The Future of Note Taking

Posted on December 12, 2014 by

We are taught to take notes in class, but note taking has changed dramatically over the past decade. Nowadays we see a variety of classroom note taking cultures—-some faculty encourage students to bring laptops to class and use it as a note taking tool, some worry about what’s behind the screen and introducing unnecessary distractions to class. A number of students argue they take better notes using the keyboard, while others are still attached to the traditional pen and paper method. So is there really a better way of note taking?

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Test your quantitative reasoning

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Kristin Bott

This October, my colleague Rich and I went to the National Numeracy Network annual meeting in Northfield, MN (more on that here). During a session on teaching quantitative reasoning led by the brilliant Kate Folliette, folks shared their favorite brain teasers.

A subset of my favorites are below, and are also currently posted outside of my office (ETC 225). Think through these questions; check the links for more resources/background. (Answers at end of post)

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R Resources

Posted on November 25, 2014 by

I am in the process of building a series of tutorials on the Data@Reed website. The current set of tutorials address among the most common tasks in R, such as reading in data, creating variables, and creating plots as well as more complicated tasks like creating html tables and interactive graphs.

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iPads at the PARC

Posted on November 16, 2014 by Joe Janiga

What is the relevancy of iPads in our (if we choose) technologically augmented lives? I believe more and more that mobile devices may be the go-to device of choice very shortly. Continue reading →

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Code the Youtube URL for class use

Posted on November 12, 2014 by

Before I knew this trick, I always felt I had to be the Youtube police for my class. Ideally I would play only the videos I intended to play, and turn down all the other requests from students (well, at least most times)—–the recommended/related videos that Youtube shows on the right side bar (and also at the end of the video) are either amazingly attractive or not appropriate for class.

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Quantitative reasoning and quantitative literacy (NNN 2014)

Posted on October 30, 2014 by Kristin Bott

Earlier this month, Rich and I traveled to Carleton College to join people from 23 institutions of higher education for the annual conference of the National Numeracy Network (NNN). The NNN focuses on building quantitative literacy for all citizens, with education being central to that work. The majority of attendees were from smaller liberal arts colleges – predominantly staff, with some faculty joining.

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Map of Every Four-Year Not-for-Profit College in America

Posted on October 22, 2014 by

The capacity to create interactive data visualizations in R has been rapidly increasing. Using Shiny, R users can now create dynamic and interactive web-based graphics entirely in RStudio. For example, I am currently working on an interactive map that displays the location of every four-year not-for-profit college in America. Clicking on any college will display a pop-up with information about the college. The graphs on the right of the page will update as you zoom in and out to include only data on the colleges that are currently displayed on the map. Also, there is a second tab at the top of the page called “Data Explorer” that allows you to see the data that is creating the map.

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Data Visualization Workshop

Posted on October 14, 2014 by

I will be leading a workshop on Data Visualization tomorrow from 4:30 to 5:30 pm in ETC 205. Continue reading →

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iPad lending using Apple Configurator: presentation

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Joe Janiga

I recently gave a presentation on Reed’s use of Apple Configurator to manage iPads that we check out through the Reed library system. Since iPads are designed to be personal devices, the biggest challenge when making iPads available in this way is keeping the user experience as close as possible to the iPad’s intended use while simultaneously making sure the device is secure for each user. We do this by using Apple Configurator to erase all data on the iPad upon each return and re-apply a customized image that installs the system management profiles we have created and the apps we have purchased.

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Data Analysis using Stata: Workshop, 10/8/14

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Kristin Bott

Update: A half-dozen students joined me for a whirlwind hour of data analysis using Stata on Wednesday. Through hands-on exercises, we worked through some basic analyses and some common errors and other roadblocks. If you missed the workshop, the materials are linked below.

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