inner-action

The Workbook as a Strategy

Using a workbook is an example of a strategy that can be used to assess knowledge.

For instance: if each student used a workbook, by the end of a topic, the student and the educator would have a portfolio of sorts. The student can see progress of knowledge of the topic, and the educator can correct misconceptions at an early stage.

If the student retains the workbook, then they can use it as a reference tool. If the school keeps the work book, then the need to write progress reports is negated, as a history of the student's progress would be available.

If the workbook is only used one time then the student can write all over it. White space reserved for summarization can be provided. Information can be presented spatially, allowing students to trace relationships. Tear out cards can allow the student to assemble the important topics in a way that makes sense to them. Students would own their work.

I could go on and on about the benefits of this strategy, but it is important to not fill in all the blanks for each strategy, so the educator can think of their personal uses for the strategy.

Getting the assessment piece right

Getting the assessment piece right is more than just evaluating the student, it is also letting the student know that they KNOW what they have studied.

Why......

• It builds self confidence
• It makes them know they are smart
• It helps them build on what they know

When educators assess students in only one way, students who do know the answer don't get to prove it.

Here is my personal example. (feel free to overlay with a bitter tone)

• I cannot spell well. I am also not that good at math.
• In grade school we sat in straight rows, in alphabetical order. I am a "W".
• Every week we had spelling words, spelling tests, and if it was a bad we for me, spelling bees.
• In Junior High, entrance into advanced sciences was based on math ability.
• I never thought I was smart.
• Had those times gone beyond the multiple choice, fill in the blank and short essay questions, I might have realized I was smart.

Helping a student realize they are smart is no minor task in the educational experience. It is incumbent upon the educator to help the student understand that assessments may not prove knowledge, and help the student figure out how they can show they know.

The importance of Assessment Strategies

Carl Berger gave a great talk at the NLII about the need for different assessment strategies.

http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/powerpoint/258,2,NlII
Spring Focus:  Assessment and evaluation of emergent practices

You don't get to see him flailing his arms around or hear the passion in his voice, but if you read through the slides you get a good idea that what he is saying is that we need to think about assessment in different ways than we have in the past.

And he is right.

Ever since his talk, I've been thinking about how we as educators of the educators can affect change in the process of assessment. If I am going to say what I said in previous posts, that we think and more importantly, do things in different ways, I can't write an edict that says assessment must be done in a particular manner.

It will be vital, then, to provide educators with a list of strategies that would help them expand the way they assess. The strategies would come with tips, warnings, caveats, what ever would help the educator select the right assessment for them to apply and their students to benefit from.

Take a minute and think about that last statement.

It must be a strategy that the educator is comfortable with. If the educator feels awkward or uncomfortable with the assessment tool, then they will not put their all into it.

And it must be an assessment that will measure knowledge accurately. This will mean that the strategies we provide to the educator will, ideally be, multidimensional or be able to be combined with other assessments on the same topic.

Learning: The Non-Traditional Approach

There is nothing better that a girl from St. Louis can be happy about: Thinking about learning by using Baseball as a metaphor. The only downside is that it was the Red Socks that took advantage, and that allowed them to steal the national championship.

Again from the Chief Learning Officer:

http://www.clomedia.com/content/templates/clo_article.asp?articleid=874&zoneid=63

Important quote:

"Baseball is rooted in history and dominated by tradition. The majority of coaches, managers, scouts and front-office staff have largely used the same methods to evaluate personnel: trusting the mind of experience. The “experts” often ultimately relied on gut instinct and what they saw with their own two eyes to guide personnel decisions. In most situations, raw talent was the overriding factor in decisions. However, baseball is a game of numbers, and these same individuals have relied on statistics to augment their opinions.

Everything in the game today is measured, but traditionally only a subset of this data garnered much attention. The age-old, simple metrics of batting average, runs batted in and home runs have been used as the primary measurement of a hitter by almost everyone associated with the game since the late 1800s.

The problem with these common measurements is that, like many things in life, they don’t take into account the realities of the game. Batting average (hits divided by at bats), for example, is completely unaffected when a player achieves a base on balls (walks). Walking is immensely valuable to an offense because it puts a runner on base and increases the team’s chance of scoring a run—but the batting average measurement ignores it completely.

Whether it’s performance data for an individual or measurements on programs, corporate America also has largely relied on a core set of simple metrics. Progressive learning practitioners today recognize that several of these metrics are outdated, and a much more detailed analysis is necessary to make informed decisions. More importantly, there’s been increasing recognition that learning metrics are most useful when directly tied to business productivity."

What this says to me is that great success can be achieved, if we take the time to look at the team we are working with, assess individuals for their strengths and then work with them to become better players.

