As you and your students are constantly being bombarded with the 21st century technology, you as an educator must also think about how you can develop technology within the class which will develop in you and your students those 21st century skills. Upon examining National Educational Technology Standards--standard two which focuses on: designing and developing digital-age learning experiences and assessments seems to be a guiding point to examine. As you dissect the parts of this standard--part b. may be a very valuable to examine more closely: develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning and assessing their own progress.
How can this environment be created? For language arts, written communication is vital so the technology implemented needs to be a good fit for such in-class media resources as literature group novels, class novels, nonfiction text, magazines, newspapers, etc. So far, a wikispace seems to be a possible technology tool that students could use to "manage their own learning and assess their own progress." There is currently a wikispace that is being set-up for a sixth grade team so that students can record their path on the literature group cycle any time and it's never missed placed or lost--hopefully. As students become acustom to using the space for this assignment, additional pages on the site may be set up for other assignments. A teacher could possibly embed some type of blog which the teacher could use for a daily recap of concepts covered.
However, there is still a piece missing--assessment. However, do students get or create a digital assessment? As you investigate the technology of Internet you may find sites such as rubistar which has the technology to help a teacher create individual rubrics for any subject or topic. Further investigation of this assessment site is required to see if may be even students could some how use this site for individually-created rubrics for student-created assessment projects.
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Rena, I really like your idea of having the students use rubistar to create their own rubrics; I had never thought of that! That puts them in control of their own learning and holds them accountable. That may be useful for me, because I am having my students create review games. Maybe there is a way I could incorporate rubrics as well.
ReplyDeleteRena,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Your tone is so professional and knowledgeable... I love it! :)
I also use Rubistar, and it truly is a great tool. Like Jessica, I had never thought of having the students create their own rubrics. Like she said, this is a great way for them to take control of their own learning. And with today's kids, that is something they really, really need!! ( I don't know about you, but I have lots of students who still need their hands held.)
Thanks for the post... and for the encouragement you gave me in your response to my blog (regarding the WikiSpaces).
See you tonight! :)
Rena-Great Idea. Let the students set their on standards. This could also be a valuable tool for you as well. You could evaluate their own expections to identify their propensity to over or under achieve. Compare their natural skills to what their own expectations are. Let me know how it works.
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