If you google “students can’t write,” you’ll find a lot of people wringing their hands about the state of college writing. But before you believe that Twitter is making us stupid or wonder what’s the matter with kids today, you might want to take another look at how students are actually writing. Research led by noted compositionist and rhetorician Andrea A. Lunsford of Stanford University analyzed the results of formal studies of error in U.S. college writing going back a century; Lunsford discovered that student academic writers today are making about the same number of mistakes per 100 words as their great-great grandparents did. Of course, student writing then didn’t look much like student writing now. First-year college writers at the beginning of the twentieth century were usually asked to write personal narratives or essays on assigned topics (“On Coal” is one example from the period—try creating an original, engaging response to that), and the average student writing submission was roughly 165 words long. Students of that era were seldom called on to conduct or write about research, but they were often expected to demonstrate an impeccable understanding of the difference between “shall” and “will.” A hundred years later, things have changed. Research is an integral part of many—perhaps most—writing assignments, and the average length of student writers’ responses to assignments has increased dramatically, to more than 1000 words. The rate of error has held steady, but the mistakes are different: “shall”  is on the verge of extinction for American writers who aren’t lawyers, and spelling errors have greatly declined; however, students now have trouble citing their sources, and spell-checkers introduce lots of wrong words. So the golden age of student writing is a myth. Students of the past struggled with college writing assignments, and students of the present struggle with them, too. And they will doubtless continue to struggle; as Andrea Lunsford has noted in her blog, “where English is concerned, there is never one solitary right way to proceed.” But perhaps—hand-wringing aside—student writing is heading in the right direction. After all, doesn’t wrestling with others’ ideas seem more valuable than figuring out what to say about coal? ... View more

There is no end in sight for 3-D printing. If you have a laser, some plastic, and a lot of creativity, you have a mathematical goldmine. This is a "print-in-place" fidget cube Laura printed, which came out in one piece with closed hinges. If I knew the equation here, I would write it out--but I think this is more impressive! Laura Taalman, our co-author of Calculus, prints a lot every day. I can relate as someone who works in publishing, but only to an extent – she’s actually printing things, pieces of plastic that are real mathematical equations or manifestations of theories she studies all day long. She tells me how curious she is “to take a concept, make it into a digital file, and then turn it into a real thing.” Her focus has been in knot theory, the study of knots and how their curves can be observed better than tying ends of rope together. With 3-D printing, she can actually zoom in and out on how the coordinates connect in each piece of plastic. She can also make a pretty convenient hammer. It really depends on the day! Even though this started out as a joke, Laura used some pennies in plastic to play with weight, and see how much heavier she could make an object. She also taught a class in 3-D printing at James Madison University, and it was a huge hit. You know how people believe they are in one column of two types: Good At Math and Bad At Math? (I’ve always shuffled my feet in the latter column). Because of this, Taalman believes a class like this could really shift a student’s perspective. She wants her kids to learn on their own, and to realize mathematics is “a work in progress.” It also taught them how to make a modular ukulele and a fully-functioning Ferris wheel, she cites as two different students’ class projects. She says: “It’s a great way to teach and see how things go, and to have an actual thing in front of you. It’s also a good way to talk about failure – the thing I tried to make didn’t work, so how can I improve or fix it?” If kids can learn mathematics and other uses with 3-D printing, one can guess how popular this technology will grow inside and outside of education. Taalman reminds me that regular printers used to be huge (like prototypical 3-D printers), but now they’re obviously ubiquitous. Which begs the question: what are people going to build and create with 3-D printing when it becomes more accessible? Share below: what would you print if you had the chance? ... View more

The news is out: Macmillan Higher Education and Macmillan New Ventures are uniting to form Macmillan Learning. The new brand is already gaining attention from the marketplace. Check out the recent media coverage: PR Web: Macmillan Higher Education and Macmillan New Ventures to become singular higher education unit: Macmillan Learning Publishers Weekly: Macmillan Combines Groups to Create New Learning Division Publishers Lunch: http://lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2015/10/macmillan-to-combine-educational-units EdSurge: Macmillan to Merge Higher Education, New Ventures Units | EdSurge News  CIOReview: Education Special - October 2015 - CIO Review Magazine Forefront Magazine: http://www.forefrontmag.com/2015/09/the-right-mixture-of-solutions-for-a-successful-hr-experiment ... View more

