End of the Semester !

I have graded all of the projects, I have calculated all the grades, I have hung up the stockings by the chimney with care. I won't be back on campus until January 4th, so if you need to get in touch with me, please send me an email. I check email a lot.

I wish a very very Merry Christmas to all of you...family and friends should be your focus over the next week. I will be cooking a turkey, so my house will be filled with those GREAT smells.

Grading Projects!

This is the time of year that I dislike the most about my job. I have a lot of grading to do and keep thinking I would prefer to be getting ready for Christmas. Just a quick post here to wish all my friends a very merry Christmas season!

Google Wave

Digital giant Google has been working on Google WAVE for sometime now. It COULD revolutionize the way in which we work in groups. A group like the Barton School BIG group might want to consider this. The links below give some introduction to it, right now it is in limited preview mode so you can't immediately try it out. Could this be the "wave" of the future? Sorry, could not resist that.

Official Google information about Wave

And a blog which isn't entranced by Wave

Numeracy

"Numeracy is the ability to reason with numbers and other mathematical concepts. To be numerically literate, a person has to be comfortable with logic and reasoning. Some of the areas that are involved in numeracy include: basic numbers, orders of magnitude, geometry, algebra, probability and statistics." Quoted from Wikipedia HERE. I have become more and more concerned about this lack of ability in my students. Because of my concern, I "googled" the term and found a number of interesting items. I am posting some of those links below.

An essay by Lynn Arthur Steen of St. Olaf College - below is a quote from the essay.

Numeracy is to mathematics as literacy is to language. Each represents a distinctive means of communication that is indispensable to civilized life. Nevertheless, if persistent news reports are to be believed, both numeracy and literacy are in serious decline in contemporary U.S. society.

Despite great differences in structure and form, both mathematical language and natural language are powerful tools for description, communication, and representation. Numeracy is especially important for a nation expecting to compete in a global economy fueled by information technology. Whereas natural language is redundant, ambiguous, and concrete, mathematical language is concise, precise, and abstract. Full expression of our thoughts and visions requires the richness of both natural and mathematical language. Like yin and yang, numeracy and literacy are the entwined complements of human communication.

The National Numeracy Network:

About NNN
Our organization offers its members a network of individuals, institutions, and corporations united by the common goal of quantitative literacy for all citizens. Through national meetings, faculty workshops, research initiatives, and information sharing, the National Numeracy Network aims to strengthen the capacity of our country in the quantitative areas of business, industry, education, and research across all disciplines.

It looks as if there are a lot of resources out there. I am wondering how I can help my students develop skills in this area.

Oct 2nd, 1970 - WSU Plane Crash

Tomorrow is the anniversary of a plane crash in Colorado that took the lives of WSU football players and others traveling with the team. Another plane containing the rest of the team successfully reached its destination. Read HERE for a good description of what happened that day.

Wordle - Word Clouds

Wordle is a web application which will take text which you provide and will turn it into a "Word Cloud".  This makes very nice graphics for a wide variety of applications.  Look for it HERE.    You can see examples of Word Clouds that have been developed by going to the Public Gallery.  http://www.wordle.net/gallery

My YouTube Channel

I had some questions about how to get to my YouTube Videos.  If you are interested you can follow this link:
http://www.youtube.com/user/DrNBereman

Right now the videos are focused on HRM 666, a class on staffing and in particular on the more technical / statistical portions of that class.

YouTube Video Picked Up by the Open University of the Netherlands

The Open Universiteit Nederland (Open University) has asked my permission to use my YouTube Video on HR Planning - Markov Analysis.  They will be publishing it for educational purposes on a secured password protected network, the intranet site for a course on Selection.  I have given my permission.

Tegrity Recordings

There is a cool program that is integrated into Blackboard called "Tegrity". I just finished recording a 10 minute segment ... a voice over for a PPT slideshow explaining to my HRM 666 students more about the final project requirement that I just uploaded to Blackboard. I am hoping that this will provide my students with information that will help them. We will see.

Tegrity is VERY easy to use and I am going to try to use it more often. Right now I prepare and upload the same sort of thing to YouTube and I have worried about making information TOO public. I'm really torn on whether to make the public or private. Any feedback that you would like to provide would be appreciated.

ANKI - resource for students

I have found what I think might be a tremendous tool for teachers and students. It is called "Anki" and is available at the following URL. http://ichi2.net/anki/

I am going to experiment with using this for HRM 666 this coming Fall (2009) and am going to recommend that students use it that are preparing to participate in the HR Games. I am going to make every effort to use this blog more frequently and hope that you might follow it. Thanks!