courses at their institutions. National academic content standards documents were analyzed and used for comparison. Multiple peer reviews were employed to hone the standards and ensure their validity, while consultants with expertise in standards development contributed suggestions for improvement. The resulting statements represent the most comprehensive and thoroughly grounded set of standards for college success yet developed.
The standards presented here are designed to create a new way to view college preparation. The standards, in combination with the accompanying CD-ROM and the S4S website, provide a road map of the content knowledge and habits of mind that are valued by leading research universities in the United States.
The faculty and staff members who participated in the process of developing these standards represent a wide range of academic viewpoints. One of the most dominant themes raised by participants is the importance of the habits of mind students develop in high school and bring with them to university studies. These habits are considered by many faculty members to be more important than specific content knowledge. The habits of mind include critical thinking, analytic thinking and problem solving; an inquisitive nature and interest in taking advantage of what a research university has to offer; the willingness to accept critical feedback and to adjust based on such feedback; openness to possible failures from time to time; and the ability and desire to cope with frustrating and ambiguous learning tasks. Other critical skills include the ability to express one's self in writing and orally in a clear and convincing fashion; to discern the relative importance and credibility of various sources of information; to draw inferences and reach conclusions independently; and to use technology as a tool to assist the learning process rather than as a crutch.
6:27:39 AM
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As mentioned previously in this space:
Gibson Kicks the Blogging Habit. William Gibson's blog has attracted a loyal following. But the author of the seminal cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer, is giving up blogging to let the 'sinews of narrative' grow. Karlin Lillington reports from Dublin, Ireland. [Wired News]
6:19:34 AM
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