So you have a book.  The content is great, the pedagogy is sound, the students have (wonder of wonders!) done the reading.  They’re in class, eyes bright, waiting for you to impart your hard-fought wisdom. You have maybe sixty seconds before you lose them to idle doodling and the cell phones you now wish you had banned. Go. Of course there are exercises in your textbook, and of course you could give another lecture.  But today, that isn’t quite enough.  It’s early in the term and you want to be memorable, you want to keep those bright eyes interested. Most importantly, you want to hear their thoughts, to teach them to build off of each other’s ideas, rather than needing you to mediate each separate comment. There are many ways to guide these sorts of discussions (quite a number of which are enumerated in Emily Isaacson’s fantastic post, here) but I thought I would share one that I have found to be fun and effective, particularly early in the term when the material is more introductory.  This activity could work for a variety of subjects, but I’m most familiar with English and Composition, so I’ll use those for any specific examples. When I was younger, my friends and I had a game for when we were bored and waiting for something to happen, usually at the opening of a new movie or waiting for someone’s parent to come pick us up.  One person would start a story, giving a few sentences, and then stop, allowing the next person to pick up where they left off and continue the narrative.  This activity by itself could be a great icebreaker for a creative writing class, but I think it has some real possibility for larger classroom discussions in English, history, psychology. Assign an order to your students.  If they sit in rows and columns, move down the rows, back and forth, so that every student knows who precedes them and who follows.  And, everyone knows that they will be called upon both to listen (so they can build off of earlier ideas) and to speak. Ask the first student to make an observation about the reading, reminding them that all comments should be relatively brief.  The next student will build on that thought, deepening it or taking whatever tangents most interest them.  Not all thoughts bring great depth, however, and even those that could be explored at length are eventually exhausted.  If the student speaking doesn’t have anything else to add on the previous topic, they are responsible for introducing a new observation on the reading to begin the process again. If you would like the activity to be a bit more guided, you can assign a topic to the first person, such as ‘character’ or ‘cultural significance,’ and see where the conversation leads. While this activity won’t get you a deep, though-provoking discussion most of the time, it can be a great way to review material and is a certain method of keeping your students actively engaged.  This activity might be just what you need to get students talking – and listening – to each other, working together toward the common goal of understanding. ... View more

Exciting news: Macmillan Learning is featured as one of the 50 most promising education technology companies by CIOReview magazine! CIOReview is a tech-focused magazine that targets executives across a broad base of industries—including education. Each year, the magazine surveys the education landscape and names the most promising technology solution providers. Macmillan Learning is featured on the cover and listed among other industry heavyweights such as McGraw Hill Education, Knewton, and Blackboard to name a few. Click here to see the full list of most promising solution providers and learn more about CEO Ken Michaels’s perspective on the future of Macmillan Learning. ... View more

The launch of Macmillan Learning is an incredibly exciting time for us.  By uniting the formidable legacy of our content and technologies with pioneering digital tools, we will deliver unparalleled options to our customers. This unified team offers tremendous strength from all of its pieces—which now fit together to make one impressive whole. You may be wondering why we chose to rebrand as Macmillan Learning. The edtech space is an exciting place to be right now as the education industry is exploding. Educators and institutions are constantly looking for new ways to improve education, and we’re here to help make that happen. By joining the forces of Macmillan Higher Education and Macmillan New Ventures, we have a new opportunity to expand our reach within the industry. Macmillan Learning has a key competitive advantage that other companies do not—deep history and relationships with educators, editorial integrity and quality, and tested, curated content. Communicating that Macmillan Learning is standing behind each of our imprints and companies to create cohesive curriculum solutions as well as singular customized content is critical for driving awareness in our markets. Our history and our present path provide us an incredible opportunity to impact the future of higher education. We partner with educators at the institution, the department, and the course level to ensure that we provide a customized plan to address any issues and support stated goals. We strive to cultivate personalized and engaging learning experiences that ignite a sense of curiosity and wonder about learning. Whether equipping an instructor with the digital dashboard to track student progress or providing adaptive study tools for students, we seek to help both educators and learners succeed. Our content and services come directly from our collaborations with the world’s best researchers, educators, and administrators to improve learning outcomes continually. We know our customers want smart tools and remarkable services, and our publishing teams are immersed in the disciplines we represent. The result is the creation of world-class content, tools, and services that continue to set the standard in each course market. As Macmillan Learning, we are united in the quest to help our customers achieve great things. ... View more

