Assessment and Web 2.0

Education and a teacher's work, is broken down into what a student learns or doesn't learn. How do we know what was learned? Well, there has to be some sort of test right? A paper & pencil, multiple choice test run through a Scantron machine, any student taking your class should be able to take to prove they learned something.

Well break out of the dark ages, there's more to learning than that. I studied Howard Gardner in college, I know there are multiple intelligences and everyone processes information differently. I learned about Maslow and his hierarchy of needs and their effect on student learning. I also learned Skinner's Behaviorism. And by now you're probably thinking, so what? So you learned about these philosophers (and more), where are you going with this? Every one of these people thought differently about learning, had something different to say, something different about how learning occurs, and guess what, they are all right. Why? Because learning happens differently for everyone. And if we all learn differently, then how can we be assessed in the same way and be expected to show learning?

There's a novel idea, different assessments for different students! WOW! Why has no one come up with this before (yes, I do sound sarcastic).  As they used to say, there's more than one way to skin a cat (at least where I come from, although I've never seen it actually done except in Advanced Biology), well there's more than one way to assess a student for knowledge learned. And educating 21st Century Students, technology is a tool that can provide endless possibilities, particularly in an online course.

For instance, old school book reports. A student read a book, wrote an essay (usually 5 paragraphs, introduction, conclusion, supporting paragraphs, you get the idea) to summarize the story. Advanced English courses might ask for more; character development, the relation of a story to current events, how the point of view would change if told through different character, does the story make a social statement, etc. It's still writing. But what about the student whose passion is film making. Couldn't they create a short video clip in lieu of a written report? Could that show knowledge learned? Absolutely. Or what about the artsy student, could they create an art project, sure. The possibilities are endless. I actually found a report, 50 Alternatives to the Book Report, just by doing a quick Google search.  I even saw a teacher once who had students create fake Facebook pages for the different characters (same project, also in a history class).

For my computer classes, I could envision using Thinglink and having students import a screenshot of the MS Excel screen, for example, and label the parts of the screen to learn essential terminology needed to follow directions in future assignments. For Accounting, I would have students use Screencast-O-Matic to explain how they completed a Google Sheets Income Statement or Balance Sheet, addressing particular standards. In an Advertising class a student might use Smore or Tackk to design an advertisement.

No matter how creative or out of the box you want to get, it comes down to an assessment. How it looks, or what it entails, can be different for each student, or small groups of students, but there are 2 important components for an assessment strategy like this to be successful. First, some sort of rubric describing essential components you'll need to see to establish a student's learning is key. If you are allowing students a variety of options for completed work, this rubric may need to be somewhat broad, or non specific to projects. Second, it is essential there is continual feedback to students as they complete their work. Depending on the project, or length of time to complete it, will determine the number of check ins and how they might look.

Periodic check in points are a good way for a student to share what they have completed and the teacher to provide feedback, ask questions, and guide students in a positive direction. You might need to supply what objectives should be addressed at each checkpoint, or you might say "students should 1/2 done, or 1/4 done with your project" to help students learn time management. The struggle comes when you don't have these students sitting in a classroom with you every day. How you can do a check in will look different depending on the project itself. Regardless of the how, it has to happen. This is essential to a project's success.

So can you look to your own class and find some alternative Web 2.0 assessment tools? I'm sure you can, just take that leap outside of the box and go for it.