Group items tagged

"One of the most important information literacy skills for students is learning how to critically evaluate information found on the Web. This page includes forms for teaching the process, articles for learning about the aspect of literacy, and a list of bogus sites to use to showcase that all things on the Web are not real."

"It occurred to me that, at least for somewhat advanced learners (middle school and beyond?), I'd like to start having the learners propose evaluation criteria for rubrics. Why? Because, in the course of investigating what should be important, they're beginning to learn about what is important. "

Very useful collection of links to pdf and Word files containing rubrics for various kinds of creative activities: case studies, critic thinking, oral communication and presentations, management and finance, peer evaluations, problem solving, writing, etc.

"What strategy can double student learning gains? According to 250 empirical studies, the answer is formative assessment, defined by Bill Younglove as "the frequent, interactive checking of student progress and understanding in order to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately." A great short article to make one aware of the nature and value of formative assessment. Unlike summative assessment, which evaluates student learning according to a benchmark, formative assessment monitors student understanding so that kids are always aware of their academic strengths and learning gaps. Meanwhile, teachers can improve the effectiveness of their instruction, re-teaching if necessary. "When the cook tastes the soup," writes Robert E. Stake, "that's formative; when the guests taste the soup, that's summative." Formative assessment can be administered as an exam. But if the assessment is not a traditional quiz, it falls within the category of alternative assessment."

This blog entry shows two examples, one of a teacher-created rubric, and the other of a rubric created with the help of the students. The comparison shows that the students had a slightly different idea of what was being evaluated -- always good information to have.

Interesting article on the value of using screen capture video for feedback on students' written work. Should be added to the arsenal of evaluation.

Text analytics, the analysis of open-ended responses on questionnaires, could become the new wave of teacher/student evaluation. Teachers don't have time to read comments from student surveys, but that's where the most valuable information resides. But a chat bot could use text analysis to dig out and compile action points that might make an impact on learning. You can try out Hubert the chatbot by signing up at a link in this article.

A project to cultivate 21st century fluencies needed by the "digital citizen": creativity, solutions for real life problems, analyzing and evaluation information, using multiple media, ability to work in collaborations. Interesting article at http://mgleeson.edublogs.org/2012/11/16/21st-century-fluencies/. Focusing on young learners.

Many of these checklists are like rubrics, and will help you choose iPad apps, determine how to evaluate blogging projects, etc.

An interesting argument that the flipped classroom is really a stepping stone to students doing their own learning/research. Very thought-provoking about the role of the teacher in a classroom or online: "Ultimately, we have realized that three fundamental questions should drive the teaching and ­learning experience: What are you going to learn? How are you going to learn it? How are you going to show your learning? As this new way of learning has played out over time, my students have found that they no longer need me to locate or create videos for them. They can find their own resources and direct their own learning. My goal as a teacher is to help them become independent learners, to give their learning a purpose that is apparent to them (beyond simply passing the unit exam). I prompt them to reflect on their thinking and learning while sharing stories of my own journey as a learner. I help them develop skills, such as finding and evaluating sources and collaborating with their peers."

Uses a course wiki for planning lessons and presentations. Student-teachers post a version of their lessons and then discuss in workshop, later using the wiki "comment" function. Students then revise their lessons and resubmit for evaluation by the instructor.

"I'm trying to capture rethinking about education or formal learning. I'm tired of anything that allows folks to think knowledge dump and test is going to lead to meaningful change. I'm also trying to 'think out loud' for myself. And start getting more concrete about learning experience design." This thoughtful blog is accompanied by a very useful graphic display of how content, activities, evaluation, etc. feed into each other.

What makes a great "social LMS"? " Does it provide a means to rate and prioritize the social learning interactions? Does it allow for evaluating the effectiveness of the social learning experience? Does it integrate with and enhance an organization's existing system? Does it track the history and outcomes of the social learning process? Does it allow for open collaboration and knowledge sharing? Does it improve productivity? Does it make learning easier?" All the reasons whya traditional LMS may not work well in an educational setting. Can Moodle adapt?

"Teachers helping teachers. Helping one another use Web technology to teach better. OpenCourse.org hosts virtual communities developing, evaluating and using open, non-proprietary learning objects in their discipline. Opencourse.org is a free collaboration platform for educators."

This list of apps is organized according to Bloom's taxonomy of learning: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, creating. This is an ingenious way to check out what students are actually getting out of this technology, or any other, for that matter.

An excellent site with mock-up sites to help students explore search engines, evaluate what they read on the Internet, plagarism, etc.

Reasons why graduating students need e-portfolios. The blog also has a series of articles on evaluating e-portfolios, links to examples, how to developed a networked school, etc.

An interesting Slideshare preentation on ways to use alternative evaluation, with a focus on communication, integrated skills, and learner-centered solutions. (From Webheads Diigo Group; blog Box of Chocolates, by Cecilia Coelho, http://cecilialcoelho.wordpress.com/)

An assessment rubric for teachers to analyze the Language of the WebQuests students have created. Very detailed with several levels of evaluation.

"A project based learning method is a comprehensive approach to instruction. Your students participate in projects and practice an interdisciplinary array of skills from math, language arts, fine arts, geography, science, and technology. .... "To help you start using PBL, we've created age-appropriate, customizable project checklists for written reports, multimedia projects, oral presentations, and science projects. The use of these checklists keeps students on track and allows them to take responsibility for their own learning through peer- and self-evaluation. " This site contains numerous rubric starter templates for each of the grades and for a wide-variety of topics. A way to get started.