Tom Barretts, reflective blog on how hes been inspired to use the classic game 'Myst' in his year 5 classroom as a literacy task. Fanstatic practical guide
Everything you ever wanted in a desktop application suite - online and for free. A great suite of applications students can use to create and manage their activities.
Equally worrisome is that today's assessments emphasize narrow skill sets such as geometry and grammar, and omit huge chunks of what educators and business leaders say is essential for modern students to learn: creative thinking, problem solving, cooperative teamwork, technological literacy, and self-direction. Yet because NCLB has made accountability tests the tail that wags the dog of the whole education system -- threatening remediation and state takeover for schools that fall short -- what's not tested often isn't taught.
The disconnect between high-stakes tests and the future we are preparing our kids for
many experts tout the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam for its challenging, open-ended questions on practical topics, such as climate change or the pros and cons of graffiti. Even more advanced models, some using computer simulations, will become available in a few years -- and none too soon.
static problem, for instance, would ask test takers to say from memory how to save a certain endangered bird species. A dynamic assessment (in a real example from Bransford's lab) asks students to use available resources to learn what it would take to prevent the white-eyed vireo from becoming endangered. This is a novel question that demands students independently dig for information and know enough to ask the right questions to reach a solution.
The British government has created a computer-literacy test that challenges teens to solve realistic problems (how to control crowds at a soccer match, for instance) using online resources. The more sophisticated these tools become, and the more adeptly test makers use them, the better assessment will be.
Getting What You Ask For: Creating Effective Assessment Tools for Projects, Personnel, and Program. session houndouts on checklists and rubrics for pbl, prof dev, pgm mgt
ollaborative decision-making and work strategies. Groups are vital to progress - working together to create a product is found in nearly all professions - from construction to high-tech scientific work. Up until now collaborative - group - work has been “done” but there seems to be a lack of focus on learning those essential dynamics for productive collaboration.
Students are mostly “me” focused, it goes with the age.
he system really doesn’t encourage novel ideas or divergent thinking. Instead, there continues to be a dominate frame of reference that if you “learn” enough information and can then answer the questions on a test,
here needs to be direct instruction on effective and non-effective collaboration
Presentation skills, on the other hand, are largely neglected in schools, and few people put effort into developing them. Thus, presentation skills are a primary differentiator among you and your peers.”