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. :)