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Squiggles and stuff
02/10/2013 10:22 pmIt looks like spring has finally arrived in Dursleyville. It was a crisp and crunchy gorgeous day. Was off slinking at the former lunatic asylum indulging in a bit of nostalgia. But 2002 is dead and gone and even if this year happens to share the same calendar dates, that is about all it has in common. No amount of wishful thinking will bring it back.
Today is significant for less nostalgic reasons. It is exactly a year since the serpent last worked at a paid job. Still not quite gotten over the whole toadish drama.
For the last month managed to pick up one day a week in a voluntary job and will most likely ask to add another day or two some time this month. Oh yesss. People are very happy to have some one working for nothing
Still not got around to posting about the new 'day job'. It's not like the Izzie is so terribly busy even though the third time round doing that evil Introduction to Mathematical Thinking" course is once again proving to be a welcome source of distraction. The discussion forums are particularly addictive.
It's strange. Had also signed up for another course on maths and philosophy. The ideas were interesting in themselves but the lectures were just so plodding and pedantic. Gave up watching them once the third instalment of Keith Devlin's class started up again.
Did potter over last night to do the final exam for the mathematical philosophy class where you get five attempts of four hours each to answer 24 multiple choice questions. They are supposed to vary between each version. There were several questions with only two choices. About half of the others required a bit of serious thought. Got 20/24 on the first attempt and 22/24 on the second. A very good return considering the lack of investment but this was precisely the problem.
I've made it a bit of a challenge to game the system on some of the courses. Of course each time you do the tests you inadvertently learn stuff. One tutor let you repeat them 15 times with this very purpose in mind. But then again he set the pass mark at 85%. But one would expect nothing less from the devious evil genius that is Dan Ariely.
It is an art form developing assessments that reflect real learning rather than the ability to just use common sense or simply game the system. It's precisely the fact that it is quite hard to do well on the graded stuff in Keith Devlin's class that makes it so interesting. Got 47% first time around and 69% the second time back in April. Determined to get at least 75% this time. But it's joining the dots and the light bulb moments that are the real attraction. Oh and of course the drama on the discussion boards.
Sitting at a cafe scribbling out the weekly assignments is actually amongst the highlights of the week. Those old grey cells well and truly need the workout and it makes a change from the usual Sudoku.
Even the poor zombies are coming off second best these days. That will have to change now that November is less than one month away and the Nano forums are all bright, shiny and new. They are looking very spacious indeed in their new incarnation
Today is significant for less nostalgic reasons. It is exactly a year since the serpent last worked at a paid job. Still not quite gotten over the whole toadish drama.
For the last month managed to pick up one day a week in a voluntary job and will most likely ask to add another day or two some time this month. Oh yesss. People are very happy to have some one working for nothing
Still not got around to posting about the new 'day job'. It's not like the Izzie is so terribly busy even though the third time round doing that evil Introduction to Mathematical Thinking" course is once again proving to be a welcome source of distraction. The discussion forums are particularly addictive.
It's strange. Had also signed up for another course on maths and philosophy. The ideas were interesting in themselves but the lectures were just so plodding and pedantic. Gave up watching them once the third instalment of Keith Devlin's class started up again.
Did potter over last night to do the final exam for the mathematical philosophy class where you get five attempts of four hours each to answer 24 multiple choice questions. They are supposed to vary between each version. There were several questions with only two choices. About half of the others required a bit of serious thought. Got 20/24 on the first attempt and 22/24 on the second. A very good return considering the lack of investment but this was precisely the problem.
I've made it a bit of a challenge to game the system on some of the courses. Of course each time you do the tests you inadvertently learn stuff. One tutor let you repeat them 15 times with this very purpose in mind. But then again he set the pass mark at 85%. But one would expect nothing less from the devious evil genius that is Dan Ariely.
It is an art form developing assessments that reflect real learning rather than the ability to just use common sense or simply game the system. It's precisely the fact that it is quite hard to do well on the graded stuff in Keith Devlin's class that makes it so interesting. Got 47% first time around and 69% the second time back in April. Determined to get at least 75% this time. But it's joining the dots and the light bulb moments that are the real attraction. Oh and of course the drama on the discussion boards.
Sitting at a cafe scribbling out the weekly assignments is actually amongst the highlights of the week. Those old grey cells well and truly need the workout and it makes a change from the usual Sudoku.
Even the poor zombies are coming off second best these days. That will have to change now that November is less than one month away and the Nano forums are all bright, shiny and new. They are looking very spacious indeed in their new incarnation
