Grade Curve vs Grade Inflation

I have been wondering for some time whether NIE awards grades by criterion-referencing or norm-referencing. While in a certain class the other day we were told that the former is used, so that different tutorial groups in the same module are assessed with a consistent set of guidelines, I have also heard otherwise that NIE practices the grade curve.

NUS has been known to use a combination of absolute results and relative standing to derive a student's final grade. There is a moderation process that goes on behind the scene. It has been said far and wide that there is also a curve of some sort for EPMS, which means the bulk of grades given will have to be average, even though the grade descriptors for different bands are meant to correspond to how far the education officer exceeds or falls short of expectations. In other words, we can't have an entire school exceeding expectations on all counts? Of course, correct me, an untrained teacher, if I am wrong. It seems as though we cannot do well unless we also do better than everyone else, not just ourselves.

The kind of compensatory measures (read: norm-referencing on a parabola) practiced in our education/education employment system fly in the face of grade inflation in the United States, which some say are a result of professors guarding their tenured positions against negative student feedback.

To be on either the extreme of loyalty to a grade curve or to feel-good grade inflation would not conducive to learning, however. While using grades as extrinsic motivation/pressure is not ideal, it does seem to be the case with extreme practices. Nonetheless, grades need to be worked out properly so that assessment of learning/work can be executed for learning (QED520's A/P Chang distinguishes between assessment of & for learning).

All the more do we as educators and those being educated need to rethink the issue of grades.

Long Gruelling Episode with Video Editing

Just had a long grueling episode with video conversion and editing software, plus a bad encounter with (surprise, surprise!) Adobe Download Manager (which is used for downloading trials from Adobe) that crashed my computer several times without my initial suspicion.

What happened was that it took me some time to realize that I would lose control over my desktop every time I tried to launch a file or resume a download from Adobe Download Manager. It was bad, I lost all my Mozilla Firefox bookmarks and extension settings. At first I even thought FF was corrupted and reinstalled it. IE also has a problem now... it does not really run.

After a little more research I think it's Akamai Download Manager that screwed up big time... 

Fingerpointing is easy in cyberspace 

Mindmapping tools online (free!)

Some free online mindmapping tools that you may wish to try out.

• Mindmeister: Can be used with its accompanying widget/browser extension Geistesblitz, so that you can submit ideas to Mindmeister immediately for mapping.
  
• Mindomo
  
• Bubbl.us:Cute, adorable, intuitive. Controls for changing bubble colours and adding nodes are located on each bubble - just mouse over.

However, as far as I can tell, they are not entirely suitable for non-linear storyboarding as you typically cannot connect two nodes to a new node, nor can be insert a new node in the middle of an existing chain. I could be wrong though.

 

GIMP and Paint.NET: the brief 3-point review

GIMP

• Good enough as a Photoshop replacement, although it does not have a magnetic lasso and RYGB mode. It only has RGB, so it's more suited for non-print designs.
  
• Many free add-ons, scripts, brushes, gradients available. A lot of GIMP users regularly convert Photoshop brushes, gradients and other effects for GIMP.
• Palettes are all over the place (compared to Adobe CS), may require some interface customization.
  

Paint.NET

• Not as feature-rich as GIMP: no healing brush and brush selection. May have to use the clone stamp tool instead to work around this.
  
• Has Black and White and Sepia adjustments option, good for converting color photographs without going through too much trouble
• Good enough for really basic image editing. After all, it was originally designed to replace Paint which comes with Windows.
  

Free Advanced Image Editing Tools

In an earlier article, I listed a few free Digital Art options that have very basic options only. Here are some free advanced image editing tools that you can use in the absence of Adobe Creative Suite.

GIMP: GNU Image Manipulation Program
I first came across this probably a year or two ago, but I never got down to trying it because the installation package was not as user-friendly as it is now. As far as I can remember, you used to have to install something else apart from GIMP and do several other things before you can setting up GIMP proper.

This is a fairly full-featured image editing software, but I have not got down to testing it though. Reviews however are rather positive. (Download.com editors and users respectively rated it 5/5 and 4/5).

Paint.NET
"Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools."

The unlimited undo feature looks like its greatest affordance. Adobe Photoshop has a History palette that by default stores 20 states (i.e. you can go up to 20 steps backwards by clicking on any state or snapshot in the palette). Although technically speaking you could increase the number of History states to 1000, the maximum, it will take a serious toll on your system resources. I have yet to test this as well.

Photobucket
If you only need quick fixes for blemishes and wrinkles, just use the image editor on this free online image hosting tool. Works like the "Healing Brush" in Photoshop.

Reference:
Top 8 Free Photo Editors for Windows

Google SketchUp

Google SketchUp: 3D modelling the free and (hopefully easy) way. Yeah!

Uses:

• Art class designs


• 3D Classroom floor plans


• Reconstruction of spaces described in texts e.g. History, Chinese...

Kaltura

This is my latest loot: Kaltura, a free online video editor that is licensed under Creative Commons. I'm blogging on Kaltura from ScribeFire before I forget how to locate it.

I think it would be amazing if we could use Kaltura as part of our SCLP for students to record and edit their conversation practice, especially since you can add content immediately to a Kaltura using a webcam! Kalturas can also be embedded on websites with maximum ease.

According to the site, "Kaltura partners with the Wikimedia Foundation to add collaborative rich-media to Wiki projects." Yes, this is definitely suitable for Student-Centered Learning where collaboration is key.

Flock, the social web browser

Flock is touted as THE social web browser, which integrates social networking tools to help you connect with friends.

Although I am intrigued by the concept, I am put off by the disclaimer that not all Firefox (FF) extensions will work with Flock, even though Flock is FF-based.

A SWiK.net article points out some differences between Flock and FF, as well as some flaws and product biases of Flock (e.g. Yahoo is the default search engine).

Mozilla Firefox Add-ons (Part 2)

I haven't been "shopping" for Mozilla Firefox add-ons for quite a while, but here are some great finds, recommended on the official Firefox Add-Ons site, that I found today and like.

• Interclue: "Interclue tooltip windows display content previews, useful extra information and relevant next actions for almost any link on the web. A truly user-centric design, "Clueview" tooltips show you only the most relevant content from linked pages, and can provide embedded viewing for images, mp3s and YouTube videos."


• ScribeFire: "ScribeFire (previously Performancing for Firefox) is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog."


• PicLens: "PicLens instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen 3D experience for viewing images across the web. Our new interactive "3D Wall" lets you effortlessly drag, click, and zoom your way around a wall of pictures for an extraordinary viewing experience. The new search box lets you search the Web in full-screen using Google, Yahoo, SmugMug, Flickr, Photobucket, and DeviantArt. Just type a query and view all the results in the PicLens wall."


• Greasemonkey: "Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript...."


• BlogRovr: "You don't have time to read ALL those Blogs! Let RovR do it for you. Rovr fetches posts from your favorite blogs about anything you're browsing, and shows you summaries you can open read posts without leaving the web page you were on. Blogrovr also suggests popular items AND lets you Twitter about any site you're on too."

For my earlier post on Mozilla Firefox, click here.

Printing to PDF

How to export anything printable to PDF for free

1. Download a PS2PDF converter and install it.
2. Download CutePDF and install it.

3. Once you have done that, CutePDF will be added as an available "printer." To export just about anything printable to PDF, simply access the Print menu as you normally would, but select CutePDF as your printer instead.

4. Once CutePDF is selected as the printer, you can customize the number of pages per "sheet" and choose to print in black/white or colour in the "Properties" menu in your print dialog.