Formative and Summative Assessment

The conversation around formative and summative assessments in the online learning is really interesting in that it differs very little from that of the traditional F2F discussion.

I think it would be almost shameful not to discuss assessments in the bigger context of the current educational environment.  How many current teachers really understand the intricacies of these two means of assessment and are able to properly use them in the appropriate contexts?  Online learning, because of its transparent nature, sheds a huge light on any pedagogical deficiencies a teacher might have.

I, like most other teachers, are very comfortable with the traditional summative assessment model.  At certain points in the school year we stop and administer a "test".  The timelines are artificial in nature.  Elementary schools have a basic vocabulary and math test every Friday.  The vocabulary words were studied through out the week and disturbed via a paper list on Mondays.  Students then complete a variety of discounted tasks, such as "definitions, write each word 5 times, and (my favorite) alphabetical order".  With secondary, it's the "unit test".  We have a test when the unit is done.  Midterms consist of the units covered in the first part of the course and so on.  Formative assessment are "easy" in the traditional classroom.  It's what the teacher perceives as student comprehension.

Obviously, the aforementioned are not best practices.

Assessment in the online classroom starts with a close examination of what assessments are and the goals for administering them.  One of my greatest learnings from this course, is that Discussion boards can be used as formative assessments.  I think the online teacher has to develop the conditions in which assessments are a part of the inner workings of the course and are integrated within the instructional design of the curriculum.

Social & Professional Networks

   Think about how the Internet has impacted your own personal learning, communication, and sense of community. Write a new post that includes a screenshot showing your participation in a social or professional network, and a summary of how you use that network for personal or professional connections or for new learning. In your post reflect on the following:

• When does the Internet help your learning? When does it distract from good learning for you?
• How might your answers to these questions be similar to or different from the answers your students might give?
• How might you support your students in using the Internet as their own personal learning space?

The Internet is a wonderful learning tool for the teacher.  Initially, many years ago, I started using the internet as a menas to tap into resources that were readily available.  The non internet teacher had to rely on the colleagues at their school sites for lesson planning and resource assistance.  I was able to find a plethora of lesson plans, sample welcome letters, power points and many other great tools I used in my classroom.  As search engine technology began to improve I began to demonstrate the use of these resources to my colleagues.

With the advent of E-mail, the internet quickly became the primary source of sending "written" correspondence.  This was enhanced by the ability to send file attachments via email.  I was shocked!  Amazed!  How can a file and a message travel the world in mere seconds.  This idea now trivial, but that was the reality in the mid 90's when I started teaching.

Within a few years, my lens about the internet had changed.  Before, the internet was a place to "get stuff"; things that I needed to make my teaching life easier.  Now, the internet is the place where I go to "learn stuff".  With the rapidly changing technological world we live in, it's almost impossible to stay up on the latest tools and trends with some help.  This is where my Personal Learning Network (PLN) comes in.  My PLN, which consists for friends, colleagues, educational bloggers, and complete strangers who have a voice and add remaning to my understanding about education in general.  I've presented at conferences where Twitter, or Google Reader were advertised as the PLN.  We must be careful here not to confuse the tool with the network.  Twitter (see screen shot below) is just a tool that aggregates all of those posts from the people I respect and admire.

Can the "internet" be a distraction?  Sure it can.  Can students be off task and spend endless hours doing nothing online?  Sure!  However, our role as educators is to guide the students through the sea of mind-numbing non-sense of internet garbage and help them to find the gems that enhance their efforts towards becoming healthy human beings and contributing to the common social good.

 

3.3 Reflection: Using Web 2.0 Tools

Web 2.0 tools are very quickly becoming the tasks of the online learning environment.  I want to use tremendous caution here because these tools can be over and mis-used.  These are tools of the online course, not the online course itself.  A course consists of instruction, resources, assessment, tasks, and discussions.  A couse does not consist of a bunch of web 2.0 tools slapped together to create a bubbly project.  When used appropriately Web 2.0 is a powerful set of tools to enhance student achievement and content knowledge.

When thinking about a classroom, it's difficult to find an example lesson that can not be replicated and enhanced in the online learning model.  I think the challenge lies in creating a whole course, not a single lesson, in the online model.

6th grade students are required to address the ideas of vulcanism (not Star Trek) and plate tectonics.  Students will generally design and color maps, both 3 dimensional and on paper that display areas of heightened plate tectonic movement.  They identify global hot spots for earthquakes and try to make connections to the various plates and how they move.  This kind of activity is a natural fit with the online model due to the enormous amounts of information that are readily available from sites such as the USGS and NASA.  The experience for students will be collaborative in nature especially for visual learners as there are a number of resources that dynamically display plate tectonic movement in interesting ways