British journal, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education involving the use of something called interactive cover sheets. First-year students in an outdoor studies degree program took a two-semester, six module course which required preparation of a number of written assignments. After preparing their papers, students attached an interactive cover sheet on which they raised questions about the paper they had just completed, thereby identifying the specific areas for feedback.
The goal was to overcome the one-way communication that occurs when teachers write comments on student papers
Students also tell stories about feedback received on their papers
Does this idea of having students frame questions about their papers and writing offer a solution? The faculty who tried the approach found that students struggled mightily with the task
It’s pretty easy to understand why students would find this task challenging. Most (especially beginning students) have little or no experience assessing their own work and then to have to frame a question that would elicit feedback helpful to improving your next paper—that’s a pretty complicated task. But it’s such a good one.
that’s a really useful skill
I wonder if there might be some ways to reframe the task that would make it easier initially. Maybe students need guidelines early on: Identify the part of the paper you had the most trouble with and ask a question about it. Identify the part of the paper you think turned out best and explain why you feel good about it
a potentially promising idea with the dual benefits of developing a great self-assessment skill and directing feedback
The 5 questions that I ask are: 1) What are you trying to say here (what's the thesis/main point)? 2) Why is what you are trying to say important? 3) What is working in the piece and why? 4) What is not working in the piece and why? 5) What questions do you have for me?
If students feel that they are graded on the writers that they currently are rather than the writer that they are trying to be, many will be hesitant to open an honest dialogue.
dialogical cover sheet dates back to the expressivist movement in composition studies in the 1980s. I first came across it through Peter Elbow's writing
scaffolding the feedback process by offering students the opportunity to identify aspects of the paper or parts of the paper they would like their instructor to respond to is empowering pedagogy
The challenge is making the cover sheet simple enough
"Educational Origami is a blog and a wiki, about 21st Century Teaching and Learning.
"This wiki is not just about the integration of technology into the classroom, though this is certainly a critical area, it is about shifting our educational paradigm. The world is not as simple as saying teachers are digital immigrants and students digital natives. In fact, we know that exposure to technology changes the brains of those exposed to it. The longer and stronger the exposure and the more intense the emotions the use of the technology or its content evokes, the more profound the change. This technology is increasingly ubiquitous. We have to change how we teach, how we assess, what we teach, when we teach it, where we are teaching it, and with what."
A most interesting site that tells us what the learner needs to know. [Thanks to Bee Dieu.]
Sugra Mitra's "Hole in the Wall" experiment.
SOLE - a self-organized learning environment, based on a curriculum of questions that set curiosity free, varying forms of peer assessment and certification without examination.
developments in their relation to Personal Learning Environments as several people over the past months have asked me why I think there is a need to develop a Personal Learning Environment at all.
Applications and aggregators of information are freely available and people can take their pick of their preferred ones and create their own network
easy it is for conglomerates to take over the development of tools and applications
three issues that I find important in this respect.
1. Intelligent data connections are one exciting option for PLE development and networked learning,
Recommender systems of information, resources, critical friends and experts could form part of the access options
the challenges of an open online networked environment for learning.
The reality, however, is different and research is available to show that not all adult learners are able to critically assess what they find online and might prefer to receive guidance
difficult it is for anybody to reach and access a deep level of information by using search engines
need for critical literacies while learning informally on networks
Learning in my view is not synonymous with accessing information, and requires a level of reflection, analysis, perhaps also of problem solving, creativity and interaction
3. Access to technology
trends in access and digital divides
reasons for their non-participation. Some are related to age and socio-economic group, but some are also related to relevance, confidence and skills set.
people least likely to use the Internet are also the least likely to participate in adult education.
could PLEs that would provide help with Internet use and might be used on mobile devices be the answer to making the Internet relevant
What components would be needed?
1. A personal profiler that would collect and store personal information.
2. An information and resource aggregator to collect information and resources.
3. Editors and publishers enabling people to produce and publish artifacts to aid the learning and interest of others
4. Helper applications that would provide the pedagogical backbone of the PLE and make connections with other internet services to help the learner make sense of information, applications and resources.
A PLN becomes a student's virtual locker, and its content changes based on the student's current course work. When I assign them a term paper, the students comb the Web to sign up for information that will feed into their personalized Web page to construct a PLN for that topic. When they get a new project, they assemble another page.
Perhaps the most telling response on the subject of PLNs is from my student Hope, who says, "My iGoogle page is very helpful and helps me keep things organized. It lets me know when my agenda changes." The fact that a ninth grader would talk about her own research agenda gives a glimpse into the power of the PLN; she is using a term here that is often reserved for grad students.
Constructing a PLN is the essential skill that moves my students into the driver's seat of their own learning. It helps them sort through and manage the proliferation of online materials that jam the information superhighway. It is also indispensable to our project-learning curriculum
Tony Wagner, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, lists assessing and analyzing information as one of the seven survival skills in the new world of work. I think the ability to create a PLN is a fundamental information-management skill that will help my students succeed in the future.
An RSS reader is a Web site that puts together all this information in an easy-to-read format. Google Reader, netvibes, Pageflakes, Bloglines, and my preferred reader, iGoogle, are all examples of sites providing RSS readers. The RSS reader is the raw material for building a PLN.