Assessment Reflections

I've really learned a lot in this class. The biggest concept, I think, is that so many applications that I never thought of "in that way" can be used as an assessment option in the online setting. In addtion, the vast majority of those assessment applications force the student to work at a high level of Bloom's Taxonomy, which means less likelihood of plagiarism as well as letting the student build new scaffolds for their learning.

I found this link which does a really nice job of breaking down the roles of learning, teaching, and assessing in school and how they intertwine with each other. Everyone has a role to play--which ties nicely into the theme of this post--how online assessments require students to play an active role in their own learning. Whether it's discussion boards, applications, wikis or blogs, online assessing forces the student to create their own new knowledge, which in my opinion, is real learning.

Working on the Final Project

This has been a week for "challenges." First I had a huge writer's block! I knew what I wanted to do for my project, but getting it on paper was not as simple as it should have been. Then, I switched Internet providers, and the transition was not nearly as easy as it should have been. So, my access to working on the final project was not as simple as I'd liked. I finally got my Internet issues figured out on Tuesday, only to discover that the video card on my computer was failing! I quickly saved my work so far to a thumb drive, but I had to wait until I could get computer access to do anything. So, it's been an intense last couple of days trying to get caught up!

Actually, my challenges this week have made me think about my potential students. Teachers who will be taking this class could be total technology newbies, and challenges such as I endured this last week would not make them excited about incorporating technology into the classroom! Hopefully, I've designed this course and the assessments in it to be as user-friendly as possible!

Kathy

Cybercoaching--the Way We Should All Teach

This week we've been reading about cybercoaching, which I've really been looking forward to. My new job will entail a lot of coaching--F2F and cyber, so I enjoyed hearing what the experts had to say. I'm particularly taken with the idea of the regular checkins--that's an idea I plan to take with me for sure! Getting those regular checkins from your students allows you to make subtle adjustments along the way. I once attended a workshop from a teacher who had designed her biology class so that students could meet all curricular requirements, but could use different learning styles to do so. She had daily checkins with her students to see if they needed to move to a different "track." We should all strive to do that.

Bloom, Part Two

Microsoft Word - Assessment taxonomy - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Microsoft Word - Assessment taxonomy

Woo-hooo!!!! After help from many class members, the instructor, and Googling like a madwoman, I finally did it!! I figured out how to convert my Microsoft Word document to a PDF and get the whole thing loaded onto my blog!!! Yay for me!! And yay for this nifty application I found--Scribd. Solved my problem in just a few clicks. Dontcha love technology??

And for the real reason I'm posting...

This is a table showing just a few activities from a plan for a journalism class. Many of the activities fall at the lower thinking levels, and that's not a good thing in my book. I want my journalists to be able to analyze and evaluate!! But that's a post for a different blog. If this was a class I was designing, I would definitely rework some activities to not only make them applicable for online learning, like using discussion boards and web sites for content, but I would bump up the thinking levels by asking students to analyze multmedia sites for true and accurate reporting styles, for instance.

Final Project

I think I have a plan for my final project in this class. I'm going to continue in the development process from an assignment in another class and work towards creating an online staff development class on incorporating technology into the junior high classroom. The students would experience different Web 2.0 tools and develop assignments they could use in their classrooms the next day. What do you think?

Kathy

Bloom's Taxonomy

After reading up/reviewing Bloom's Taxonomy, I found this circle that really makes it understandable and usable. It is from Clark, B. (2002). Growing up gifted:Developing the potential of children at home and at school.Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall and was found at http://www.apa.org/ed/new_blooms.html. My first favorite part about the circle was the active verbs that match up with the various levels of thinking. However, when I came back to it I realized that the learning coach in me liked the outer circle the best. It's concrete, hands-on examples of how to use the various levels of thinking in the classroom.

Can you tell we've been talking about Bloom's in class this week? :) It's just as necessary in online classes as in F2F to move towards higher-level thinking. However, this circle has made me think of it more as a continuum than a timeline. Perhaps it's the master teacher who has developed the ability to move back and forth between the sections of the circle in order to teach and then re-teach a concept.

Team Assessment Project

One of the assignments this week was to work together with a group of people to create a toolbox of online assessment applications we might want to use. I enjoyed getting to see other people's perspectives on softwares, but it was most interesting seeing the interpersonal dynamics come into play. Everyone got their part of the assignment done in time, but everyone is not necessarily on the same time schedule. Overall, I think it was a valuable experience.

Online Discussions as a Form of Assessment

I've been thinking this week about all the different ways we assess our students, both F2F and online. In the Hyde/Clayton/Booth article we read this week one sentence in particular stood out to me. "Flexible delivery implies greater individualisation in learning and a stronger emphasis on a learner centred approach. (Hyde, Clayton, Booth, 2004.) I think it's fairly accepted among most educators that we want a learner-centered classroom and an individualized plan for our students. However, it has been my experience that skill-based instructors are often among the last to adopt this philosophy.

The trends that the researchers said emerged after they did their research are the ones I would assume--and hope!--would show up, especially the trend of "using different sources of evidence of knowledge and skills that underpin competency. (Hyde, Clayton, Booth, 2004.) Skill-based instructors have specific abilities that they are trying to develop in their students, much like content instructors have specific concepts that they're trying to teach. Having a flexible curriculum that correlates to desired indicators is valuable no matter what you teach.

