We don't need to change education we need to change Evaluation!

I was thinking the other day about the problems with education. Specifically Science education. And guess what I realized. There isn't a problem with education. The problems lies in assessment. My wife has take three science classes at college. The classes themselves have been great, but English, and most especially scientific English is a foreign language for her. She is a native Spanish speaker, and in your average science class there are more new terms than in a foreign language course.

Still the science wasn't the problem. I watched my wife thrill at learning Geology, Astronomy, and Pre-Historic Biology just to get to the tests and have the same message reinforced.

You aren't good at Science

Why? Because the entire measure of how well she understood and appreciated the science she was learning was based on a multiple choice question with the bulk of the questions based around the lowest level of Bloom's Taxonomy. Knowledge. Basically, Can you memorize this and regurgitate it.

The problem isn't the Textbooks! They are actually good. The problem was not the professors who gave engaging lectures, fulfilling assignments and good materials. The problem is assessment. As long as there is only one thread the tapestry of understanding is going to be very simple. What every science class (and I would argue every class, and course) needs is multiple threads of evidence for understanding. Or in other words students can weave a tapestry demonstrating their competency, rather than a single color cloth.

Does this make things more difficult? Yes and No. Teachers and Professors can't distill everything down to just a few multiple choice questions that they offer for two days in the testing center, on the other hand their assessment can be more authentic and better match their assignments. We don't need to change Education we need To change Evaluation.

Source Nods:
http://www.education.com/reference/article/vocabulary-science-classrooms/
Flickr user: Mr. Embiggen

Why cite sources?

There are at least three good reasons to cite sources in our digital age. Here they are listed in increasing order of importance.

1st

And I believe the least important. Now, that is not to say unimportant. We need to cite sources to obey copyright law. Most trouble with copyright can be avoided by appropriately citing sources. Teachers often point to Fair Use Copyright doctrine or the Teach Act 2002 as valid reasons for using information, but this does not excuse proper citing of sources.

2nd

I think the second most important reason for citing sources is: Modeling good behavior for students. In our modern day with plagiarism and copyright violation so easy, it is easy to take the approach as a teacher of just using what is necessary to get the job done. After all, it's all out and available for the public anyway right? Well...sort of? Information that is found in 3 independent sources can be considered general knowledge and is exempt from the necessity of citation. The challenge with this is that items of a multimedia nature are not always public domain, even on government or other websites since the work may have been commissioned and the images or video may be copyrighted materials, subject to licensing and royalty agreements. We should cite sources to provide a good example for students of giving proper credit and not presenting others work as our own.

3rd

And I really think this is the most important reason! We should cite sources properly so we can find the source again should we need to. Ever accidentally deleted a photo out of PowerPoint? Have trouble finding it online again? If we cite our sources well we can find these resources again. Some may not be essential, if all you need is any picture of a giraffe it is fine, but if what you need is a picture of a giraffe and you lose it, having citations can save the day.

So, how do you navigate this jungle in a digital age?

A couple of suggestions

Understand the difference between formal and informal citations. Formal are the tried and true citation formats for MLA, APA or other defined styles. Informal are just that, informal methods that accurately reflect where information was found but don't follow a formal style sheet. A tendency on the web for citing sources such as flickr, youtube and picasa is to cite the user: i.e. photos from flickr user: covili

For more formal citation help try: Citation Machine

Academix 2009

I have been attending the Apple Academix 2009 conference. This conference is aimed at Higher Ed folks, but has been really great for me.

One of the things that has struck me is the overall dismissal of Twitter. It reminds me of the dismissal of Rock and Roll, or more recently the dismissal of the Internet, Cell phones, wikipedia. People dismissed each of these in term as really not very valid.

Is twitter any different? I know it isn't a perfect tool, it is full of inane daily drivel, but does that mean it isn't valid or isn't going to stay around? I doubt that Twitter is going to go away.

Two examples:

I have never met @shareski but I have a friendship with him. He has commented on my tweets and I have commented on his tweets. It isn't a close relationship, but if I were to meet him, I could introduce myself and we know each other. No, this isn't the kind of close friendship I have with people I see f2f everyday, but it is a relationship that I value and when my phone wasn't working right for a few weeks I lost that valuable interaction from twitter.