What's better than participating in a community filled with instructors and education enthusiasts to talk about hot topics in education and share ideas for the classroom? A place to propel your career as well. Macmillan Community can help you bolster your online presence and make your skills and content easily accessible by others in the field. Add your skills & expertise. Add the skills and expertise that you bring into the classroom to your profile: When viewing all 10: You can add your skills and expertise direction from your profile. The screenshot lists some skills that might be relevant, but be creative! Endorse and be endorsed. Endorse your colleagues' skills when you want to vouch for particular areas of expertise: Or endorse then for something entirely new! When a colleague has endorsed you for a new skill, you'll be asked to accept or reject: If you accept, that skill will be added to your profile. Now, your profile will list all of your skills, starting with those you've been endorsed for the most: Sync up your channels & reputation. If you use LinkedIn, you may want to add a link to your Macmillan Community presence there in order to make it easier for others to find the contributions you have made. There are several ways you can achieve this, by I recommend you add it as a project because you can include a link to goes directly to your Macmillan Community profile: Which, once saved, appears like this: Of course, consider adding links to any of your other social media channels that you use so that your online presence is inextricably linked to your professional profile you've created! Happy Community Building, Laura Wind​ & Elizabeth Uva​ ... View more

I am approaching my third year working with Macmillan Higher Ed, and nearing my fourth month in my new role as the digital solution specialist in the sciences. In my new role, I work with instructors around the country as a support role for our digital learning tools and assist with trainings, demonstrations, and basic pedagogical support. Prior to this role, I worked as the local sales representative in Oregon and one question that comes up with an overwhelming frequency in both of my roles in publishing has been regarding the future of the printed book.  With the rise of digital tools, e-books, and the abundance of online learning systems, where does that leave the future of the printed book? In one 10-minute online survey conducted by Hewlett Packard at the San Jose State University (SJSU), students’ were polled about their preferences on textbook format.  527 students were involved in this survey and asked to give their opinions on the traditional print book versus the more and more common ebook.  Of the 527 respondents (of which two-thirds reported having used both e-textbooks and printed textbooks),  57% reported preferring print books, 21% preferring e-books , and 21% stated that they prefer both formats.  Surprisingly, of those that prefer print books, 62% are in the 18- to 35-year-old bracket with Education and Library & Information Science students preferring the printed text more than other majors, including Business and Science.                 With the rising popularity of social media, and web based apps, why do students seem to prefer the printed book over the e-text in this booming digital age? 54% of students cited “ease of use” as being the reason they prefer the printed book, 35% cited “note-taking ability” as their reason, while 11% cited “physical feel of book” as selling point of the print book. Of the students who preferred the e-books, 34% cited “light weight”, 23% cited “convenient access”, 16%  cited “search function” , while 15%  cited “Cost” as being the reason they prefer the e-book over the traditional print book. With the preference seeming to lie with the printed book, just how much are students willing to pay for that option? 24% of the respondents are willing to pay $10 more for the printed version while 31% are content to pay $20 extra. Another 12% are willing to pay $40 more (at $120) for the printed version. The results of this survey seem to indicate that students prefer a book that is convenient, easy to use, allows them to take notes, and that is light weight and feels like a physical book While students seem to indicate that they prefer a physical textbook, there is evidence suggesting that digital tools can improve educational outcomes. In a first-year engineering-mechanics course at University of New South Wales in Australia, dropout rates fell to 14 percent from 31 percent after adaptive digital tutorials were introduced in the classroom. Pass rates in other entry-level courses have also risen by the addition of these online materials by an average of 18 percent at Arizona State University, the University of Alabama, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, according to data that we compiled from university websites, Knewton and Smart Sparrow. With the disparity between the student preference for a print book, and the clear benefit of digital tools in the classroom, publishers have the lofty role of creating a product that benefits everyone. The role of the publisher lies in creating and promoting an affordable and dynamic, digital-learning resources that can bridge the gap between the desire for the print book and the value of the digital tools. Many publishers have already begun creating adaptive exercises, digital texts with interactive e-books, activities, and videos that give students the ability to access not just their text, but a number of materials to foster active learning. One such product that we promote at Macmillan Higher Ed, Learning Curve, is an adaptive quizzing platform that is designed to prepare students for lecture and by encouraging them to read their textbook with a question in mind. We polled students on their experience with Learning Curve, and found that over 90% found it to be beneficial and helped them manage their study time, and over 90% found it to be a motivating tool that was deeply engaging. Surprisingly, over half of the students polled used learning curve even when it wasn’t assigned.                Trying to answer the question about the future of textbooks is no easy task. It is a constantly moving and evolving market, and the role of the publisher is to listen and respond to the ever-changing needs of the markets. There doesn’t seem to be an upcoming extinction of the printed book, but I do see the market changing and developing new and more robust tools to accompany the print book and support students in a wider and more robust way ... View more

