July+12

Discussion of //The Truth About Testing//
 * Topics**
 * What themes emerge from your questions?
 * What did you learn about testing that you didn't learn before?
 * How do the ideas expressed by Popham impact your thinking about alternatives to preparing students for test preparation?
 * How might you incorporate these ideas into your persuasive multimedia essay?

media type="youtube" key="Ea5IgyVd3_U" height="385" width="480" That being defined, I see myself as the docent for our course, leading you through various areas that you might consider in answering the essential questions for our course: //Does the current standardized testing model have an effect on educational quality in the 21st century?// //How might educators re-imagine the big idea of assessment to benefit the learning needs of students// and //the public/political need of accountability?// It is up to you, however, to make sense of the materials and resources, developing some new knowledge and sharing it with others.
 * = //Docent// - a person who leads guided tours especially through a museum or art gallery (from Merriam-Webster dictionary) ||

There are four (4) areas I see as possible alternatives - current and emerging. Have you thought of others since we started the course?
 * Challenge-based learning (CBL)
 * Project-based learning (PBL)
 * Gaming
 * Digital Storytelling

Working on the persuasive multimedia essay assignment:
 * Using Dropbox, Diigo our book resources, and anything else you find through your own research and motivation, I'd like you to choose one or several alternatives to help frame your persuasive multimedia essay assignment (first draft due //by the end of the day on Tuesday, July 20//). You may wish to consult our essential and guiding questions from last week.
 * Your essay should be limited to 2000 words - or equivalent - (probably a decent length for busy educators to read) and //capture an argument// for one or more of the alternatives.
 * Your essay should have a unique approach to the topic of digital alternatives to test preparation.
 * Your essay should incorporate links to websites, articles, video and/or other media. You might even consider incorporating your own creations such as a podcast (audio) or a paper slide video.
 * Create a link from your wiki page to your first draft essay.
 * Between Tuesday, July 20 and Monday, July 26, I would like you to discuss and critique each others work using the discussion tab on the wiki and/or the Diigo highlighting and commenting feature.
 * Our July 26 class will focus on a discussion of what needs to be done to finalize our essays and determine how we will present them on our alternatives wiki.
 * For our classes on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, you should come prepared to share with the group how you are progressing and what questions you are working on. This is a time to seek input from everyone involved in the course and to challenge your thinking. Our daily discussion should help you clarify your thinking about the course topic and develop a most convincing multimedia essay to share with the world.
 * As you find new resources, add them to our Diigo group along with appropriate descriptions and tags. These will help others as they research their chosen alternative.
 * As you are developing your ideas, you may want to start thinking about the resource collection, creation of your own alternative and journal article submission assignments for the course. These can easily be worked on in tandem if you think that way. We will not focus on these until After the July 27 class.


 * Assignment**
 * Continue developing your ideas for your persuasive multimedia essay. Be prepared to share where you are in the process as well as questions you are dealing with. You may wish to consult our essential and guiding questions from last week.
 * You may also want to think ahead to the three additional assignments for the course.
 * Read //The Art of Possibility.// Post clarifying or probing questions on //The Art of Possibility// wiki page. We will discuss the book during our Monday, July 19 class.