Posts tagged collaboration
Applied Macroeconomics – Evaluating Demand Side Policies
Nov 2nd
Aims:
· To recap the Paper 1 Mark Scheme
· To revise learning on the macroeconomic equilibrium, Keynesian and neoclassical perspectives and demand side policies.
· To apply the above learning to examples, both theoretical and real-life.
· To develop critical analysis and evaluation skills.
Step 1 – Recap Exam Technique
· Remember the Paper 1 Mark Scheme
· Remember the tips on evaluation
Step 2 – Analyse a Theoretical Scenario.
Image: Some rights reserved by APMus
You should ideally work in a pair or three and, as a team, will analyse the likely macroeconomic impacts of one of the following scenarios.
1) Government announces a large increase in spending on health and education.
2) Chancellor announces tax exemption scheme on new investments for small to medium sized firms.
3) Average wage rises way above inflation for the third month running.
4) Exchange rate appreciation knocks export hopes for manufacturing.
5) Institute of Directors (IOD) latest survey shows clear signs of optimism for the future of the economy
6) Central Bank signals rise in interest rates of ½%
- You should include at least one diagram.
- You should evaluate the likely effects – how strong will the impact be?
- There may not be one single answer – you simply need to be able to justify your predicted outcomes. Evaluation often needs to look at the assumptions we start with – you should be clear about what you are assuming.
Prepare a presentation (using for example Google Docs Presentation on MS Powerpoint) and prepare between two and four slides to show and explain the effects.
Step 3 – Analyse a Real Life Scenario.
Image: Some rights reserved by RambergMediaImages
You ideally need to form different pairs / threes in which you will be able to offer feedback to each other.
Each pair focuses on a region of the world, and each person selects a separate and current headline and article related to a demand side policy that has been introduced by the government there.
· North America
· South America
· Europe
· Africa
· Asia (not Thailand)
· Thailand
You need to summarise:
· Why there was a need for the demand-side policy
· The likely impact and successes / shortcomings of the policy.
· Include reference to at least one diagram
Try to use all of the techniques needed for a top scoring evaluation based essay.
Create a Google doc (or some similar document) that you will share with your partner(s).
A suggested site to search on: http://news.google.co.uk/
Here is the evaluation spreadsheet to provide feedback with. Make a copy and share it with your partner to offer them feedback with.
Experiments in Online Drawings
Dec 1st
As a teacher of Economics encouraging use of collaborative tools such as Google Docs, I am keen to find a good solution for students to (co-)create drawings they can quickly access, share and publish online.
Google docs now of course has a drawing app as part of its suite of online software. This is, as far as I can tell so far, very good. I have still yet to use it with students. One of its main advantages has to be the ability to add the same sharing controls as you can on other Google Docs. I will give it a go soon.
Recently, I experimented with an alternative. Dabbleboard which in some ways still feels like the beta software it is. However it carries some advantages which I like:
- Add extra ‘pages’, effectively making a slide show of drawings (see example below)
- You can save / embed / download the end results quite easily.
- Intuitively interprets gestures – a rough line gets picked up and converted in to a neat straight line
- You can click and type text without having to select the text icon
- The controls are generally good (such as quick clone, multiple selection for grouping)
- Integrates with a tool called tokbox so you could record/video conversations in response to the drawings (I haven’t used this)
- People can join a drawing without signing up / registering – just share the email link / embed the image for others to access
Disadvantages:
- Over-sensitive interpretation of your rough gestures – drawing a curve all to easily becomes a square, for example
- Less control over editor rights – when I embedded it for access to the students so that they could take control, any ‘random’ guest visitor could take control without my knowing who – lots of fun in class, but a wider worry for who can access and edit (the embed below is locked for editing, but its a shame it is all or nothing approach).
Overall a good option for a rough and ready drawing facility that produces good results. Will experiment further with the sharing / collaborative side of things.