Another similar although different experience is a friend on Facebook. He was my student 6 years ago. When I joined Facebook he found me and added me as a friend. Well, even thought I have not really seen him, we have resumed a friendly and good relationship. I comment on his status updates he has asked me a few questions. Today, I saw him at the conference because he is attending school here. I was able to walk right up to him and say hello and ask how the election went for him (He ran for student body president) No, we aren't exactly close friends, but it is definitely a relationship that I value. I found out too, that a book that I read out loud to class, when I was his teacher prompted him to go out and read the rest of the series. The important part of all this is that these technologies are about the relationships.

Presenter's Tools

Last week I posted about the cool timer's that are available online. There are also some other greate tools, for working in front of a group or class.

I have used ZoomIt for about a year now and it is a truly useful tool. On a Windows computer you can zoom in on a specific region, draw lines, rectangles, circles and even type text. Keyboard shortcuts allow you to change your pen color with: orange, red, blue green and yellow options. You can also color the screen to black or white for a sketch pad. There is a built in countdown timer that allows you to manage activities and whatever your are doing is gone with a quick click of the esc key on you keyboard.

Another feature I have found particularly useful is the fact that ZoomIt will run from a flash drive or with the latest release directly from the web. Meaning I don't have to download it or install it on a strange machine I may be using.

Now, you are probably asking: What about the MAC? Well, I used to tell people, "Sorry, you can use the control key and scroll up to zoom in, but no drawing or other cool features" Turns out that like so many other times in my life I was wrong. Omnidazzle on the Mac will give you a lot of useful features to present or instruct from a computer. It allows you to highlight areas, zoom in or create focus on you mouse. Additionally it has some features that make finding your cursor on a large screen easier.

Links:

ZoomIt: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897434.aspx

OmniDazzle: http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidazzle/

WWW: Wednesday Web of the Week-Xtranormal.com

What first up for creating multimedia? I am not entirely sure, but I found a new entry for Top 5 Cool multimedia tools on the web. The website xtranormal.com allows you to generate your own 3D movies with custom dialog and set pieces of animation.

This could be a phenomenal tool allowing students to storyboard and develop ideas for creating their own filmed movies. A teacher could also heighten media literacy by allowing students a chance to direct their own sequence which would heighten awareness of the tricks and techniques filmmakers use to create drama or move a story along.

Additionally foreign language could write dialog in the language their are learning. English teachers could use this to help teach dialog as well. A final interesting feature is that you are allowed to remix other videos which enables you to put your own twist on an idea without starting from scratch

Happy movie making!

Smarts!

This month Edutopia has had an emphasis on Multiple intelligences from Howard Gardner. I like his work and have always been interested in learning styles and creating curriculum that allows students to explore the content along with different ways of learning the content.

One of the smarts that I haven't seen is technosmart. It exists, I am proof, so are all the unofficial tech support teachers that are always there to answer the questions about computers, vcrs, video, how to hook up the sound system, or why isn't the projector working. Teaching tech classes for 4 years also taught me that this was the case with learners. Some students just got it. All students could learn and most did learn technology skills in my class, like file management, multimedia creation, CAD, but some of them truly shined. I could throw any new program at them and they would master it within the week we worked on it.

In the video below, there is one statement too that speaks to what I have said before regarding extended adolescence. With 1:36 remaining one girl refers to the fact that they get to act like adults and take responsibility. This kind of relevance for students is what make learning real. they are learning to be not preparing to be. I would love it if my children could be in a class and school like this.

Finding a horse of a different color

Have you ever looked for a horse of a different color? Now with GoogleImages color filtering you can.

When you got to the GoogleImages page to search for images, you can now choose to filter for some basic colors which allows you to find search results with specific color scheme.

This is similar to a couple of tools available for flickr

Color Fields

Multicolr

Google's new Tool does make me want to ask the question? When will it be on www.picasaweb.com or in picasa?

But either way you can now find a horse of a different color



click here for full size image

Take the intelligence quiz!

Edutopia is focusing on Multiple Intelligences this month. Take the quiz to find out which smart you are!: http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-learning-styles-quiz

Here are my results

What's on first?

What first up for creating multimedia? I am not entirely sure, but I found a new entry for Top 5 Cool multimedia tools on the web. The website xtranormal.com allows you to generate your own 3D movies with custom dialog and set pieces of animation.

This could be a phenomenal tool allowing students to storyboard and develop ideas for creating their own filmed movies. A teacher could also heighten media literacy by allowing students a chance to direct their own sequence which would heighten awareness of the tricks and techniques filmmakers use to create drama or move a story along.