I've done a lot of thinking about this graphic and how it relates to my new job. I have a sense that I will be spending a lot of time in this cycle; many teachers get stuck in step one and two, but never make it to three or four. My sense is that following all four steps in the cycle is how you get your students to the all-powerful AYP level.

I've learned a lot this week about technologies out there to help with this. Inspiration is da' BOMB and I've already used numerous times to plan out workshops for new teacher orientation. I'm playing around with Camtasia and Gliffy as well. I'm going to have quite the toolbox to impress my new boss this August! :)

Well, I'm finally learning Inspiration software. Why, oh why did I not know about this before? I've always concept mapped projects on paper to get my thoughts straight, but this beats pencil and paper hands down! I really appreciate being able to see my thoughts graphically represented--it serves as a great way to double check that I mean what I think I mean. I can see so many ways that concept mapping could be used in the classroom, both by teachers and by students. I will enjoy exploring this idea more in the upcoming months.

Interactive Assessment Thoughts

I would have to say that I totally agree with this assessment. My at-risk education background has shown me that students are most successful when we "understand what students can do and in what areas they have not succeeded." Too often students fail because either we as teachers assume what they know or don't lift up what the CAN do. Teaching and assessing are definitely intertwined, as the instrucment says. When instructors truly are facilitators of student learning, everyone learns and grows in their knowledge together.

Wang/Fang Article Thoughts

The article delves into the possible benefits of distance cooperative learning by using blogs. The research was conducted using a college writing class. Overall, two-thirds of the learners believed that blogs improved their learning. The researchers found that "learner autonomy, cooperative learning and time management" were also improved.
An advantage of blogs, to me, is the idea of an immediate audience for a student's writing. The final step of the writing process is usually considered to be publishing, but how many of us ever really publish for a real audience? The relative immediacy of feedback is also a benefit.
A potential disadvantage to blogs is how they could be received in the K-12 classroom, by parents, students, tech support and administration. I wonder what impediments one has to overcome in order to allow students access to web 2.0 tools? Getting all of the players to accept that blogs are beneficial would definitely be a first step.
Kathy in Kansas

Module 2 Reflection

This module was about blogs, authentic assessment, and the differences among measurement, assessment, and evaluation. I've attempted to use blogs for staff development workshops before, so that wasn't a new concept. Keeping up with them is the issue for me. I would think a classroom blog that's maintained by students would be a great idea for most classrooms. I wonder what my new school district's opinion is about student blogs as a classroom assignment?

However, I really grabbed hold of the authentic assessment idea--I'm a big believer in project-based learning, which to me is the epitome of authentic assessment. I also see authentic assessment as being extremely student-centered, which should be the goal of every classroom, shouldn't it?

The readings for this class and the other one I'm taking are starting to merge together in my mind. Actually, though--that's probably a good thing. Constructivist learning at it's best!

Module 1 Reflection

The "Inside the Black Box" reading assignment really struck a chord with me. It asks "Is there evidence that improving formative assessment raises standards?" The answer is an unequivocal "yes!" This makes a lot of sense to me. It stands to reason that if you can get better at seeing how students are learning along the way, then you will end up with a better result.

I particularly liked the idea that "the students have to change from behaving as passive
recipients of the knowledge offered by the teacher to becoming active learners who can take responsibility for and manage their own learning." Learning is a two-way street. The teachers may be the ones who set up the "road" initially, but the students have to be responsible for the path they take. In my at-risk education experience, many students who were classified as at risk were really ones who never learned to take any responsibility at all for anything.

Of course, this means that teachers have to take responsibility to have the courage to let go of total control of their classes. I hope in my new learning coach position I'm able to help guide teachers towards this belief. Hopefully this class will give me ideas on how best to facilitate that shift in thinking.

I was interviewed by a classmate in my Assessment in E-learning class as an assignment to show us some alternatives to traditional assessments. This is the one that was written about me...



Getting to know Kathleen Gates

Jun 18, 2008 8:34 PM
I had the opportunity to get to know Kathy Gates for this assignment. Kathy was an online curriculum developer for at-risk programs for nine years and before that ran a charter chool for at-risk students. She is beginning a new job as a junior high learning coach specializing in helping teachers learn to incorporate technology in their curriculum. She is taking this course as part of the E-Learning certificate to verify her previous knowledge and add to it. She has two sons who keep her very busy with soccer, baseball, and being a Cub Scout den leader and Sunday school teacher. She spends whatever free time she has reading and scrapbooking. She worked her way through college as a carpenter! Way to go, Kathy!

Educational Theory from Ten Year Olds

While I'm typing this I have a couple of ten year old boys in the room next to me investigating a new video game. I found it really interesting that neither of them even wanted to look at the directions for the game, much less actually read the booklet. As I eavesdrop on them I keep hearing them say things like "I wonder what this move does?" and "what happens when I push this button?" Within about 2 minutes they had the basics of what they needed to play the game without ever being officially "taught." We as educators have to reach the point where our classrooms have that same "user-friendliness."

Assessment in Elearning, Module 1 and 2

I'm setting up this blog to serve as a reflective journal for one of the online classes I'm taking this summer. I hope that having this be a requirement of one of my classes will force me to keep up on the blogging, unlike the personal ones I've set up and abandoned. :)