Assessment Without Fear

 

smartkidI was six years old.  My first grade teacher Mrs. Larsen was handing back our papers, and I knew my educational career was finished.  I’d tried as hard as I could to keep my letters within the wide-lined paper — both capitals and lower-case — but by the end of the page things had gotten pretty messy.

Kenny, one desk ahead of me, had a paper in his hand with a slew of red marks on it.  Alice, the class show-off (just across from me) had a “worked hard” sticker on her paper — she’d already been called out for her perfect work.  And now it was my turn.

Yup.  Life was over.  I was destined for failure.  I’d gotten a “-2″ on the test.

A New Way Of Thinking About Assessment

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Earlier this month, I had the honor of presenting a workshop for a room full of Career and Technical Educators at the ACTE show in Las Vegas.  My topic was “Assessment FOR Learning: How Measuring Success DURING Learning Turns Testing Upside Down”.  Rather than wait until the end of the learning, teachers use assessment every day (without those red markers and embarassment) to engage students and work together with them towards success.

To model that behavior, I didn’t give a speech.  I worked together with all that experience in the room to build answers to questions about how we could improve, after describing the idea.  I had a great helper — Anne Kuser from the home office scribed all the information up on big yellow sheets, and I’ve added it to my PPT deck on Slideshare.

Assessment for learning v2 from Dick Carlson

[slideshare id=29291852&doc=assessmentforlearningv2-131217103143-phpapp02]

I’d love to hear what you think!  dickc@aeseducation.com

Yes, It’s True! Learning Makes Your Brain Hurt

I read this research on the Internet, so it has to be true.  Learning hurts your brain. I first began to suspect this was true in 4th Grade Spanish class with Mrs. Gonzalez, where I was called “Ricardo” for reasons that remained a mystery to me all year long.  (Hey — I’m just visiting your country for an hour a day.  I’m not planning on renouncing my citizenship and living here as an ex-pat like Hemingway, lady.) But I digress.

The researchers exposed J20 and wildtype mice to new cages to increase neuron activity. Surprisingly, after 2 hours in the novel environments, the number of gH2A.X -positive neurons spiked in the brains of both healthy and diseased animals, primarily in areas critical for memory formation and learning—suggesting that the brain activity itself was triggering DNA damage.

Interestingly, the damage was resolved in wildtype mice within 24 hours back in their home cages, but the damage persisted in J20 mice. Furthermore, the damage was higher in J20 mice, which had up to three times as many gH2A.X-positive neurons—and the differences could be detected as early as 1 month, before the J20 mice began exhibiting cognitive symptoms. The results suggest that perhaps the high levels of amyloid in the brains of these mice was preventing DNA repair. SOURCE

So — Should You Be Worried?

A slightly “less scientific” version of the findings published on Ars Technica suggests, reassuringly, that this “shouldn’t keep you up at night.”  And that it may even provide some useful insights into the cure of Alzheimer’s. But if you’ve already substantially damaged your neurons by moving to a new cage, you may not even be aware of what you’ve lost.  Check around your desk for degrees that you may have earned, patents in your name, and photos of you with famous people.  You should also ask close family members if you’re a big deal in any way at least once per day.

As educators, I think most of us are already aware of this situation.  I can say that any time I’ve tried to instill learning in any meaningful amount, it makes my brain hurt in a direct relationship to how hard I’m teaching.  That’s why, as I get older, I teach less and less and listen more and more.

 

(First published on www.aeseducation.com)

 

How Can I Force Students To Spend More Time Learning?

A client recently relayed a comment to me from a classroom teacher.  The teacher was disappointed in our e-learning unit because some students would just quickly “click through” the content, rather than spending several minutes on each screen.  The instructor wanted to know if we could modify the product to force the students to spend a couple of minutes looking at each screen, before they were allowed to click “next” and proceed.  My client asked how I would respond to the question.

Here’s what I said — I’m curious, how would YOU respond?