Many of today’s college students grew up in an age of “helicopter parenting.”  We regularly see reports and data that point to a population of higher education students who struggle to manage common challenges and crises.  The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published a series, “An Epidemic of Anguish,” that explores the growing demands on campus counseling resources, and the subsequent challenges faculty and staff face.  In a recent interview with National Public Radio (heard here), Robin Wilson shares highlights of her series on this college mental health crisis, along with some explanations for the increase in student need.  In her interview, Wilson says that many students come to college having already been treated – sometimes from a very young age – and come to college expecting to receive the same support or treatment on campus that they did in private practice.   As well, Wilson shares, many students are accustomed to others (parents, teachers, etc.) removing their life obstacles for them – they lack coping mechanisms needed to manage the stress of college life. Worth Publisher’s co-author of Psychology, Seventh Edition, Dr. Peter Gray, is a contributor for Psychology Today’s blog.  Check out his latest post, “Declining Student Resilience: A Serious Problem for Colleges.” Dr. Gray talks about the neediness of students, and how that directly impacts academic life. Dr. Gray notes, “Faculty at the meetings noted that students’ emotional fragility has become a serious problem when it comes to grading. Some said they had grown afraid to give low grades for poor performance, because of the subsequent emotional crises they would have to deal with in their offices. Many students, they said, now view a C, or sometimes even a B, as failure, and they interpret such “failure” as the end of the world.” Aside from the obvious academic questions, Dr. Gray questions the impact to today’s student’s ability to develop socially, emotionally, or to cope with the possible resulting anxiety or depression. He argues that they are unable to problem solve without help. The difficult question faced by college administrators, faculty, staff, and counseling services moving forward is: do we recognize their struggle to manage difficult emotional and psychological stress and adjust our approach to higher education, or do we forge ahead with our own trusted academic experience? Have you seen a decrease in students’ ability to deal with the everyday bumps of college life, and how does this impact the way you teach your courses and assess your students? ... View more

