Notions about Assessment. 538 Final Post

I really enjoy posting to this blog and though the class that required I begin this writing ends next week, I vow to continue posting to this blog site. I have decided (Oh, reminds of me of a choir song….”to follow…” join in….) that in blogging I can assess my own stance and thinking about a myriad of questions that dance around in my mind. Sometimes, words fly out of my fingers that I never would have spoken…and I surprise myself.

We’ve been looking at assessment in 538–focusing on rubics. I like rubrics as assessments; I’ve been using them in teaching for twenty years. But sometimes, they become too staid and fail to reflect changes that occur over time or with interests. Sometimes, rubrics ignore cognitive awareness and create benchmarks that fall too short or aim too high. Point being–rubrics are useful, but they need keep step with the learner.

Having used rubrics for twenty years, I find that holistic grading is sometimes as efficient. Now, perhaps that is the product of having created and applied a plethora of rubrics. Or it may go back to my nature as an English teacher. There are some creations (writing, PowerPoints, wikis, music, etc.) that are just at the top of the line and you know that in your gut and in your heart and really, in your mind. Sometimes, these creations break rules rather than follow them. And so, a proponent of rubrics, I believe both the evaluator and the creator need guidelines, but also need flexibility to recognize greatness that may fall somewhere beneath the “meets” category in puctutation or spelling or the incoroporation of four different media…because some other aspect of the scored work is beyond the rubric’s ability to credit excellence. Rubrics, though a guide for both the evaluator and the evaluated, can sometimes be limiting. But then, isn’t that their function, to limit the bounds of the evaluator and provide a perimeter for the creator to work within? I love it when considerations of reality evoke questions rather than answers.

For me, that is one of the great powers of blogging…to be able to share reflections of my thoughts through a print medium that can be viewed in the light of day by others who may or may not agree.

Listening to a recent Stephen Downes videocast, I liked what I heard. I am so connected to information and communication available through the internet. He says, and I’m paraphrasing, “take a break! Live your life.” That addresses some of the concerns that were expressesd on this site two or three blogs ago. The responsibility to shape our world is our responsibility alone. Stephen Downes says, “You are at the center of your own personal learning network” and I say, for that we must take our own responsibility. Well, I have always felt I took responsiblity for myself, but in letting the 24 x 7 nature of the internet consume my attention, I no longer felt that taking time to experience the pleasures of life was a responsiblity centered in my own core. I allowed the immediacy of communication to change the quality of my own reality.

Pretty deep, huh?! He also suggested responding with immediacy to what we hear and see and so I am. I heard his message and I am responding both through my blog and my action. I am back on track, following Aristotle’s “Golden Mean” searching for moderation between technology and human self. I say that now, but we’ll see. Something else he spoke of that struck a chord with me was the nature of blogging….not publishing, but blogging. Listen to what he said and see what side of the fence you come down on….publisher or blogger.

I am committed to the educational power of Web 2.0 and I demonstrate that commitment through my blogging and my ongoing efforts at developing a quality wiki for collaborative learning. But I am also committed to regaining the autonomy of thought that allows me to consider the wonderous nature of life and its ambiguitites within my own constructs as well as considering theories framed in and by others.

Creating Authentic Learning in a Wiki

I really like wikis. That said, I like them because I see educational potential in their use by teachers and students. I am in the midst of a discussion, well, maybe that is too strong a word, perhaps conversation is more apt…about whether wikis really provide a learning environment and offer learning opportunities or whether they are merely repositiories of information and /or knowledge. Of course they are both–learners need one to have the other. Learners need information and/or knowledge to converge with experience in order to create new knowledge, extend existing knowledge and reinforce or dismiss notions or  assumptions.

But to develop wikis in a way that scaffolds constructivist thought and social interaction (aka networking) requires time and creativity. Sure, it’s easy to ask learners to post to a wiki just to make it look like your learners use wikis. But using wikis and learning from wikis is not the same concept. To make the wiki work from a the constructivist view is to require anticipation and thereafter, reflection. In that paradigm of working, wiki participants are truly  collaborating rather than idependently working on a shared site. That’s what makes wikis work. 

One way to illustrate such types of learning is to use Wikipedia or other wikis to develop critical literacy. Twice this week, I have read in a blog or listened to a podcast that outlines how teachers are using their distrust of Wikipedia to build critical reading skills. Christopher Dawson points out ways to challenge students to become critical readers by identifing inconsistencies or contradictions within Wikipedia entries or by culling the references and discussions to further research accuracy, timeliness, credibility, etc.  Dawson points out that many of today’s views regarding Wikipedia are reminiscent of our own teachers’ views of World Book and other encyclopedias, if not in their credibility, in the depth of their content.

Like any other instructional tool, a wiki is only as strong as designer of its use. If a teacher sees it as a repository and accepts the work assigned using it as just that, a repository it will be. However, if a teacher’s expecations require full familiarity and use of the discussion pages and embedding tools, the wiki can be far more than a repositiory; it can become a dynamic intellectual and cultural tool that shapes not only the creators, but also the sometime voyeur.

