Learning, Videoconferencing, and Assessment: Part 2

Several people emailed me about my previous blog. They disagreed with my views:

Their points and my response:

 

1) Videoconference learning does not need to be assessed since it is simply one activity in a bigger unit. My response: How can you proceed in the students’ learning if you do not know what they have or have not learned? Madeline Hunter was famous for her “monitor and adjust” as critical part of the learning process before students could move on in their learning. Frequent embedded assessment is a major issue in education now.

 

2) The students’ discussion during the videoconference shows that they understand the topic. My response: How did you assess the students’ individual comments and questions during the discussion? Did everyone participate? At what higher level of thinking? Or did you get “a general feeling” about the understanding of the topic from those students that volunteered?

 

3) When students enjoy something such as the videoconference, they learn better. My response: I do not disagree that students enjoy videoconferencing. I want to see tangible learning results rather than just smiles. I have no problem with affective learning is that is the stated primary purpose of videoconferencing. How will you measure their emotional responses?

 

4) They learned so much about other students’ culture through the videoconference. My response: Wonderful. Was that a major goal of the project or did it just happen? If it was a major goal, than how did you structure the videoconference to increase global awareness? What cultural attitudinal changes did you want to happen?

 

5) They learned so much factual information. My response: Couldn’t they have learned the same amount through a good encyclopedia entry or an educational “movie”? I would hope that when we bring experts into the classroom, they can help our students to use higher level thinking skills in that topic.