Today I've been musing about what matters in teaching and learning. It's personal--my daughters went back to school, entering the 8th and 10th grade, and I followed a compressed version of their daily schedules at two Parent Nights this week. Last night I heard from a life science teacher who has her students keep a journal of inquiry, observation, and discovery; a math teacher who teaches interrogation and perseverance over formula and mastery; and a history teacher who has flipped her classroom so that class time can be differentiated and interactive. Education is changing, at every level, and technology both helps and hinders. To me, that science journal--a marble composition book, with a running table of contents kept by the students--was a revelation. It was pencil and paper, with illustrations, annotations, and descriptions that record what students saw, thought, and learned during class. It was so old school it seemed brand new. The apps and the websites and the ebooks and the journals we all use to organize our work and life are all just tools, really, to help our firing, fallible synapses remember, connect, and collect information and ideas that make each of us readers, writers and thinkers. Flipping through that journal, I saw my daughter as a learner of things, in a way I never had before, though it would take more musing to articulate why. It's also my job to think about teaching and learning, of course, and I've had a front-row seat for the changing higher-ed classroom over the past 20 years. The rate of change introduced by technology is on a steeper curve every year, and in every discipline, though at a more sedate clip for my beloved humanities. Still, the demand for quality content to support teachers also grows every year. On September 18, we launched The English Community​. It's been gratifying to see how many people are creating accounts--and, we hope, finding content that's valuable to them as teachers. Over the past few weeks I've been reading the community site analytics to see what kind of story the numbers tell. Today, to my surprise, I saw that the content that tops the chart (1,558 views to date, grabbing the crown from now #2 post by Traci Gardner, Converting to a More Visual Syllabus ) is a video taken during our recent STEM Summit​: Mariette DiChristina​ chatting with  Video Link : 1253 When I watched this video, it was like all the pieces clicked into place, confirming something I didn't know I believed: Content doesn't matter as much as knowing how to retrieve it. Dr. Lawrence Krauss says, "We all want to provide answers," and that's undeniably true for us as publishers, whether the answer is a new solution to an old challenge, or up to date, correct information in a rapidly growing and changing body of knowledge (or database!). That's one of our greatest challenges, to build not just a collection for teachers, but a collection with a deliberate and eventually elegant architecture of curation and filtering that our users will understand and use to retrieve exactly what they're looking for. And that relationship of content and retrieval isn't unique for STEM pedagogy, any more than the importance of a structured argument is unique for composition teachers. Thinking meta gives me a peculiar joy--but how do you create a taxonomy that anticipates all the different ways people might try to retrieve the content you create? We're trying different things, learning, making mistakes, and adapting. Our library of resources for English teachers includes professional resources available for downloading, like White/Wright, Assigning, Responding, Evaluating, Fifth Edition​ upcoming events, like "Why WID? Advantages and Approaches to Teaching Writing in the Disciplines" featuring Susan Miller-Cochran, author of “An Insider’s Guide to Academic Writing” and blogs for teachers, such as Andrea Lunsford's post on October 1, Jeff Bezos and the Six-Page Memo​ (giving lots of food for musing for those of us bedeviled by meetings). Could the old school memo make us more efficient than the new school whiteboard? We're trying to create a scaffolding that makes sense to people, with tags, categories, and spaces, so you'll be able to find the content you're looking for. And if you're not finding what you need? Ask a question right in the community and we'll try that old throwback retrieval method, person to person, call and response. Because really, everything new is old. ... View more

Two years ago during the State of the Union address, President Obama set his sights on reforming the higher education system. While he firmly endorsed higher education as pivotal to this country’s workforce development efforts, he resolutely condemned the skyrocketing costs to attend college. He proposed sweeping financial aid reform and trained his sights on reforming the for profit sector. The linchpin in Obama’s proposal was a higher education rating system that would correlate value and cost among America’s colleges and universities. President Obama and Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, continued to build momentum for a higher ed scorecard at an August 2013 speech at the University of Buffalo. The scorecard would decode America’s colleges and universities, making key data points about graduation rates, pricing, and salary upon graduation easy to find and review. The scorecard would effectively provide prospective college students and their families with important information for a big decision—college selection. Obama even hinted at linking federal funding to the scorecard. As with most innovative ideas, the plan for creating this scorecard received heavy criticism. Pundits and university presidents alike, were critical of a scorecard with uneven data points and worried that certain schools would receive unfair and unseemly distinctions. Even supporters of the scorecard were concerned about the quality of the data. Molly Corbett Broad, the president of the American Council on Education, the largest higher education trade organization stated “It depends on having complete and accurate data, and there are some areas where the Department of Education does have good data, but others where it does not.” Fast forward to the start of fall classes, and the White House quietly unveiled the newest version of the college scorecard website. The resulting website is a far cry from the ambitious plan to assign value to America’s higher education institutions. Instead of raw scores, the site publishes open-source data on individual institution costs, graduation rates and student debt and earnings. According to the White House, the newest version of the college scorecard “will use technology and open data to make it possible for anyone ... to decide what factors to evaluate." While Obama and his administration ultimately relented to loud criticism about the scorecard, the resulting effort is not a failure. Students, families, and guidance counselors now have a powerful repository of unbiased data to inform college selections. While outlets such as US News and World Report publish annual college rankings, students are relying on the opinions of editors and thought leaders to rank schools. The government utilizes its own data to power dashboards on average annual cost, debt, graduation rates, and more topics. What do you think of the college scorecard? Share your thoughts in the comment section! ... View more