Notions and Assessment.538 #3

Wow! What a week! Technogized by the FOE virtual conference…postings and presentations, acquainting myself with educators who are totally immersed in educational technology….drawing on their energy and knowledge to boost my own.

Through FOE, I became part of an active dialogue regarding the learning that goes on in a wiki…or whether learning occurs in a wiki! How serendipitous for me since wikis are the focus of my summer energy. I am developing a hybrid professional development workshop that incorporates f2f, a course management system and a wiki for the purpose of bringing middle and high school teachers into the Web 2.0 fold. When I get my wiki all done, I’ll post and link it through this blog and get some feedback.

And, I’ve been reading…Assessing Online Learning. Got to chapter 4, “Online Collaborative Assessment: Unpacking Process and Product”and was reminded of a series of workshop trainings I received as a high school teacher based on the Richard Stiggins model. I really bought into his stance regarding process and product, formative and summative assessments, and the difference between assessments for learning and assessments of learning. During our training and the subsequent development of an informal study I conducted with my 11th grade students, we “unpacked” the Illinois Learning Standards as they applied to reading in developing a standards based curriculum focused on the end product. The whole process is much like like Wiggins’ Backward by Design and frankly, very amenable to development on wikis. Are you hearing the theme?

But the week wasn’t over and I was far from finished in connecting wikis with what I read. My teaching background you picked up from the previous paragraph is English–which to me is all about communication…and so I am focused on reading and writing and listening and speaking. That’s why I am so confident the wiki can help teachers help kids to be come better readers, which is really all about thinking. And now I’m back to Assessing Online Learning again, chapter five: Using Virtual Learning Models to Enhance and Assess Students’ Critical Thinking and Writing Skills. Wikis are all about communication: reading and talking with others in order to make meaning and then communicating that meaning with others to refine, define, extend, create more meaning that again gets communicated and sifted through the thought processes of another to go the gamut again.

These texts I’ve referenced: written, spoken, virtual, all come full circle to what is going on as I write…I am reconstructing, if very briefly, the texts that have engaged me this week; I am constructing meaning as I connect one to the other through reflective and cognitive thought, questioning their origins and relationships, and now, I am communicating those thoughts to you, looking for someone to challenge and extend my thoughts in an intellectual and fun exchange.

Has anyone ever actually had a learning experience in a wiki? Has anyone ever had a learning experience in a blog? Is it possible to have an experience and not learn? I pose those as rhetorical questions, but you can chew on them if you like and if you are further moved, let me know what your notions are about such theoretical meanderings.

The Future of Education. 438 Post #3

I have been spending time in the virtual world of The Future of Education Conference–last night listening to Dr. Cheri Toledo’s discussion of The Future of Teacher Education: Herding Cats and Chasing Targets.  She shared some views with her listeners regarding changes that need to be made among preservice teachers and also among their professors. One suggestion that seems imperative is to get professors and other PS instructors into a real classrooms…by real, I mean those that are representative of the course content. Too many academics are too far removed from the world of elementary, middle and high school to resonate with either their own students or the coordinating teachers nurturing and mentoring PS teachers. By the way, if you go to the link to hear Dr. Toledo’s talk, be patient for Elluminate to download…I hadn’t used this conferencing technology–had only heard about it…pretty cool. Listeners can particpate by using icons that vote, ask questions, show emotions!

This morning, I listend to the Derrick de Kerkhove on The City as Classroom. Wow!! I have read the work of Marshall McLuhan when a college communications major in 19…a few years ago.  I was anxious to hear what de Kerkhove had to say.

Theoretical, but totally engaging…be ready to listen close.  He spoke about the many generations that have brought us to this moment in our technologic journey, and introduced a cool word: “wreading.” That is what the NetGen reader does “outside the head on a screen what we were taught to do in our head” and isn’t that right…calculators are a simple example that comes to my mind. Kids make make meaning by moving a mouse to gather information or seek corrections for their spelling.

And he talked about the evolution of the medium from simple (my word) internet Web 1.0 to the current constructivist organization of knowledge through tagging. What he was getting at (I think) referenced the way we (the generation of kids that have never been without 24/7 social communication) think and how the visual nature of the Web 2.0 both in graphic images and the symbolic images of text are affecting information processing and the way, essentially we see ourselves as both individuals and a society. Well, that’s what I thought…but I gotta tell you, this was a talk that could use a rewind…if you know what I mean…lots of information and as I said–theoretical notions of how the brain and text come together to make meaning…which brings me to his last word: hypertext…which he defined (and now I’m loosely quoting…) as “associations received on line ‘just in time’ to get meaning” the bringing of content and context together. Yeah…you know…we do it all the time–individual perceptions of reality attempted to be aligned by the producer through a series of agreed upon visual conventions–letters as symobols, graphics as symbols, pictures of a shared culture. That kind of thing…I think.