Comments on: Creating globally connected, rigorous and highly motivated assignments by Alan November http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2007/09/14/creating-globally-connected-rigorous-and-highly-motivated-assignments-by-alan-november/ Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:32:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Joselyn Todd http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2007/09/14/creating-globally-connected-rigorous-and-highly-motivated-assignments-by-alan-november/comment-page-1/#comment-40958 Joselyn Todd Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:34:42 +0000 http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2007/09/14/creating-globally-connected-rigorous-and-highly-motivated-assignments-by-alan-november/#comment-40958 Wes, I have been following your trip to China and Learning 2.0. Thank you for posting your notes re: Alan November's session on what I will call "Assessments 2.0." I teach general middle school science as well as an advanced middle school science elective and have been employing screencasting as a formative and summative assessment tool. For example, today my students are taking a quiz re: an experiment about density. They will be asked to used a applet in class to demonstrate and explain density and buoyancy through a 4 minute screencast. Assessment grading is done by their peers as well as by me through a rubric which includes a category called "creativity :-)". The products are at the top of Bloom's taxonomy by their very nature. We use Windows Media Encoder and $10 mics as hardware (we are a 1:1 school- Cary Academy, NC). Using this mode of assessment, I have found that many of the same "best practice" principles apply as it is so important to ask students to illustrate, explain, solve, demonstrate, etc. through rather open ended, thought provoking questions. Backwards design supported by Web 2.0 tools is serving me well as a teacher as I design Web 2.0 assessments. One of the roadblocks I have run into is that parents expect a paper and pencil test- after all this is how they learned. As well, although I know that the employment of a Web 2.0 teaching pedagogy (if there is such a thing) will best serve my students in the long run, what about the short haul? I have had to believe that through a Web 2.0 learning model that they will be able to successfully demonstrate competency on a Web 1.0 standardized test. I am hoping that those of us who really "get" Web 2.0 and the power which it represents in a k-12 educational landscape will be able to start making concrete movement towards educating those at the top (term loosely applied) regarding more authentic assessments when it comes to high stakes testing. Again- keep the podcasts coming. My dogs and I have run countless miles while listening in on "our" iPod nano :) . -Joselyn Todd, Cary Academy , www.cascience7.com. Wes, I have been following your trip to China and Learning 2.0. Thank you for posting your notes re: Alan November’s session on what I will call “Assessments 2.0.” I teach general middle school science as well as an advanced middle school science elective and have been employing screencasting as a formative and summative assessment tool. For example, today my students are taking a quiz re: an experiment about density. They will be asked to used a applet in class to demonstrate and explain density and buoyancy through a 4 minute screencast. Assessment grading is done by their peers as well as by me through a rubric which includes a category called “creativity :-)”. The products are at the top of Bloom’s taxonomy by their very nature. We use Windows Media Encoder and $10 mics as hardware (we are a 1:1 school- Cary Academy, NC). Using this mode of assessment, I have found that many of the same “best practice” principles apply as it is so important to ask students to illustrate, explain, solve, demonstrate, etc. through rather open ended, thought provoking questions. Backwards design supported by Web 2.0 tools is serving me well as a teacher as I design Web 2.0 assessments.

One of the roadblocks I have run into is that parents expect a paper and pencil test- after all this is how they learned. As well, although I know that the employment of a Web 2.0 teaching pedagogy (if there is such a thing) will best serve my students in the long run, what about the short haul? I have had to believe that through a Web 2.0 learning model that they will be able to successfully demonstrate competency on a Web 1.0 standardized test. I am hoping that those of us who really “get” Web 2.0 and the power which it represents in a k-12 educational landscape will be able to start making concrete movement towards educating those at the top (term loosely applied) regarding more authentic assessments when it comes to high stakes testing.

Again- keep the podcasts coming. My dogs and I have run countless miles while listening in on “our” iPod nano :) . -Joselyn Todd, Cary Academy , http://www.cascience7.com.

]]> By: Podcast192: Ten Things to Do with a Laptop - Learning and Powerful Ideas by Gary Stager » Moving at the Speed of Creativity http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2007/09/14/creating-globally-connected-rigorous-and-highly-motivated-assignments-by-alan-november/comment-page-1/#comment-40916 Podcast192: Ten Things to Do with a Laptop - Learning and Powerful Ideas by Gary Stager » Moving at the Speed of Creativity Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:31:06 +0000 http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2007/09/14/creating-globally-connected-rigorous-and-highly-motivated-assignments-by-alan-november/#comment-40916 [...] My text notes from Alan’s session [...] [...] My text notes from Alan’s session [...]

]]> By: John Larkin http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2007/09/14/creating-globally-connected-rigorous-and-highly-motivated-assignments-by-alan-november/comment-page-1/#comment-40876 John Larkin Sun, 16 Sep 2007 07:40:29 +0000 http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2007/09/14/creating-globally-connected-rigorous-and-highly-motivated-assignments-by-alan-november/#comment-40876 Hi Wes (and Will) I have been reading your posts, as well as Will Richardson's, with great interest. I wish I was there at the conference. I have taught in Asia myself and even though I have been back in Australia I still miss the overseas experience. The students and teachers in Singapore and the surrounding countries had a thirst for knowledge. The libraries in Singapore reflected this thirst. It was standing room only. I agree about teaching students "the grammar of the Internet". I love to teach the students how to conduct informed and beneficial research on the Internet. Have any of the participants raised the issue of the perceived versus the actual skill set of the "Digital Natives" that we teach? Sue Waters posted some telling thoughts on her excellent blog.... http://aquaculturepda.edublogs.org/2007/09/15/fact-or-fiction-you-tell-me/ I wonder are they Digital Natives or simply Digital Dilettantes? How "digital" are the digital students? Best wishes, John Larkin St Joseph's Catholic High School NSW, Australia Hi Wes (and Will)

I have been reading your posts, as well as Will Richardson’s, with great interest. I wish I was there at the conference. I have taught in Asia myself and even though I have been back in Australia I still miss the overseas experience. The students and teachers in Singapore and the surrounding countries had a thirst for knowledge. The libraries in Singapore reflected this thirst. It was standing room only.

I agree about teaching students “the grammar of the Internet”. I love to teach the students how to conduct informed and beneficial research on the Internet.

Have any of the participants raised the issue of the perceived versus the actual skill set of the “Digital Natives” that we teach? Sue Waters posted some telling thoughts on her excellent blog….

http://aquaculturepda.edublogs.org/2007/09/15/fact-or-fiction-you-tell-me/

I wonder are they Digital Natives or simply Digital Dilettantes? How “digital” are the digital students?

Best wishes,

John Larkin
St Joseph’s Catholic High School
NSW, Australia

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