Last month, Macmillan Higher Education and Scientific American hosted the third annual STEM Summit, an event which brings together over 150 leaders across education, research, business, policy, and technology to discuss issues and challenges of STEM education. The day was filled with outstanding sessions, panels, and interactive discussions featuring, among others, , Associate Director for Science, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy ; , former CEO Intel; , Chief Education Evangelist for Google; , CEO Amplify and author , author of Calculus, The Knot Book, and Zombies & Calculus.  The challenge of increasing diversity in all STEM fields was discussed in nearly every panel. One of my favorite data points came from Dr. in her session, Making the Case for Change. She noted the immediate need for positive role models for students so that they could identify with and emulate, smart, passionate people in scientific education.  It was later suggested that our culture seems to even celebrate the success of any non-STEM career path. Said , Chief Education Evangelist @ Google, "My mother is still waiting for me to become a lawyer." Dr. Handelsman stated there simply isn’t enough diversity (specifically women) in STEM today noting that students will continue to stay away from STEM if they don’t begin to see positive role models. She suggested a variety of solutions, but stressed that the entertainment industry bears a large responsibility to affect change. She shared this example on the power of media: In an episode of Happy Days, The Fonz said he was going to the library to pick up girls. The result following that episode? Applications for library cards went up by 500%. Just hearing it was "cool" to be at the library sent kids flocking to apply for their library cards. Imagine the impact entertainment leaders, shows, or movies could have promoting the importance of STEM education and fields. What say you? Can the entertainment industry sway our culture to support, embrace, and motivate STEM education paths? Careers? Aren’t we seeing other amazingly positive role models for young girls (e.g. Girls Who Code)? What other areas or sectors should we look to?  How else can we address increasing all levels of diversity in STEM? I wonder what The Fonz would say? For more information on the third annual STEM Summit, see our community space here or see ​'s summary here.  ... View more

  We are thrilled to announce the launch of our community, and to see our numbers steadily rising!   Since our full launch, we have been working towards adding more teaching resources and useful tools to our three pilot disciplines: Economics, English, and Psychology. We will add more disciplines with dedicated community managers in the near future.   While browsing, you will discover a great deal of content available for easy viewing and downloading. Like, comment, rate, share, and expand your knowledge! The community is a great place to share your teaching resources, methodologies, and most importantly, connect with other teachers and scholars.   When you join the Macmillan Community, you will have all of these high-value resources and opportunities right at your fingertips.   Here are a few notable achievements so far:   1. Economics - EconED Active has so many great pieces of content, that it was difficult to choose just one. In the sidebar below, you can see that there are so many ways to get involved and share resources.   We encourage you to browse resources by topic, collaborate with other teaching professionals, and add a resource to the wealth of knowledge already in this space.           2. English - The English Community​ and Bedford Bits is a shared platform for talking about teaching and classroom outcomes for our digital, social age. We have many accomplished authors who write for our blog and share their thoughts, opinions, and teaching ideas.   Notably, Traci Gardner​ has shared her remarkable teaching strategies and discoveries in her blog posts. She has done an exceptional job writing blogs for teachers in the digital world.   The most popular blog post in the community, Converting to a More Visual Syllabus​, has reached over 1,000 views, 11 comments, and more than a few likes. This truly shows the value of sharing meaningful, quality content with other colleagues and making a difference in the world of teaching.       3. Psychology -  The Psychology Community​ is a fantastic space to watch webinars for teachers, by teachers. Browse through our webinars and you are sure to discover teaching strategies and other resources related to psychology.   One of our most popular videos is a must-watch,  " Video Link : 1162 By Dr. Wendy Bass, Distance Education Coordinator and Project Director of Title V grant at Pierce College.       With over 500 total users, it is so exciting to watch our numbers grow, help you navigate the community, and to receive useful feedback from many accomplished authors and professors. We are actively using the feedback we've already received and we are continuously working towards adding more disciplines, improving the look and feel of the community, and your user experience.   Now, we'd love to hear from you! Leave a comment below this post to share your favorite piece of content within our community that inspires you to teach, learn, and connect with other members. ... View more

