Folding Flowers

A fabulous object lesson on visual media was presented in class last week by one of the groups. We learned to make a lotus flower out of a folded napkin either by video, audio, screen shots, or text. I am no paper folder, but I can see how two medias do a better job than one at teaching a procedure. I wonder if the same results would be evident if the content was more conceptual, rather than procedural. Anyhow, I can see why my son enjoys origami so much!

21st Century Testing

During the last class attended, we enjoyed a guest lecturer who talked about assessment. He brought clarity and interest to the subject after reading the chapter in the text book. The chapter in the text book had been labeled by many as "long and boring".

I must admit, I enjoyed the chapter in the text book and I find the whole notion of assessment to be interesting and fascinating. So many questions arise: What type of assessment is most effective for learners? And what about all this assessment lingo? What does it all mean? ... formative, summative, criterion referenced, norm referenced, multiple choice, adaptive, short response, extended response, comprehensive, standardized, quantitative, qualitative, ... and then some.

We tend to become more interested in subjects that we have an interest in which is why I am probably one of the few in the class who did not snooze through Chapter 7 on assessment. I think it is fascinating how a good test item evolves. Nobody realizes the work and money that go into developing a single item. The objective must match perfectly. The level of difficulty and Blooms level of thinking must be stated and evidenced. The distractors must measure not only common errors that a student would make, but they must be common errors within the realm of the objective measured. So next time you look at that CRT and want to spit, instead appreciate the strategic and crafty thought that went in to create it.

Designers ask a lot of questions.

Designers ask a lot of questions. They need to be able to get accurate answers for those questions and then make sense of the answers in a way that will influence their instruction. They essentially want to ask questions about the learning task and the learners themselves. This weeks chapter was about analyzing the learners.

The designer should ask much as they can about the learners in relationship to the design. It would be helpful to learn what skills and attitudes the learners have. It seems that this is when having a good idea of psychological educational theory would be necessary. A designer should understand the learner, how they learn and what will motivate them. The main things to consider when analyzing the learning context are the site and the "facilities, equipment, and resources that adequately support the intended instruction" (Dick and Carey pg. 105).

I am getting ready to over analyze a purchase on Ebay. I will ask a lot of questions and drive myself nutty by over thinking every minute detail about what and how I am going through the process of buying on Ebay.