Thank you for adding this important thought! Yes, there are also many factors that affect students’ performance on an exam, even the exam is a very standardized one. Students living in a city with plenty of resources may find a tutor or cram school to help prepare the exam, but students from areas lack of resources may not be able to access these assistances before the test. I can only say that these standardized exams are relatively feasible to achieve the fair selection for colleges for now.
Author: Yan
Comment on Pros and cons of exam-oriented education by Yan
Thank you for the comment! I cannot agree more. Designing some open-ended problems is very important, even for some basic science and engineering courses. The earlier we learn to think critically, the more benefits we get.
Comment on Can multi-taking be mindfulness-making? by Yan
Thank you for sharing this interesting idea! I can study mathematics, listen to music and maybe read some interesting posts from phone at the same time, but I definitely cannot read an English article when I also try to do something else. So maybe the effectiveness of multi-task depends on what the tasks are and also has some individual differences (?). But using tweets as a note-taking worths a try!
Comment on Laptops And Phones In The Classroom: YAAAAYYY! by Yan
I agree that there should be different levels of control for students at different ages/stages, but when we consider about controlling to what extent students should use digital devices, we should also take the possible individual differences among them in mind. For me as a foreign-language speaker, when I start my learning in a high-level graduate course in English, having a mobile phone around to check some concepts is very helpful to follow the whole class…
Comment on Shhh…! Students Are Sleeping! by Yan
Very interesting and inspiring blog! Thanks, Sogand! It is very common that a few students fall asleep during classes, especially when the lecture is poorly designed. I feel like that digital technologies can sometimes be very helpful to assist my understanding of new concepts/words during a lecture-based class. It is necessary for the lecturers to design some student-centered teaching methods, which incorporate the reasonable usage of digital technology.
Comment on Permanent, yet ephemeral: conversing on social media platforms by Yan
Allie, thank you for your detailed and wonderful discussion. I think that a lot of people have the concerns that you have mentioned. The development of communication technique should definitely consider that peoples’ opinion is dynamic rather than static.
Comment on Throwing Yourself Out There in a Networked World by Yan
I agree with your opinions. It is easy to get uncomfortable when exposing mistakes to others, but without sharing and getting feedback we cannot learn and grow rapidly. We should get out of the comfort zone, especially an isolated condition, to throw ourselves in a network and use the connections to learn effectively.
Comment on Networked Learning = Change by Yan
I have the same reason as Brittany to take courses out of department. I also hope to actively involve in the networked learning with classmates from different study fields. I agree that the open data platform is so powerful today where we can retrieve data and generate different perspectives and contribute our data as well.