Would Forcing Longer Time On A Screen Help?

I usually start this answer (if I think the teacher can take a little gentle ribbing) by asking if, before they hand out the textbooks, they glue down the corners of all the pages.  When they say “no” I let this lead into having the group list the uses of a textbook – not just a front-to-back read, but for reference, to use for review before testing, to quote in projects, to refresh memory during open-book tests, and so forth.

From there, I start talking about how e-learning content can be used in many different ways by a learner.  Some learners will start at the beginning, and go from front to back.  Some will dip their toes in at different places.  Some will scan for subjects of interest.  Some will use the “search” function to find a specific subject.  (I stop to point out that, as educators, we don’t get a vote in this.  It’s how learners build knowledge in the world today.)  So we need to understand that, and build it into our understanding of how we help them facilitate their learning.

What Has Changed In Learning, Anyway?

Back when I was in the 3rd grade, Mrs. Solem had a huge amount of control over what I learned and exactly how that happened.  Today, learners expect to be able to make a lot of decisions about what and how they’re going to learn.  (They make GOOD and BAD decisions, of course.  That’s to be expected.)  Our job as teachers and facilitators is to help guide them as they do this, to show them how to make good choices, and (ultimately) measure the outcome of their choices and achievement.  The learners own their success or failure.

Technically, it’s easy to set a minimum screen time.  Practically, we’ve found that learners just go browse the web or read email or paint their nails or do something else.  I’ve seen no solid research that there’s a corresponding increase in learning.  Much like gluing the pages down in a textbook to force students to spend more time on each one, you’re just going to frustrate the participant.

The larger question that needs to be asked here is why does the learner skip through the content, not learn, and end up with “some quiz and test scores so low”?

Given Good Content And Teaching, Why Don’t They Learn?

If we assume the content is good quality, and the teaching is good quality – why do students skip through it and fail the tests?  There are enough answers there to fill a thesis dissertation, but I’ll focus here on just one.  Motivation.

If we’re trying to teach a student how to write an MLA footnote, and the student sees no reason that they need to learn to do so – I could make them stay on that page for an hour and they probably won’t learn the content.  (Unless I tell them there’s a test they have to pass to graduate.) Google the difference between “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” motivation for extra credit.

But if I tell the student the next screen will show them how to double their score at “Angry Birds” they will stay on that screen until they’ve squeezed every drop of knowledge out of it.  Because they want that information for themselves and see the value.

So as a teacher, one of the most useful things you could possibly do is to show your students that what you’re teaching is connected to their real lives, and actually means something to them.  And that’s a huge, huge job.

So — what do you think?  Do you glue your virtual pages down?

 

A Total Eclipse Of The Heart (Apolgies To Bonnie Tyler)

On New Year’s Eve 2011, I suffered what my Cardiologist gently refers to as a “near heart attack” many miles from any kind of decent emergency medical support.  That’s now about three weeks in my rear view mirror.  For those of you who just like the bullet points:

  • I’m home, resting comfortably after double bypass heart surgery

    Post Surgery

    Day 1 Post Surgery

  • I didn’t suffer any lasting heart damage
  • Yes, it hurt like fucking hell at many points along the journey
  • I’m a very, very lucky little guy

The rest of this lengthy post is for those of you who like details. I’m still working on building my endurance up from “kitten level”, and wanted somewhere to point all the well wishers (and those who are disappointed) who’d like to know what happened.

One of my favorite old songs is Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse Of The Heart”, and the line in it “Every Now And Then I Fall Apart.” (Those of you under 28 go watch the video and laugh at what grandpa’s rock and rollers used to look like.  Your kids will be doing this, only too soon.)

I’d been having a little pain in my right arm now and then, but since we’d recently moved I’d just put it down to a lot of lifting of boxes and furniture.  I’d even promised my wife to call the doctor after the holidays.  But no typical heart problem indications.

