Comments on: The Ed-Technologist’s Self-Evaluation

By: dy/dan » Blog Archive » “Definitely not where I imagined this blog would go”

Thu, 10 May 2012 22:00:05 +0000

[…] That Kate Nowak: I don’t have a blog, because I have nothing original to contribute. […]

By: dy/dan » Blog Archive » Good Bloggers On Good Blogging

dy/dan » Blog Archive » Good Bloggers On Good Blogging — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:44:45 +0000

[…] Alternately, if you're reticent and timid about the whole thing, here's a poignant quote from Kate, three months before she wrote her first post: I don’t have a blog, because I have nothing […]

By: Mr. K.

Mr. K. — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:56:46 +0000

Wish I could elaborate this into a full post but the methods are so specific to each concept.

then perhaps a series of posts, as you cover new subjects? please?

it seems all i have is more questions, but even if the examples don’t answer them perfectly, i’m getting more and more ideas.

no one’s ever going to have 100% of everything.

was it you that mentioned that magic differentiation powder?

By: dan

dan — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:05:28 +0000

I had the same concern, Andy, and basically concluded that no one’s ever going to have 100% of everything. (I can’t even trust my kids to bring a pencil or pen every day, for instance.) So differentiation is the name of the game. Great stuff for everyone, whatever’s in their pockets.

Easy, right?

By: aschmitz

aschmitz — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:48:57 +0000

Ian H., while some students certainly do have cellphones or other wireless devices (I had an XO in my backpack most of last year…), a good number of them don’t have anything like that available. Have you come up with anything that would let them participate as well? I’ve thought about it before, but the only solutions I’ve come up with are having a (partial?) classroom set of something and sharing those when necessary, or working in groups.

By: Ian H.

Ian H. — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:22:48 +0000

First and foremost, cellphones. I spend far too much time telling students to put their phones away when we could be using them to look up information, answer questions, or something else.

With pervasive wireless, gaming systems like the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP become tools for online research just like any laptop.

These are already in my classroom, just waiting to be used… if only I could find some educationally appropriate use for them.

By: dan

dan — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:15:18 +0000

@Ian H.: can you favor me with some examples of ubiquitous technology?

By: Ian H.

Ian H. — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 03:55:51 +0000

Excellent question. As someone who teaches both technology and other subjects, I have a tendency to drift towards over-hyping technology… However, some of the foray into the world of hype is an attempt to leverage a pre-existing technology (i.e. cellphones). I think in cases where it’s a ubiquitous technology, it’s valid to ask how it can be used in a class, rather than trying to find a separate technology to answer a need…

By: dan

dan — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:27:05 +0000

Wish I could elaborate this into a full post but the methods are so specific to each concept. I mean – stammering here – I just make 'em more difficult. If we're graphing lines in slope-intercept, and we started our practice with whole number slopes, I'll give 'em one with a fraction, and then I'll give 'em one with a negative fraction, and then a negative whole number, and then when I feel like they're starting to game this thing, I'll reverse the order (y = -2x + 5 becomes y = 5 - 2x). It goes on and on. Kids will come in eight times for a single concept and when they finally land the perfect score, only rarely do I feel like they just wore the concept down. (And those are the concepts that usually don't show up again the next year.) The reason they come in eight times is the same reason they don't get frustrated which is the same reason they keep chasing after the skills is because it costs them nothing. They can only improve.

By: Mr. K.

Mr. K. — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 04:12:43 +0000

This seems to have turned into a referendum on how to test, dan style.

Which means this is probably a good time to ask this question (especially since my two new preps for next year are the same ones dan teaches):

How do you come up with one representative question for each concept? What constitutes mastery, and how do you capture that with a single question? More importantly, how do you devise a question that is new and different for their second, third, or eighth tries that still tests the same knowledge at the same level?

I’m interested in rolling this into my teaching, but I always seem to need a battery of overlapping problems to evaluate my students’ knowledge. I’m pretty sure that pulling one problem out of a textbook quiz bank isn’t going to cut it.

(btw, dan, this is a poorly veiled hint at doing a post where you discuss this issue, including what you perceive to be the difference between your first question, and the subsequent mastery ones.)