Multiple Shifts.  Assessment advances are just one of six shifts that most American schools will experience in this decade: Print to digital Flat & sequential to engaging & adaptive experiences Annual tests to instant feedback Cohorts to individual progress Individual teacher practice to teams School as place to learning as blended services With improved access and more powerful tools, assessment is undergoing four shifts: Periodic to continuous: all day long not just end of unit/year Foreground to background: most assessment will be embedded within learning experiences, produced products, and observed behaviors Artificial to authentic: simulations and real work products rather than bubble sheets Heavyweight to lightweight: when every student has a huge standards-based gradebook, a simple sample will sufficient for summative assessment

Now a new web-based app called Understoodit wants to take the fear out of learning by allowing students to anonymously communicate confusion.    Nice

BYOD costs drop + rise of productivity potential = efficient education!

The Pros list is spot on!!

Collaborate with students. Engage students as co-designers when you develop pilot projects, by actively seeking their advice for how to improve the project and embedded activities. These same students can serve as experts or classroom assistants when the project is implemented more broadly.

They will be the first Australian University to begin delivering in this way, and this is the first step towards an overhaul of their teaching strategies, including moving to fully online delivery of first-year Science courses from 2012