Not a clue.  I’ve had regular stress tests, and in fact a complete physical in October with EKG.  Since Diane had a heart bypass 15 years ago we’re pretty aware of issues like this.  (Now, I AM a big tub of goo – I don’t exercise, I carry a lot of extra weight, etc.)  But there were no indicators at all.

Where it happenedJust before New Years, we were camping in NE South Carolina on the Georgia border in our new (used) motor home.  We’d been out a few days, and it was 10AM New Year’s eve morning.  We hiked down a steep hill to the beach with the puggies, and my arm really started to hurt.  Soon, it was up around my neck and down the left arm.  I felt nausea and chest pain.  I had a pretty good guess what it was.

We were 15 miles from any city, so we decided to climb back up and drive ourselves in.  Diane tore down the rig – hoses, cords, etc – and I drove it out the narrow parts to the street.  (She’d never piloted it before.) Just getting from driver to seat to the passenger seat had me cursing a blue streak.

She drove to the tiny local hospital, they did an EKG (normal) chest x-ray (normal) and gave me nitro for the pain, which helped.  That exhausted their cardiac treatment options.

Dr. Richard Umbach

My Cardiologist, Dr. Richard Umbach

Luckily, my Cardiologist was doing New Year’s Eve rounds back in Columbia, they sent him the EKG and info.  He said he didn’t like it at all, and ordered me in an ambulance for an 80 mile ride.  Wouldn’t let me go in a private car.  (Love that guy.)

Later that evening, he said I’d had a “near heart attack” but there was no damage, yet.  But he was so worried he wouldn’t let me leave the hospital.  I sat there for three days in no pain at all, waiting for the cath lab to open (closed for the holiday).  When they did the angiogram on January3rd, they found I had 4 blockages.  (For those of you playing at home, this is NOT a good thing.) The next day they did surgery.  Fixed all four with two bypasses, and I’m good to go.

Apparently this is genetic, not a result of too many Doritos.  But he says being a big tub of goo isn’t helping, any.

And, yes, his instincts were right.  Had I gone home it’s entirely possible one of those four blockages could have come loose and caused a stroke, or a big heart attack before I could have gotten back to the hospital.

I smile a lot when he comes in the room.

My Heart Surgeon, Dr. Robert Zurcher

The other guy that makes me smile is my surgeon — he snuck me in to a very full schedule.  (Somehow, even though the surgery and catheterization labs close for four days over a holiday, people still seem to have heart problems. Crazy.)  But he thought it was important enough to get me in at 7AM the day after they found the problem — I think that’s kind of like “…if we want to be able to bill this one we’d better get him on the table pronto.”

(Trivia:  He got out of medical school two years before Bonnie Tyler won her Grammy for “Total Eclipse Of The Heart”.  I’m not sure if he’s a fan or not.)

He did such a good job that I was up and running around (well, ok, pushing a walker very slowly) two days after surgery.  And out of the hospital in four days.  Which is very, very good results.  Fantastic results.  I’m thinking about entering some marathons if they have a category for “people driving motorhomes”.

My wife?  She drove the 31′ motorhome all the way back to our house (80+ miles)  on two-lane country roads and pronounced it “easy”.  She’s a plucky farm girl who grew up driving tractors and draft horses.  This thing is nothing. She’s getting a little tired of waiting on me hand and foot, so I don’t think I can stretch that out much longer.  I’m pretty sure the surgeon is going to let me start driving again next week, and picking up things that weigh more than 15 pounds.  (All three pugs, unfortunately, fall into that category.)

What did I learn from this experience?

  • If you’re going to have a heart attack, you should do it near Providence Hospital in Columbia, SC.  These people are the best of the best.
  • You can’t be shy about showing off your junk to cute nurses if you’re having heart surgery, and they don’t care about looking at it, anyway
  • There’s not enough morphine in the WORLD for when they take out the chest tubes

 

 

 

 

Get Your Head Out Of The Cl-ASS-room — eLearning Is Different

I spend lots of time developing learning that lives online.  e-learning, web content, videos, podcasts, support information, application forms for tractor assembly jobs — so I fancy myself as a bit of an expert in how this type of content is consumed.

