Learning App Analysis

Does the learning app:

Present problems, scenarios, etc in more than just words?  For example, does the app show a picture and base the questions on that picture? Do the students have to answer questions based on a short 30 second video?

Present a variety of different problems?  For example, can math students do the math in number format (2+2 = ),  word format (two and two equals), and visual format (two apples and two apples =)

Have a variety of ways that students can input the answer ?  Is the app an  A, B, C, D  click on the button choice  or does it allow students to move things around to show the answer? Can the students say the answer?

Identify when the students have a correct answer?

Identify when   students have an incorrect answer?  For example, the program says, “No, try again.”

Tell which part of the student’s answer is incorrect?  Or tell how the student was incorrect? For example, did the student  incorrectly  spell  the first part of the answer?  Did the students confuse two words?

Allow the students  to try again? For example, the program repeats the same question or a similar one.

Supply at least one strategy to understand the correct answer through explaining the concept?  Does the app provide a strategy to help the students overcome this learning gap?   Does the app supply  text clues, visual clues,  or sound clues   to help the student learn the concept so he/she can generalize to other questions of the same concept?

Tell the correct answer?

Keep track of the students’ progress?  Does it show the students what they have mastered before they  move on?  For example, the app can have a checklist of the various levels of the learning goal.

Make this data  available to the teacher?  Can the teacher  sort through the data by class, from high scoring students to low scoring  students,  and by specific learning goal?

Move the students on to a higher level once the student has shown proficiency?  How many questions reveal proficiency?  For example, does the app check student progress after ten questions or do students have to do thirty before it proclaims student success?

Move students up Bloom’s level of thinking?  Do  the students move up to do a real life example of using that learning?  Are they put in a real life scenario through a video?  Or do they go from abstract practice to more  abstract practice?

Have the student spend more time on learning than on playing reward games?

How is this mobile  app different from a website version of  the same material?  What  advantage does the mobile version have?

I have developed many  Spanish activities that allow students to begin to express themselves and to begin to move toward spontaneous speaking as in a natural conversation.  My Spanish spontaneous speaking activities (20+) includes Modified Speed Dating (Students ask  a question from a card-whole class), Structured Speaking (Students substitute in or select words to communicate in pairs),  Role Playing (Students talk as people in pictures or drawing from 2-4 people) and Speaking Mats (Can talk using a wide variety of nouns, verbs and adjectives to express their ideas- pairs or small group),  Spontaneous Speaking (based on visuals or topics in pairs),  and Grammar speaking games (pairs or small group). Available for a nominal fee at Teacherspayteachers:  http://bit.ly/tpthtuttle

My three formative assessment books:   http://is.gd/tbook

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Educational Mobile Learning: A Technology Evaluation Grid

As you begin to plan for using mobile learning, use this grid to help you determine where you want to be.

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My formative assessment books: Formative Assessment Responding to Your Students,   Student Writing Through Formative Assessment Improving Foreign Language Speaking Through Formative Assessment. http://bit.ly/Tutbks

My 20 Spanish spontaneous speaking activities are available for a nominal fee at Teacherspayteachers:  http://bit.ly/tpthtuttle

Self-Assessment as Critical Skill: Formative Assessment as a Stepping Stone

I am painfully aware that helping students to be able to self-assess is a slow task. On the other hand, I realize how critical this skill is as a lifelong skill. Unless students can self-assess, they will not be able to improve on their own. I certainly do not want my students dependent on me for the rest of their lives to make sure that they are “correct”. I want them to be able to determine for themselves what they are doing and how well it helps them to get to their desired goal. They should be empowered to make their own decisions about the things they do. They do need our help in developing from very structured self-assessments  (Right or Wrong for lower level answers) to evaluating their decisions without any given criteria. Students need to transition through this process.

Formative assessment provides a wonderful stepping stone to self-assessment. As students learn to assess others, they learn what is important about the learning, how that learning can be demonstrated, and  how to identify and implement formative feedback.  They develop the skill to objectively look at their own work. They understand  that they have the techniques to improve.  As one of my English students said, ” I’m learning to look at my own paper as I do when I peer review another student’s paper.”

How do you help your students to be able to self-assess? Do you use formative assessment as a stepping stone?

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Your Students, is available through Eye on Education.

Also, my  book,  Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment, is available through Eye on Education.

Which Technology Will Save Education this Year?