Last Tuesday, August 4th was the 3rd annual STEM Summit, co-sponsored by Macmillan Education and Scientific American​ in order to bring together policy and business leaders with the education and research communities to discuss and work on the most critical issues facing education today. The hosts Mariette DiChristina​ and Susan Winslow​ did a beautiful job with the event, bringing in amazing speakers in order to talk about the most pressing topics in education today. This year, we debuted a space here in the Community to enable participants to continue the conversations started and for non-attendees to join the conversation. The keynote Jo Handelsman​, the Associate Director for Science for the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, left a deep impression with her talk on the insidiousness of implicit bias that impacts education, opportunities, and compensation. Of the many studies she delved into during her talk, there's one in particular that stands out in my mind. That when a resume is presented with identical credentials, a male was chosen for hire substantially more often than a female candidate; and a Caucasian-sounding name far more often than an ethnic-sounding name. The race or gender of the resume reviewer, however, showed little to no variation in these hiring decisions. That is, this implicit bias is something we all carry (e.g. female reviewers were just as likely to favor the male candidates as the male reviewers). And when asked to describe why they chose a particular candidate, the reviewers would find evidence within the resume to justify their decision, unaware of the biases they were subconsciously bringing to the table. While this is certainly a study that will get your blood boiling, there is hope. It has also been found that when reviewers agree upon very specific credentials (specific amount of education, specific experience) prior to the interviewing process, the effect of implicit bias was reduced substantially. Dr. Colin Adams's talk on making math fun was an absolute joy. He's the author of How to Ace Calculus: The Streetwise Guide and many others, and I'll leave you with this video he created on how to survive the zombie apocalypse using calculus: From Donna J. Nelson​, who was the scientific advisor on Breaking Bad, I learned that absolutely pure meth would not, in fact, be blue. Walt simply needed a trademark. Who knew! Russell Shilling​ ran a workshop delving into a 10-Year Vision for STEM Teaching and Learning​. What big ideas could we introduce to revitalize STEM in the US? How could these policies be implemented? The need to change the view of STEM in media outlets came up often (how to encourage folk to look up to "STEMlebrities") as well as the need to redefine failure. Many believed that assessment was an integral and essential part of the education process, while others thought we were due for a vacation from assessment. Be sure to comment with your big ideas for STEM. Emily Reid​, Alice Steinglass​, and Talia Milgrom-Elcott​ gave an amazing panel presentation on making coding accessible to all. To the issue of redefining failure, Alice​ remarked:  "In coding, there is no such thing as failure. You're just not done yet." Of course, you can add to the conversation about redefining failure here: How do we rethink failure?​ And lastly, I can't talk about the STEM Summit without mentioning the beautiful view: You can visit the STEM Summit community for the full list of speakers and agenda for the day; to check out what everyone said on Facebook,Twitter, and the Community during the event; to apply for the Connection Grant; and to view the relics from the STEM archives from the last three years of STEM. Best, Laura ... View more

I love usability testing and feedback from the people who use what we make here at Macmillan--and trying to improve what we make based on what we learn. A few weeks ago Karita dos Santos​ hosted a very talented group of rhet/comp graduate students from across the country, all hanging out in the conference room in our Boston office: They were in town for a focus group with Nancy Sommers​, but I got to spend some time with them getting live feedback to our Bedford Bits​ blog. They had great critiques, and we wasted no time acting on them (thanks, super designer Sara Hillman!). The differences in the screenshots below may not look super dramatic, but I think it's much more engaging, because that dynamic list of blog posts, ie, why you care, is now farther up the page (and the tag cloud provides an alternate way into the content). And that, my friends, is the beauty of revision and digital composition. Woot! If you have comments about what you do or don't like about our community, add a comment to this post or just send me a message! The Before Bits The After Bits What they said: Too many ways into the same content, repetitive navigation Why are the topics listed on the right and at the top (when you scroll over the image?) How do I see related content when i'm reading a post? Need a "how to use this space" FAQ What we did: Delete topics from the right hand column and move the recent blog posts higher on the page Go to an evenly weighted 2-column layout so you get the juicy stuff when your eye scrolls across the page Add "popular tags" so it's more obvious how to jump into lists of the stuff that interests you ... View more