(Many other people in my discipline would use less flattering terms to describe me — including references to rodents, orifices and familial relationships.  But even if true — I design a bunch of online learning.)

As part of that, I joust regularly with people who teach and train in something called “The Real World”.  I have a hazy memory of this place — it involves chalk boards, rows of desks, and children in freshly-pressed jumpers smiling up at me as I whack their knuckles with a wooden ruler.  I rarely teach there anymore — nobody wants to pay my embarrassingly high prices, and I keep trying to click on individual students and block them.

baggageAs they move into the world of online teaching, most “real world” practitioners attempt to bring all their baggage with them.  And as the airlines have found, the more baggage you allow the more difficult it is to get the damn thing off the ground.  So I’m here today to show you a few of the cherished icons of classroom instruction you’re going to have to leave at the gate if you want to succeed in the online world.

Everyone Does Not Stay Together
In your classroom, you can exert a good deal of control that all students advance at a controlled pace — by assigning readings, presentations, and in-class activities.  You’ll find that online students will lag behind and race ahead.  Some will have questions about section 14 on the third day of class.  Oopsie.

So you’d best be prepared on Day 1 to teach the whole thing, or you’ll take the wind out of the sails of the students who are really engaged.  And you’ll have to be willing to support someone who’s going back to the beginning for a refresher during the last week.

Everyone Expects Personalized Support
Blame it on Tony Hsieh of Zappos — a large number of your students will now expect to interact with you via email, chat, FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Snoozle, Schmaltz, Fizzle, Abdalo, Whackadoodle — ok, I was just making up those last few.  But you get the picture.  If you’re not careful about designing how you set up your assignments, your workload will go up exponentially.

Be sure that you set your assignments up so that students interact with each other, rather than always depending on you.  Be sure that you become an Online Facilitator, and let go of the idea that all learning comes from you.  Be sure that you spend some time learning new skills for this new role that you’ve taken on.

Everyone Will Not View Every Screen
Do you have a DVR?  If so, I bet you don’t watch commercials.  Or the boring parts.  And your e-learning students are going to do that, as well.  In your classroom, they sat their in their seats and pretended to listen during the boring parts.  Online, they’re just going to skip past the things they don’t want to pay attention to.  (I always find it amusing when teachers complain about learners ignoring boring online content.  I ask them what they, personally, do during the sermon in church.)

So you’d better make sure the e-learning you’re using is interesting, engaging, and makes your learners want to pay attention.  Or find a way to introduce it so they will.

Quit Measuring Stuff You Don’t Track
There’s no reason to add in all those little “Check Your Understanding” and “Quick Quiz” screens throughout the e-learning, unless you’re going to collect the data and use if for something.  Only three possible outcomes:

  1. Student actually knows the answer. Wow.
  2. Student doesn’t know the answer.  Unless you force them back through the content, you just make them feel dumb.  Wow.
  3. Student skips past the test — which the majority will do.  Wow.

If you feel you must do this, just have a question and the correct answer on the next screen, like a flashcard.  That way you’re reinforcing a positive.  There’s good data to support that.  And you can re-use that content for test prep at the end of the course.

Let The Inmates Build The Prison
As I’ve mentioned above, you need to start thinking more like a “facilitator” than a “teacher”.  You’re guiding this group of learners through the curriculum, and no longer the main source of knowledge.  Let them learn from each other, from resources you provide (and that they find and vet through you), bring in live humans via Skype or Webcasts, have them do original research and share — be creative in how each new class discovers information.

Each course will look different, and that’s ok.  Each group of learners will approach the problems in a different manner, and the shared knowledge that they create will be unique.  That’s one of the amazing parts of online learning — those “Poindexters” that sit in the front row will fade into the background, and you’ll meet a whole new group of people you never heard from before.

 

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