Monday, March 22, 2010

Some things I am certain of (for now, this is beta, OK?)

These are mostly notes to self. You see, I read a lot and I fear losing touch with my own ideas. So I jot down a few to go back to them when learning gets too messy.

Thought it might be useful to share. Hence, post.

1) Teaching English is hard, anything else is an adverbial adjunct of place, manner and time. In other words, teaching is worth discussing. Anything else can be found for free on the Internet.

2) Time can be an excuse. Few things are not done because of time constraints. (I need more time to explain those few things, though. Suffice to say time is money and teachers need jobs).

3) Technology in the classroom is an intangible. Or not. If it is there and needs cleaning, it is probably not an enhancer, but an extra time consuming obstacle, needy for integration. Good technology use in the classroom is transparent and intertwined.

4) Transparency fosters authority. Mind you, not because I say so. I am talking about transparency about processes. Blog posts about how you are -right now- developing ideas and action. If you post after, if you just communicate results, this is more valuable as history or (self) marketing.

5) Motivation is a drug. It is a short-term target. It needs more and more to be done on the part of the teacher just to keep it going (see #2 above). Better keep the eyes on the mission. Better make people "addicted" to learning, to the process, to the autonomy of it. There are intrinsic reasons why this is pleasurable, meaningful and long lasting per se.

6) There are no how-tos. There are purposes. Question is not how-to but to what foreseeable end you work for. Allow for the unforeseeable, yet meaningful to happen.

7) Mind the use of the word "enhance" when linked to learning. Mind the gap. Old things are just old things.

8) Online contact does not entail collaboration. Work together does not imply face-to-face. Anything in the middle is ambiguous and requires a clarification of terms. That's a good use of a blog.

9) Standards are for things that fit a pattern. When educators claim that creativity is a "21st century" essential skill, we need to accept the limitations of striving for standards. Assessment and standards are cousins.

10) Doubt, question and never, ever just assume. Particularly applicable to all of the above.


More brewing in my mind at the moment. I'd rather pause here and wait for your thoughts.


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Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Gmail is Down

I love using Google products. All of them.
When a tool like Gmail is not working, this pic comes to my mind:




cartoon from www.weblogcartoons.com

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Then the question:

What is our DRP =Disaster Recovery Plan?




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Sunday, March 29, 2009

Dr Bob Marzano CUE 2009 Keynote Part II - Assessment

Dr Marzano speaks at the CUE 2009 Conference about his recent research on IWBs. On this second part he talks about assessment.
Please note that the discussion starts on minute 20 of the first video. See post on Part I of this keynote.



My notes

Part I Min 20

Formative assessment as an instructional tool
Feedback from classroom.
Assessment should provide students with a clear picture of their progress on learning goals and how they might improve.

Formative Assessment
Bangert-Drowns, Kulick, & Morgan 1991

Feedback on classroom assessment
Types

Right/Wrong
Provide Correct answers
Criteria understood by student vs. not understood
*Explain
*Student reassessed until correct

*higher gain


Part II
"Assessment should be a process of interaction between teacher and student. That is all it is."

Dialogue model
Students are able to say,
"This is what I see I have to get"
Teacher,
"This is what I see you have to learn"

"You can never rely on a single assessment no matter how good the assessment is"

Reliability
Decisions made about the individual, the class, the school, the district. To whom does the assessment make sense?

"You cannot rely on the 100 point scale"
Rigorous rubric-base approach.

Observed score= the score+error
(the student 'deserved' another score)

We need to look at a lot of data over time to assess. This is where technology comes into the picture. Keeping track. Grade books.

Min 7
Shows examples of students self-assessment.





Related links
Classroom Assessment & Grading that Work
By Robert Marzano
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/106006/chapters/The_Case_for_Classroom_Assessment.aspx

Applying the Theory on Measurement of Change to Formative Classroom Assessment
By Robert Marzano
pdf
http://www.marzanoresearch.com/documents/ApplyingTheoryToFormativeAssess.pdf


Rubrics and Self-Assessment Project
http://www.pz.harvard.edu/Research/RubricSelf.htm
"The two studies that made up the Project Zero's research focused on the effect of instructional rubrics and rubric-referenced self-assessment on the development of 7th and 8th grade students' writing skills and their understandings of the qualities of good writing."

Assessment bookmarks on my delicious
http://delicious.com/fceblog/assessment






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Dr Bob Marzano CUE 2009 Keynote Part l - Educational Research

Dr Marzano speaks at the CUE 2009 Conference about his recent research on IWBs.

He addresses the question What do we know about the effect of technology on student achievement?

On this first part of the keynote, the discussion centres on educational research, its value, how to read results and some instructional implications.

The second part focuses on assessment. (on separate post).


Here my notes as I watch. My reflections at the end.

Min 8
Quotables on stats and findings
"If you line up all the studies what you will find is that on the average, it all works pretty weel, but there will always be a big chunk of studies that say it doesn't work."
"If you use it, you do it less well than if you don't use it."

What is the implication of that?
"All research is equivocal, particularly in education.
And here's why: you can never account for all the factors in the classroom that impinge upon the strategy, the technology, etc, etc. You cannot take the human being out of it. It's always going to be that way."

Good news
"We can have all these tools we can use, but none of them is a silver bullet."
You cannot use everything all of the time. The point is which set of tools bring the best results in my classroom.

"The more experience you have with technology, the more effectively you can integrate it to classroom use."