I’ve been using computers in the classroom  since 1978.    Each year a new technology comes along that claims it will save education. Some evangelists of this technology, usually technology-based people,  tout its wonders. Teachers are trained on this newest and best technology. Whole curriculums are developed around the technology.  Some schools, often pilot schools who have had a huge influx of the technology with special help from the producing company, brag about the many  benefits of this technology. Yet, we do not hear about the long lasting effects on learning.

Some people consider the pen an improvement over the pencil.  Has the pen caused students to write better?  How teachers have students  use the pen improves  students’ writing.  The same is true for any new technology.   “Technology integration” workshops should focus on improving teaching, not on this newest technology.  When these workshops show teachers how to apply different learning strategies such as those from Silver, Strong and Perini in The Strategic Teacher Selecting the Right Research-Based Strategy for Every Lesson (from ASCD) using a technology, then  successful student learning will result. Likewise, a workshop on formative assessment that incorporates technology can lead to greater student achievement.

Another trend with the new technology is that often the producing company has already created the “learning” curriculum. Teachers have less of a role in designing and modifying the curriculum. Teachers become reduced to the observers of the curriculum. Classroom teachers know their own students and they know the best way to modify the curriculum so that their students can learn. Teachers should have available a wide variety of technology-rich resources to help them as they map out the curriculum for their students. These teachers should not be trapped by the technology.

What do the “technology integration” workshops in your district focus on?

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Your Students, is available through Eye on Education.

Also, my  book,  Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment, is available through Eye on Education.

Assessing Learning With Web 2.0: Videoconferencing

As students use Web 2.0  tools such as videoconferencing/Skype, etc. to interact with peers and experts, we need a tool to assess their learning. This digital age learning rubric focuses on expert videoconferencing.

Harry Tuttle's Web 2.0 Videoconferencing Rubric

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Students, is available through Eye-on-Education.

Assessing Learning with Web 2.0: Movie Producing/YouTube

As teachers begin to have their students produce videos and share them about learning topics, teachers can benefit from having a digital age rubric that assesses the learning and not the mechanics of producing a video. Here is a Web 2.0 rubric on producing a video that focuses on 21st century skills.

Harry G. Tuttle Web 2.0 Movie/YouTube Rubric

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Students, is available through Eye-on-Education.

Assessing Learning with Web 2.0: Partnership for 21st Century Assessment

As teachers look at possible projects involving Web 2.0 tools, they can pre-assess using general 21st century skills assessments.  Furthermore, they can use these general assessments during and after a learning experience.

Assessing 21st Century Skills in the Classroom Using Partnership for 21st Century concepts

Hotchalk, Jan 10 2009

http://www.hotchalk.com/mydesk/index.php/hotchalk-blog-by-dr-harry-grover-tuttle-on-teaching/538-assessing-21st-century-skills-in-the-classroom-

According to the Partnership for the 21st Century website, the 21st century skills has four major categories: Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes; Learning and Innovation skills; Information, Media and Technology Skills; and Life and Career Skills

Learning and Innovation Skills Assessment (Use 4 (weekly) -3 (every 5 weeks) -2 (every 10 weeks)-1 (once a year) -0 (does not happen) scale

Creativity and innovation skill

____ Demonstrating originality and inventiveness in work. Example: _________________________

____ Developing, implementing and communicating new ideas to others. Example: _________________________

____ Being open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives. Example: _________________________

____ Acting on creative ideas to make a tangible and useful contribution to the domain in which the innovation occurs. Example: _________________________

Critical thinking and problem solving skills

____ Exercising sound reasoning in understanding. Example: _________________________

____ Making complex choices and decisions. Example: _________________________

____ Understanding the interconnections among systems. Example: _________________________

____ Identifying and asking significant questions that clarify various points of view and lead to better solutions. Example: _________________________

____ Framing, analyzing and synthesizing information in order to solve problems and answer questions. Example: _________________________

Communication and Collaborative Work

____ Articulating thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively through speaking and writing. Example: _________________________

____ Demonstrating ability to work effectively with diverse teams. Example: _________________________

____ Exercising flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal. Example: _________________________

____ Assuming shared responsibility for collaborative work. Example: _________________________

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Students, is available through Eye-on-Education.

Assessing Learning With Web 2.0: enGauge 21st Century Skills

Several years ago, enGauge published its 21st Century Skills list. This collection provides the basis for assessing any Web 2.0 tool-based project.

Harry G. Tuttle's Web 2.0 Assessing using enGauge's 21st Century Skills

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Students, is available through Eye-on-Education.

