"This article describes the need and prospects for alternative assessment approaches in online learning environments within the context of higher education."
"Managing Complexity: A Different Approach
From complexity to possibility - an artist's approach, presented by Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and co-author of "The Art of Possibility"."
My quandry is with the approach that our legislators take on pitting public and private schools against each other when what we should be doing is working cooperatively to build a better, stronger community of learners that will lead us into a successful future for all.
How can we participate better in this dialogue? How do we participate now? What do we envision our participation being, lets say in the reauthorization of NCLB?
I believe that the creation of teams of teachers, principals, researchers, students, and parents to review, give feedback, and design changes to NCLB would serve as a more successful approach to problem solving the current educational "crisis". When I have a problem to solve I take the grass roots approach, go to the source, research and reflect on the information, I never pretend to know it all. First hand accounts and dialogue are crucial in developing productive change.
creating a complete picture of our students and our schools with standardized testing being one aspect, but no the only measurement tool.
This is an important point you make. It relates to one of our guiding quesitons: What are the impacts of standardized testing? My hunch is more negative than positive.
Interesting NPR program on the effects on high NCLB
"If you've been following public discourse in education over the last couple of years, you have likely witnessed the emergence of a new, ubiquitous catch phrase: "21st century skills."
After some time and considerable debate within and among organizations like ISTE/NETS, enGauge, and The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a general consensus has emerged on definitions of the term. Many for-profit and not-for-profit organizations advertise their curricula to potential school and district clients, touting the alignment with 21st century skills with whatever they are pitching. The vast majority of these, from the traditional "drill and kill" to the more reformed, constructivist and project-based approaches, have adopted the rhetoric (if not the practice) of the new millennium.
What is still lacking in the landscape of 21st century education, however, are examples of 21st century student work.
While there is no shortage of discourse around the term or end to the lists qualifying the kind of work that students need to be engaged in as part of their 21st century education, there are precious few examples of actual 21st century work."
Are there "penalities" for not doing well on these tests? Can a student be denied graduation? I know this is coming in PA with the Keystone Exams. I also believe remediation (in 12th grade) is a requirment if you are not proficient on the PSSA in 11th grade.
I would suggest "demonstrates" rather than has. I also think that one of our greatest challenges in schools - teachers, leaders and students - is coming to some common understanding of what these terms mean, especially in the 21st century. For example, our understanding of collaboration is probably all over the board from "works in groups" to uses social networking sites to connect with other experts.
Does Apple really define this? While they funded the study, I wonder if attaching their name may give the impression that the corporate world is now identifying what we as educators ought to be doing. Maybe...Through research funded by Apple Computer...
While I agree with this as well, the challenge is how do we prepare teachers to engage in this instruction. Also, as I was reading I kept thinking, this sounds much like differentiated instruction...how do the two fuse together?
This article discusses the instructional strategies of Greene County Middle School science teacher José Garcia. Mr. Garcia employs challenge-based learning, which marries project-based learning with student inquiry and makes effective use of technology.
The Mobile Learning Institute's film series "A 21st Century Education" profiles individuals who embrace and defend fresh approaches to learning and who confront the urgent social challenges that are part of a 21st century experience. "A 21st Century Education" compiles, in short film format, the best ideas around school reform. The series is meant to start, extend, or nudge the conversation about how to make change in education happen. In this film, architect Randall Fielding demonstrates the connection between where and how students learn in the 21st century.
This site is a reource example of the CBL approach being used in an elementary school. The project has a global initiative of helping children in China and Afghanistan.