As I research the efficacy of windows based tablet computers in the classroom, I am puzzled by effective formative and summative assessments. is there credible alternatives to state and national timed exams?
How effective is video? Short 5 minute pieces. Both from a student created project and as a teacher triggered visual aide to content knowledge.
Do students retain the information they see? If so, in what context? Is as much gained from seeing a video that explains the use of a fulcrum as compared to a video of the actual Egyptian pyramids with a discussion of construction techniques?
By using a touch screen tablet, I hope to show the experience of hand gestures and portrait / landscape orientation as a significant feature.
Can student projects be assessed for Mastery? If collaboration is introduced does that variable affect the assessment schema significantly?
Phet (Colorado university) is doing great work with interactive simulations.
http://phet.colorado.edu/
perhaps they have quantitative data?
I think it would worth a thousand senses, impossible to communicate completely through words
Maria, that is exactly the sentiment that I am searching for in this project. How can that gain be quantified and assessed formatively? In schools that teach to exams like SAT and AP, how can a teacher justify through data that skipping parts of a text book chapter is worth the time spent with a video, or interactive video? Building on multiple Intelligences (Gardner) how can "senses" be explained to department chairs and deans who are deficit in the visual or emotional or kinesthetic intelligences?
Thank for putting to words this concept here.
The strength of video -- just as a medium -- is it engages multiple senses, and also retains focus due to the movement. It is a crude approximation to simulation (since not interactive) in the sense of giving a feel for how things work and look like. For instruction, I would prefer a balanced approach. Use video when appropriate -- but every other mode has its merits. So, why look at video as "alternative" to what is used otherwise. Use it to enhance what is done.
I agree that video may add to other modes of instruction and assignments. In my field when teaching about tool use learning I use video clips to illustrate different faces in the process of learning different tools. The students learning is evaluated by using an instrument to assess new sets of video clips of tool use. So the video can be used both for instruction and formative evaluation. Thus video is a good alternative in teaching
Lisbeth, if I could rephrase, a rubric that listed content that a video should contain relative to grading could be an effective assessment tool when used to evaluate what content a student chose to include in the video they selected to share in class. Conceivably said student would learn the content sufficient to select between videos. Similarly, said student will have viewed several videos in the process.
I like this idea.
Yes, I approve your rephrase. Forgot to mention that the last step is a workshop where the students prepare by searching for illustrative videoclips at YouTube, send the link to me the day before the workshop. Then they present and diskuss their assessment of one of their clips to their fellow-students and me at the workshop and also we altogether have a discurse around each viewed clip.
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