Replace Testing with Learning #SXSWedu

Replace Testing with Learning

SXSWedu 2017 Panel

1. Assessment validity is always contextualized in purposes and uses.

2. Large-scale summative assessments have a role, but that role has expanded well beyond what these tests can do.

3. We need to be honest about what these tests can and can't do.

4. Can we use more institutionally-based assessments to also serve accountability purposes? Sounds simple, right?
     a. Long history of accountability purposes subverting instructional uses.

5. The New Hampshire model. PACE Pilot. A common task is required of students in grade levels that don't have state assessments.


Assessment does not have to be end-of-year, multiple choice tests. Assessment is evidence of learning.

Technology can help with mastery based curriculum. For example, multiple step problems can be used to assess student acquisition of knowledge/skills along the way. Why throw away data acquired by adaptive systems. Could it not be used for accountability?

Progress monitoring must be easy to understand for instructors and administrators.

Unintended Consequence: Have to be careful so kids don't think the things they are doing all the time are "the test."

We get stuck thinking the only way to find out what a student knows is to give them a test.

Assess comes from the Latin "to sit beside." What about evidence based observations of learning by educators?

We got into a trap with large-scale assessments because we pretended they could do everything. We don't want to get into a similar trap with a "new way of assessing." A system of assessments is more likely to give us a more complete picture.

The kind of assessment we need: If you didn't score the task, it would still be an excellent instructional activity.





**************************************************************************************** All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please see specifics on my re-use policy in the right-hand column of my blog before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

Finding Content for Reteaching, Blending, and Flipping

Online content means you can learn anywhere, with anyone!
Photo by familymwr used under a creative commons license

Recently I had a wonderful conversation with my district's high school educational technologist, Kristin Thompson, about apps and online tools that could be used for formative assessment and reteaching of concepts. We talked about using a tool like Socrative or InfuseLearning to get a quick feel for where students are in their learning, and then apps like Explain Everything, Educreations, or ShowMe which teachers can use to create video tutorials based on learning needs.

In the hopes that at some point we might get to provide some professional development on this topic, I added that we should expose teachers to methods for finding those video tutorials without having to create them all themselves.

First, don't forget that some of the best experts on your content reside in your own classroom. Whenever possible, I believe students should be given opportunities to teach what they know to their peers. Any educator knows that deep learning of content really happens when you have to break it apart and teach it to others. Creation of video tutorials as summative assessments for students can easily serve two purposes:

• Students can demonstrate that they really do understand the content.
• The videos created can become part of a library that can be used for teaching, reteaching, and review - even in future school years if appropriate. With collaboration between teachers, a library could be built by students and teachers from multiple classrooms and schools.

Second, don't forget there are a lot of learning resources and tutorials already out there. Teachers do not always have to create all of the content they need themselves. We started brainstorming a list of places that teachers can find content for re-teaching, and I realized these resources would also be valuable for anyone practicing blended or flipped learning. Here's the list we came up with in a short time of brainstorming:

• Discovery Education - If your school or district subscribes to Discovery Education for online video, you have a fabulous library of resources at your fingertips! You can now search for content that has been aligned to state standards.
• Texas Education on iTunesU - Kid2Kid videos and other resources. Other states and numerous universities and school districts also have iTunesU channels you can explore.
• ProjectShareTexas.org – Standards search available right on the home page for math and science resources
• Club Academia – student created tutorials
• Khan Academy
• SchoolTube - You can search SchoolTube for existing content, or create a channel of your own to upload original educational material. One of the high schools in the district where I work has a channel with some great math and foreign language videos.
• YouTube – Bookmark reputable/high quality learning channels (like the Amoeba Sisters) when you find them rather than just doing general searches all the time.
• ShowMe -  Existing tutorials created using the ShowMe app
• Educreations - Existing  tutorials created using the Educreations app (which is FREE for iOS!)

These were ideas we came up with in a fairly brief brainstorming session. I know there are numerous high quality content repositories out there that could be added to this list. YOU are the expert on this! I invite you to share your high quality resources in the comments so we can all learn together.


*******************************************************************************************************************
All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please see specifics on my re-use policy in the right-hand column of my blog before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

New Kinds of Tools for New Kinds of Learners: Assess This!

Notes from TCEA 2012 Workshop Presented by Hall Davidson, Discovery Education
Session PowerPoint posted at http://linkyy.com/HallDavidsonHandouts

Why do we do standardized testing the way we do it? Because it's easy and cheap.

In the last 18 months to two years, a lot has changed. McArthur Foundation says students need to be able to thrive in a Web 2.0 world. They also need to be able to thrive in a mobile world.

When students create multimedia, it has a high effect on student achievement.

A Bold concept: The student being assessed is directly benefited by the assessment. Achievement is approved as you are doing the assessment.

Digital assessment now helps us get ready for digital books/tools which are coming to the classroom.

Tools That Can be Used for Assessment:

• PowerPoint - Present info to students, then save PowerPoint as jpgs. Import the jpgs to PhotoStory/MovieMaker/iMovie then have the student narrate the PhotoStory to demonstrate understanding. Can do in groups or individually.
• In iMovie, you can save PowerPoint as a movie
• Jamendo.com - free music you can use to add mood to the movie
• Use Google Advanced Search to find PowerPoints at an intermediate reading level. Download on similar to the one you presented and have students narrate it to demonstrate understanding.
• Discovery Education video clips - download editable content and have students re-narrate them. (This looked really easy to do in QuickTimePro on a Mac or PC. Costs about $29.00 from Apple. Hall pulled someone from the audience and she was able to instantly accomplish this Can also be accomplished in MovieMaker on PC by muting the original audio track and recording a new narration.)
• Google Search Stories - Have students show what they know with their search skills. (Side Note: I wrote a blog post about this cool tool and instructional uses in May of last year.)
• Use Rubistar to easily create a rubric for assessing the Search Story (or really any other product)
• Voicethread - Available on the web or as an iOS app. Teacher asks a question verbally. Students can respond to the question by typing an answer, recording an audio answer, or recording a video answer. Each student who comes along can see what the students before them already left for an answer. Commentors can also draw on the picture that is posted for the voicethread. Ex: Explain how you discover how much paint to buy to paint this garage.
• Blabberize.com - Make a photo talk! Ex: Use a picture of a president and record a campaign speech. Could be anything! An animal, a hydrogen molecule. (Note from Hall; this site can lock up and be quirky at times.)
• Wordle - In PhotoBooth on a Mac, use a Wordle as a background and then have student talk about the concept. PhotoBooth movie can be imported into PowerPoint. (PhotoBooth tip: buy a $4 green shower curtain at Ikea and use as background to make the person stand out more.) PhotoBooth also allows you to use a movie clip as a background. On PC, MovieMaker and Adobe Premier Elements can be used to create this. It's just not as easy.
• PhotoPeach.com - Upload pictures and make questions that appear on top of the pictures. Multiple questions can be used to create a quiz. Students go to PhotoPeach to take the quiz. Questions are timed.
• PollEverywhere.com - free service that lets a teacher create a multiple choice or free form polls or questions which can be answered by text messaging from cell phones.
• Comic Touch Lite - Free app for iPad - Add callouts to pictures to describe their attributes or things they would say.
• Puppet Pals - app for iPad. Pick a character then pick background photos for your story. Ex: pictures of biomes. Student records the voice of the character and tells about the biome. Photos of people can also be characters.