Assessing Learning with Web 2.0: Marc Prensky’s 21st Century Skills2.0

Marc Prensky offers his ideas on 21st Century skills which I’ve converted into an assessment tool.

Harry G Tuttle Web 2.0 Marc Prensky's 21st Century Skills

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Students, is available through Eye-on-Education.

Apply the Heat to Learning

Another thought about putting plastic on windows to insulate the window. After putting the tape on the window and putting the plastic over the tape, the last step is to apply heat. The heat forces the plastic to attach itself more firmly and tightly to the tape. It changes the loosely fitting plastic to very tight and firm plastic.

How often do we apply heat to our student’s learning after they have had some basic instruction and practice? Do we present them with a challenging task that causes them to apply their learning to a high degree? Do we have them think at the analysis, synthesis or evaluation levels? Do we have them take their “book” learning and apply it to real life? Do we have them evaluate present conditions based on past ones? Do we apply heat to their learning?

How do you apply the heat to your students’ learning?

For any one who is interested in implementing formative assessment in the classroom, my book,
Formative Assessment: Responding to Students is available through Eye-on-Education.

Creating Thinking Curriculum

How do we change our curriculums from memorization of facts to higher level thinking curriculums?

One way is to ask questions that require our students to compare and contrast. How is the American Revolution like the French Revolution? How is it different? How  does the Spanish present tense compare to the Future tense?

Another way is to ask questions that ask our students to explain the consequences of some act.  For example, Science classes can explore the implications of every American home using five compact bulbs on the energy use for the nation.

In a third technique students evaluate a situation.  Which  of these solutions is better and why?  Math students can figure out which of three loans will be a better financial deal and explanation their reasoning.

Students will still know the basic but more important, they will be able to use the basic information in higher level thinking.

How do you  cause you students to engage in higher level thinking?

Social or Learning Network

Web 2.0 apps are called social networking. They build on people to people exchanges.  However, I wonder what we evaluate in the Web 2.0 apps.  Do we measure how much students learn academically? Do we measure how much they share that truly helps another student to grow academically?  Social learning is a critical part of the learning process if we structure it as students coming together to learn from each other or learning together.  The social is more the medium than the purpose. How do you evaluate your  students Web 2.0 learning?

Quiz- Book’s answers or students’ in-depth thinking

I recently gave a quiz on a textbook chapter; they had done six exercises applying the ideas in the chapter. The ten item quiz had application and evaluation questions; I had taken the questions from the book’s test bank.

As each student came up with the quiz, I corrected it. Next I asked the students to reread the question and tell me their thinking for their answer. However, about 3/4 of the “wrong” answers were not “wrong” if you explored the students’ thinking. In one question, the book had the correct answer as the four steps in the negative message, a student reasoned that it was more important to think about your negative message first and then plan your four steps around it. I agreed with him. In another question, a student said that a certain positive word in one of the answers might go against the negative bad news so she selected another answer. Good thinking.

I was overwhelmed by how thoughtful they were in their thinking. They were “right”!

Writing Pretest- Students Top Three Responses to Writing a Paragraph.

At the start of the semester, I asked my 40+ college students to write down what they think of when they think of writing a paragraph. Then they formed small groups and combined their answers. What do you think were the top three answers?

Scroll down to find out.

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Spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Every group came up with these three answers. These deal with the mechanics of writing, but not the content.

Only half of the groups came up with main idea.

No group listed pre-write or brainstorming. Nothing for revising . So much for the famous writing process.

The more we know about what our students think about a process, the more we can help them.

Feedback vs Formative Feedback: Take a Snow Covered Boat North

I saw a snow covered boat being towed up north into the snow belt of Central New York. I wondered about the logic. Maybe the driver is looking forward to the summer.

Many teachers evaluate what they do in a unit at the end of the unit. They decide what they could do better the next year they will teach that unit. They may decide to make changes in an upcoming unit based on some new information they have on the students’ strengths and learning gaps.

How often do teachers evaluate during the unit and make changes within the unit to provide students with formative feedback so that the students can improve in this present unit? Waiting until next year (summer for the boat) to make changes does not benefit this year’s students. If students are to learn the goal, then teachers need to evaluate (formative assess) what is happening frequently in the class and constantly give formative feedback for the direct improvement of students. Students may sink without our present help. Summer will be too late! Let’s give students daily or at least every other day feedback that moves them forward in their learning in this present unit. They can sail forward with our daily formative feedback and bask in their learning.