Additionally foreign language could write dialog in the language their are learning. English teachers could use this to help teach dialog as well. A final interesting feature is that you are allowed to remix other videos which enables you to put your own twist on an idea without starting from scratch

Happy movie making!

The connected Classroom via iPhone

Watch the video first or after or whenever?



Regarding this video in his blog: Darren Kuropatwa said

but, in most subjects, does every kid have to learn exactly the same stuff?

My response to his question:

NO!

Not only does every kid not have to learn the exactly same stuff....they can't. Based on their prior knowledge they will connect and construct their own learning as you present material to them. So the question really is not do they have to learn the same stuff, but do they have to be presented the same material?

My response to my question:

NO!

I tried my very best when I was in the classroom to get kids to explore and create networks of learning for themselves. I have learned since then what more I could have done to really build those. For example why not have each student subscribe to two out of four or five suggested podcasts. Not just my class podcast. Or have them choose two relevant films to watch and use that to drive discussion. Clearly there are times when you want each student to be able to work with a specific body of material, skills, or information. But students can and should be forming their own areas of interest that will develop into areas of expertise. My job as an educator can then be to prompt them into making connections they haven't and into thinking about things they may have missed. Instead of a single assigned textbook why not 3 options?

Then, the face to face time with students can focus on those skills and information that can only be imparted in the face to face setting.

Probably some broad brush strokes here, but just some thoughts!

BTW my original comments were:

I was already doing this in my class before I left to become a professional developer. Not to the extent here, but for example during our unit on energy and power I provided links to video, websites, and even suggested items that were going to be on TV for kids to watch and summarize before our next in class discussion.

To me you value the students time and your own time when you reserve for the face to face time those things that can only be done face to face. Me modeling, problem solving or helping with skills.

The challenge I had with the video was how locked into Apple this is. What about those kids that don't want an iPhone? iTunes U is awesome, but I hate locking our delivery to one platform and one portal.

We Try, we really really try - Part II

Teachers really try and teach, but despite our best efforts some students are simply resistant to actual information. It's like bacteria becoming resistant to drugs

Posting to Drape's Takes

Edmodo is another tool you can look at. @Zemote is the guy running it. It works like twitter but educators can create groups (classes) that receive certain tweets. Wish I had a class so i could try it out :-(

http://www.edmodo.com/
http://twitter.com/zemote

good luck to @canyonsdave too

Originally posted as a comment by Jorgie on Drape's Takes using Disqus.

Social Networking, Social Learning and ......Social Teaching!

I bumped into Erika's Blog via a tweet from @shareski.

I found it pretty interesting and it prompted me to think a little about something I hadn't really thought about before.

I really was a social learner, IMHO, we all are. We learn by talking, chatting, arguing and discussing things with others. Despite my social learning, I was limiting my society by not engaging as much as I could have via the interwebs. I admit that I was fearful. I was specifically fearful of how the powers that be would react to my web presence, when, not if, it came to their attention. I realize now, that that fear held me back. It is very sad to me in a way that I had to leave the classroom to learn how much better a teacher I could have been.

Now, I realize, maybe there are more ways I can help, more things I can do. If learning is social, maybe teaching can be too. Why would I limit my student's learning to just what I can teach them. I could now bring other teachers into my classroom, experts in may fields, students, and learners, and politicians and who knows what else if I just open myself to the vast possibilities of what social teaching could do.

Comment Spam bleeech

Somehow someone posted comment spam on my blog. Bleccch!



Yes, remove forever!

A real game-changer!

Dean Shareski just tweeted that he diskliked the process of assigning a numeric value to a student's work. Eliminating this archaic practice would be a real game-changer. I couldn't agree more. A large step toward that would be to divide every content area into at least two categories:

• Content Knowledge
• Skill proficiencies

Teachers know that there are students who know stuff and students can do stuff, and sometimes the capacity in the two is very different.

I personally am in favor of the Rubric Levels from the Utah CRTs. It still assigns a number, but the category names are much more in line with the expectations of both today's parents and today's students.

• Substantial Mastery
• Sufficient Mastery
• Partial Mastery
• Minimal Mastery

Parents behave as though they believe an 'A' means their student has done all that was required in class and anything less is somehow deficient. Students behave the same. The list above more accurately reflects this expectation.

The other thing I like about this is if I used this rating system for the entire class not just end of level tests and specific assignments, it would more accurately reflect what students are really capable of both in content knowledge and in skill proficiencies.

For just a flavor of this see my journal rubric be patient with any grammar or spelling errors.