Educators Books

The web is essentially software, just on a different platform. As such it can be designed, analyzed, and optimized in a systematic fashion. Human factors research into software design is over 20 years old. This usability engineering knowledge can be used in the design of web sites. This book offers the latest examples of usability engineering applied to web site design.

The goal of this book is to provide a snapshot of current and future research being conducted into HCI on the Internet. Twenty- three experts in HCI-related fields contributed the 16 chapters of this book. Well-known names like Ed Chi (Xerox PARC), Mary Czerwinski (Microsoft Research), and Andrew Sears (UMBC) all wrote about their research into how we interact with the web.

The book is thought-provoking in the breadth and depth of knowledge presented. The book moves from "digital strategy" and planning, through analysis, to design and evaluation. Highlights from the first two parts include Shneiderman's "universal usability," where web sites are designed for a world-wide audience (presented ably by Andrew Sears), cost-justifying web usability (Mayhew and Bias), usability metrics (Opaluch), and "phone usability" where usability surveys are conducted at low cost over the phone (Ratner). Talk about discount usability engineering!

The third part, comprising more than half of the book, explores the cognitive aspects of web usability. Microsoft's Czerwinski and Larson offer a glimpse into HCI research at Microsoft. They propose that a stronger cognitive foundation must be achieved before we can truly optimize the design and usability of web sites. In their "Cognition and the Web" chapter they highlight areas where works needs to be done, and show some interesting examples from their research.

Czerwinski and Larson offer a new metric to better fit cognitive science to web design. They propose that Relative Subjective Duration (RSD) is a better measure for gauging user satisfaction. RSD measures the difficulty users are having with a task by time estimates. Users who are interrupted tend to overestimate task duration while completed task times tend to be underestimated. They also offer a glimpse into Microsoft's research with sections on nonspeech audio to enhance the web interface, telephony, and speech recognition.

The "Scent of the Web" chapter is especially relevant to web designers as Ed Chi (Xerox PARC) offers an automated way to analyze the usability of sites before users see any pages. Not unlike an animal's foraging behavior users use "information scent" to optimize their efforts to find what they want. Information scent is the perceived value and cost of assessing a piece of information.

Chi has developed a tool to called Bloodhound to automatically sniff out a site's usability based on a predictive model suggested by information scent and information foraging theory. As we scan and skim web pages we use information cues like link text and surrounding text, graphics, position, and frequency of occurrence. Chi has mathematically codified these cues into a "scent matrix" that predicts the probability that a user with a particular information need will move from page A to page B. Using this matrix Chi's tool can predict paths where users will go with particular information needs, and how effective particular sites are for particular sets of keywords.

Their Bloodhound tool can accurately predict where users will surf within sites, how usable sites are for particular information needs, and even summarize sites by keywords. Using simulated users (each with a set of a keywords representing their information need) their Bloodhound service can automatically return metrics that rate web site usability.

Chi says that a scientific understanding of human behavior in web surfing is essential to web usability. Innovative tools like Bloodhound can lower usability testing costs and improve our understanding of human behavior on the web.

The book essentially says that heuristic rules of thumb and best practices can only take you so far in usability engineering. For real progress we need a stronger cognitive foundation on which to improve the usability and design of web sites. Guidelines may work in isolation, but on the web there are so many variables that applying these guidelines to all sites for all users doesn't always work.

We require multidimensional analysis to assess the best ways to design actual sites. We need to study more complex, real-world problem domains that better match what users actually experience. This book offers a fascinating glimpse into current and future HCI research on the web.

The purpose of this book is to help practitioners and policy makers understand how important assisting beginning teachers is - and what it involves in terms of policy, procedures, pitfalls, personnel, price in time and money, and prospects....

A case must be made for beginning teacher assistance programs. The purpose, the process and other requirements of such programs are not well understood by lay policy makers or educators.