Here are the author's 5 correlations matched with 5 Correlations for Learning:

5 Correlations to Baseball	5 Correlations to Creating Learning
Common Measurements did not take the realities of the game into account.	Multiple choice assessments do not reflect the application of learning.
Ultimately, runs win the games, not hits.	Ultimately, getting all students to  participate in the learning process, makes them all better learners.
Innovative uses of software have significantly changed the game.	Innovative use of software can help students who learn in non traditional ways.
Fiscal irresponsibility is the single quickest way to hamstring a franchise for a decade.	Assessment irresponsibility is the single quickest way to learning failure.
During the season and during the game, data is critical to performance on the field.	Formative assessments are key to learning performance

Strategies for Managing Scalable Content

This article comes from Chief Learning Officer.

http://www.clomedia.com/content/templates/clo_article.asp?articleid=881&zoneid=71

What I find interesting and right on the dot is this quote:

"The Swiss Army Knife has a reputation as a handy tool, a multi-functional device that can perform a variety of tasks in a pinch. Return from lunch with a nagging impediment lodged between your teeth? Break out the plastic toothpick. Cooking up some baked beans at a campsite? Use the can opener. Receive a FedEx at your front door? Open it with the blade.

When presented with industrial-strength tasks, however, there are much more appropriate tools. Dental floss, for example, is a much better solution for dental hygiene than a plastic toothpick, and is used by millions as part of a daily cleaning ritual. Counter-mounted can openers yield much better results than handheld devices, and can be found within the kitchens of restaurants. Rubber-gripped box cutters are infinitely more effective at slicing packing tape than two-inch blades, and are used by loading dock staff at department stores everywhere."

I hope this prompts you to think about the way that you use and choose tools for your university. Even though we have CMSs and LCMs at our beck and call, are they the right tool for the job? When do we, both as individuals and as universities, need to start looking beyond what is at hand and start looking at what is handy?

The implications that weigh this decision down are support, reliability, flexibility, scalability and just how many programs do we have to run though before we find the right one? (the answer to that, of course, is that we will never find the right program because we will always find some thing that is a bit righter.

Games Thinkers like to Play

I've played this game with my Niece Maggie and Sister Beth.

The object of the game is to add as many 3+ syllable words into what you are talking about. You only get a point if the polysyllabic word is not common, it is the correct word to use and you didn't have to introduce some off-beat topic to say it.

So, assessment would not count, but countenance would.

"An assessment of his countenance indicated that he was distressed." would only give you 1 point.

Based on playing with Maggie, Beth and I added the option of using single syllable words that are uncommon, but both players feel are the perfect word to describe the situation.

An example might be using elan as opposed to class. Two syllable words could get credit, but I would only give 1/2 point.

This game is best played when you are going to spend a great deal of time with someone, so that the conversation can drift towards multiple topics, thus allowing the opportunity for true preeminent player to surface. (1 point for preeminent and 1/2 for surface becase even though it is a great use of word surface, it is two syllables.)

How to KNOW you are a Thinker

Andrea had a good way to know if you are a thinker. Ask yourself, Have you ever been in a group that is discussing a topic and when you chime in everyone turns to look at you like you just said something that is way out in left field?  If so, then there is a good chance you have a lot of thinker inside.

Knowers, Thinkers and Doers

I am at the NLII focus session for Best Practices in Emerging Technologies. The conference was great, and I’ll be sending on some great information soon.

Right now, I’d like to talk about the great conversation I had afterwards. A long-time friend Andrea and I went down to the bar to get something to eat and relax. There were others from the conference in the room, and after her co-workers left, Cara came over to our table and asked if she could join us.

As women, there was no shortage of what to talk about, but some how the conversation drifted towards different ways of understanding things. I told them about a thought I had about how the world was made of knowers, thinkers and doers. Knowers are those folks who just know stuff. They got As in spelling and could tell you when the Crimea war was fought. There are also Thinkers. Thinkers cannot be bothered about details, but they have a grasp of the bigger picture and can tie what seems like disparate information to the topic at hand. Doers are those that can take something and make it work or worth more. They do this by sheer force of will.

I know this is a bit simplistic, but it helps me organize the way people are. Of course, we are all bits and pieces of all types, and those that are the most happy in life are those that use their type to their best advantage. But it is difficult to understand your strengths when they are not valued by others.

Unfortunately, traditional education is rife with assessments that measure only the progress of the knowers. A personal example for me was in Junior High. The ability to take advanced courses in science was based on how well you did in math. I am not good at math unless it has a process. I only got credit for knowing the process, never for getting the answer “right”. Then, as now, access to advanced science classes was out of reach for me. But, I am really good at the sciences that lean towards the biological, because they are about connections.

This need for society to measure only the “measurable” is disastrous for the thinker and the doer. One solution is to let the students write essays. That is a start, but here is the catch: many thinkers and doers cannot spell. Thinkers will write beyond what is requested and doers will write less, because they need to “do” the problem before they can explain the problem.

If we are going to rely on multiple choice and essays define what our learners learn, then we are not affording them the credit and respect they deserve.

I believe it is our responsibility to help faculty, and the general pubic, to devise ways of measuring the skills and knowledge of the thinkers and doers. (I believe that by doing this, we will also improve our measurement of the thinkers both positively as well as negatively.) This can be as easily as offering multiple ways of presenting homework. But there is more we can do, I’m just not sure what to suggest or how it will work.

This blog is not called inner-action just because I am a crappy speller. It is because inside of all of us there is so much knowledge, understanding and ability, that needs to be recognized, valued and appreciated. As educators, we need to bring the learners’ best talents to the fore.