An expert user is not just someone who uses technology, but someone who reflects, re-thinks and relearns and then goes out again into his blog, forum or community.

An expert is someone who models how he learns, how he evaluates the tool and practices.

Slide
Sweep Spot
Conditions under which you obtained the projected highest increase in student achievement.
  • An experienced teacher
  • who has been using the technology for two years
  • who uses it about 75% of the time in class
  • who has had enough training to be confident in their use of the technology

This is linked with good teaching

"You can't just give the technology to teachers and expect to automatically enhance student achievement."

"Sometimes it is possible to get better results without the technology."

Professional development= technology+ instructional strategy
Q1 How do you modify an instructional strategy with the use of technology?
We only have guesses.

Proper use of technology includes
-Clue: keep focus on the content, not the bells and whistles
-Keep track which students are "getting it" and which are not

Min 18
Questions can work against you in the classroom
Strategies to increase response rate- Student involvement
Voting technology (not just taken at face value)

Min 22
Starts discussing assessment, which is dealt with in depth on the second part.

------------------

My reflections
(marginally relevant)

It is interesting to note that although expertise and time spent experimenting with the tools is an entry level requirement, these things cannot be taught in a particular sequence. Everyone of us in the edublogosphere is reaching out, finding what they have to say and trying to model. Yet, none of us is following or trying to figure out some grading to the acquisition of 21st century literacy. There will be guidelines; yet not unquestionable rules of best practices.

The informal learning we make is more like jumping into the deep end of the pool and then tweeting out for help. Someone in the network will throw us a lifesaver link with some resources to learn how to swim. You keep calm and confident you'll make it with a little help from your friends and your autonomous learning skills.

I note this here to remind myself when I prepare a presentation for people new to the eduverse who might take Dr Marzano's statement of expertise at face value.











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Friday, June 08, 2007

Open Education

Open Education
Reflections on the Future of Education.
(My own -that is).

Learning at University and on the Internet at the same time is hard for me to integrate. It is an advantage to have chosen a University specialised in systems. I have a course of studies coordinator who is open to new technologies. She asked me to post this profile page on her new wiki experiment. It took me less than half an hour (*excuse me Stephen) to briefly put forward my ideas. A year of learning, online artifacts creation and future hopes on one page. And I owe that clarity to blogging; not a university.

Some ideas written in that wiki might be left aside as I continue my learning journey. I think these will probably not:

My Serendipitous Learning
My attitude in front of a screen has changed. I figure our students will face a future of information and communications change for which we cannot fully prepare them. Yet, we can give them tools and a glimpse of the digital literacies they will need for lifelong learning.
What I look for at University
I expect this Materials Design II course to help me go further in the search of theoretical substance to investigate what these ICT tools enable us to do in our classrooms. I hope this year I learn to integrate knowledge gained through formal and informal learning experiences; for I have found that both paths can be powerful enough to generate meaning, reflection and learning.

In search of integration patterns
I cannot speak of the future of education without the word "open" playing a key part.

Via the FOE attendr map, I landed again on Daniel Craig's blog. His post Why Peer-Reviewed Publishing?
invites to reflection on ranking academic journals.

Daniel says:
I have been thinking about this quite a bit over the last couple years, considering that I have a career ahead of me (hopefully) involving tenure review. However, I neither believe that traditional "high-quality" journals should have the power that they do over evaluation of academic prowess nor do I believe that they are the best place way to disseminate information. So, which direction do I go?

My comments (on his post)
Openness of publication and access can make results rather messy -not to say overwhelming. Spotting good quality is becoming a complex task.

For the time-being, an article saved 140 times in del.icio.us does not speak about its potential academic value. It just states that 140 people have read it.

Perhaps sites like diigo, with shared annotated bookmarks and the possibility to trace the note writer to its webpage, could open room to find diamonds in the rough outside the recognised journals in any given field. Yahoo pipes also looks promising as you mentioned in another post.

Still, as much as technology may simplify the finding process, much remains to be done about learning what makes a contribution valuable. To become more autonomous readers and not just wait until authorities decide what should be read.

Academy culture tends to change slowly. Authority and stability are at the heart of its existence. Should universities become more flexible, open, change altogether? Hard to predict their future.

Afterthoughts (or notes to self)
Where does that leave us teachers?
We will have to teach the separation of form, content and context if we want students to manage the changing nature of knowledge and information sources. We will have to model reflection in front of our students. Show them how we find patterns in what we consider quality value. Account for the reading selection we bring to class.

How to assess this process?
The key is, perhaps, again in openness. Who will have the power to change or review the syllabus? How open are we to expose our designs to criticism from colleagues? How much value can be given to students' self-assessment of their work?

I do not have definite answers. I'm afraid I never will. One thing is certain. Reflecting on my practice used to be rather lonely. The activities going on in my class were mostly private -except for the odd observation. I fear that all knowledge I did not share before has been lost in my mind. Those ideas did not grow.

Publishing my thoughts has led me to know like-minded people who take me further. Now, I am on the winding road of spotting the good, the bad and the ugly of the Internet. And then how it all integrates with academic contexts.

Sigh.

I hope I am on the right track.

....................
* I read Things you Really Need to Learn on Half an Hour last night. A gem indeed. My favourite post on the future of education. No comments. Just re-read and nodded.

Picture credits:
SimplySchmoopie
joannamkay (her edublog pic)
ChrisCampbell(last 2 pics)

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