Beginning teacher are part of a larger continuum of learning to teach. They must be considered in terms of what occured before and what is apt to occur after the phase of teacher education they represent....
--- excerpts from pages 1 and 2 About This Book

I have read most of Jonathan Kozol's books starting in 1991 with Savage Inequalities. Mr. Kozol writes about reality. He doesn't attempt to change it, by giving money. He doesn't try to change it by offering up solutions to the problems of impoverished children. He mere points out what is. I teach in an inner city school and know, that it doesn't matter how good I am, and the fact that I will reach and inspire many children, will not make a whole lot of difference in the rest of their lives. I keep trying for those children I do reach and maybe make a difference for.

There are more children with autism in schools than ever before in the history of American public education. "Autism in Your Classroom" gives educators the practical information and guidance they need to support these children with ASDs, or Autism Spectrum Disorders. "Autism in your Classroom" is a much-needed resource that gives teachers the understanding of the types, causes, characteristics, and treatments of these ASDs. Deftly written by Deborah Fein, Ph. D., a clinical and research neuropsychologist with 35 years of experience and serves as Professor of Psychology at the University of Connecticut; and fellow Ph. D Michelle A. Dunn, an Associate professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine with 25 years of experience. The combined expertise of the two make "Autism in Your Classroom" invaluable to any educator who would hope to understand and properly handle Autistic students' special needs. Also very highly recommended from Woodbine house is "Autism 24/7: A Family Guide To Learning At Home And In The Community" (9781890627539, $19.95) by autism specialist Andy Bondy and speech/language pathologist Lori A. Frost.

This is an inspiring autobiography of one of the most successful African-American educators of his time. From about 1875-1925 Scarborough taught Greeek and Latin, mostly at Wilberforce University, where he eventually became President of the university. Scarborough gives an interesting and heartfelt account of his endeavors in education, classical literature, and the promotion of his race and faith. The book should interest the general reader, as well as professional classicists and historians.

This is exactly what I was searching for to complete and supplement my plans for the year with my Technology classes.

This book is probably the best comprehensive study book for the Professional Development part of the ExCET exam. It has lots of information and sample test questions. It is very well written and was suggested in my school district as the best book to get. There is a study book that works well with it (kind of like a workbook) called Pass the ExCET on Your First Try. I highly recommend The Best Test Prep...

This is, quite simply, one of those amazing biographies (George Painter's Marcel Proust in the '50s comes to mind) where the intrinsic interest of the subject and the searching intelligence of the author combine to make a great achievement. One could simply say, If you feel an affinity for Henry Adams, read this book, and one would be right. But it goes beyond Adams as an object of study and engages in -- highly interesting and never tendentious -- speculation; but the speculation is always interesting and to a sophisticated reader, identifiable as such. I hope this book, along with the companion volumes, reaches more readers -- any one interested in American history or letters, or for that matter the human soul, should read it.

This book took over eight years to research and write, and is a labor of love yet grounded in sound historical research. You will get to know Donna in a very personal way, experience her growth into a thoughtful and caring adult, share her enthusiasm for her new teaching career and delight in her introduction to falling in love (and out of love)! You'll hold your breath as she rides with student pilots across the frozen tundra and wind and snowswept mountains, landing in remote bush villages as they stop to ask directions, and let go a huge sigh of relief as they land on fumes. It is a book of hopes and dreams fulfilled and lost. It is a book Donna had hoped to write, but could not---so instead, I wrote it for her with the help of her twin sister and older sister, best friends, colleagues, former students, and even a landlord; as well as extensive research in local, regional, state, and national archives.
Please enjoy it! I think she would be proud!

This memoir is as compelling as a novel. It describes the author's stay in Moscow and St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) as an English teacher in 1982, and in particular her romance with Kolya, a Russian living in St. Petersburg. She describes a return trip the following summer to see if the relationship had a future, and I was completely engrossed by the story. This is a very candid memoir, and Alberts is very honest about her own insecurities. In addition, the memoir is an accurate portrayal of life in the Soviet Union (at least according to my wife, who spent her first forty years there, and who also read the book).