Thursday, April 11, 2013

Chapter 11: Engaging Teachers and Students in Learning and Self-Reflection

Focus Question:


What is performance-based assessment for teachers and for students?




     Performance based assessment is an evaluation based on work completed rather than on tests taken.  Student writing, group projects, presentations, homework, open-book exams, student self-assessments, and teacher evaluations are all performance area evaluations.  Teachers continually evaluate their students while their supervisors are continually evaluating them.  
     Technology plays into all of this because it allows real-world learning to be displayed.  Performance-based assessments are very handy in that they allow for the performance to be judged in another way that is not only based off of an exam.  Some students perform well on other things but terribly on exams, so these assessments work to their benefit.

Tech Tool Link: Zoomerang



     Zoomerang is a website that provides online survey tools.  This meaning that it provides "prompts and templates based on themes that help make the purpose of the survey clearly apparent to" those people taking it.  It is free for basic use.  Zoomerang follows these basic principles:

  • "Easy Our intuitive interface makes it easy to get started, learn & use
  • Fast Enter your questions, send out, & monitor responses in real-time
  • Flexible Send an unlimited number of online surveys & polls"
     The website overall is very plain, but easy to navigate.  It seems that Zoomerang has been taken over by SurveyMonkey, so it may be beneficial to simply start at SurveyMonkey.
     Zoomerang would be useful in a classroom in the sense that it can be used to create surveys of students or by students.  Students can have assignments that require them to gather information.  Zoomerang would allow them to organize it neatly.  Teachers could do a survey of their students to find out how they feel they are progressing or to find out what the students think is helpful that the teacher is or is not doing.  

Summary and Connections:



     The section on student participation systems was the most interesting.  These participation systems use remote control devices to allow students in the classroom to respond collectively to questions posted by teachers.  These devices are widely known as "clickers."  These systems allow for students to actively participate during class time rather than sitting idle.  They force students to think on the spot and therefore allow the teacher to know how many of their students, and which ones, know what exactly is going on in the lecture.  I find that asking general questions that have no correct answer is a good way to engage the students with these systems.  This leads to discussion that engage the students and teacher and causes deeper critical thinking to occur.  In my classroom, I would use the clickers constantly so that the students are continually engaged and participating throughout class time.  This way, I would be aware of who knows what and it would also keep them on their toes.

Resources


Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2011). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN:10 0-13-159611-X, ISBN:13 978-0-13-159611-5 

Zoomerang. (2013). Survey Monkey.  Web. 11 April 2013.

1 comment:

  1. Clickers (and now mobile devices and web software or apps) are fantastic tools for formative assessment...and they are much more engaging for students than the traditional pen/paper ... that's for sure! :) I like that you are thinking of how clickers could be the springboard for conversations, as well.

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