I have to commend this course, as I would surely recommend it to any university students at McGill, and further I would recommend this course to parents of McGill Students. I think that the core concepts and learning strategies in this course covers a broad range of interests and has the ability to teach many different age cohorts. I learned so much from this course, from learning how to use website software to just having the confidence to set-up and maintain my own blog. The ideas and idiosyncrasies found in this course will only have a positive effect on my use and integration of technology in the future. Overall, I really enjoyed all the final presentations that the class had to offer, and I relish in the fact that everyone’s final presentation reeked of individual creativity and interest. The spectrum of final assignments was very interesting, and some highlights for me included: Blaire and Aarons Rocket Richard rendition, Adriannes’ documentary, the aboriginal movie about bullying, and especially the Woodstock movie presentation. Overall, the class maintained an interesting persona throughout the course, and I think the professor did a good job of balancing his authority, and knowing when to back off and let the students experiment with the technology. However, the most important aspect that I will take away with me from this course is the idea that no matter what problems or glitches you come across when using or implementing new technology, there is always some way to get around your problem, and always some new way to be creative.
Thanks for a great semester Sam! I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog as much as I have enjoyed sharing it with you and the class.
Take care,
This is Rory Gangbar signing off.
Blog, I bid you adieux.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Journal 12: Assessing Meaningful Learning with Technology
Chapter 10 discusses the many ways that students can be accessed through the technological projects that they have been working on. Moreover, the chapter talks a lot about electronic portfolios and journals. In our class, the major means of assessment have been both a in standard-based portfolio, which is the online blog that we have been completing a long side the course, as well as an external evaluation portfolio, which can be seen in the way the class has completed all the in-class assignments and other mini-tools that have helped students learn and interact through the course. I feel that both methods of evaluation are clear, concise and retain challenging frameworks. It is important to have many methods of assessment, especially in a class such as this because with such a broad range of students, the class as a whole has many different strengths and weaknesses.
The chapter briefly mentions rubrics as a part of the online assessment that help make the learning meaningful. I would have to say that the rubrics and examples throughout the course and on the website were quite measurable and precise for the learning and assignments that were taking place within the course. Finally, the most interesting part about chapter 10 was surely the implementation and use of the ‘clicker’ technology in and throughout the classroom. I like the idea that instead of raising your hand for what sometimes feels forever, everyone can participate equally through the clicks they make. The fact that student responses are transmitted to a larger screen from a computer at the head of the classroom makes the learning more efficient and probably releases a lot of pressure off of the teacher. I’m sure Professor Bruzesse could have used this technology during the more strenuous times in the class – like during the website class, as I’m sure this technology would have made the class more organized from all angles. Thus, technology like the clicker and other means of assessment are helping to make the classroom and other places of learning a more efficient place.
Answers to Questions
1. Assessment and learning surely go hand in hand, as nothing can be assessed if nothing has been learned. Thus, assessment like the chapter exclaims, is a necessity in and throughout the classroom, otherwise there is no incentive to learn new knowledge. There are many ways to assess what students know using different applications of technology, and sometimes this assessment and learning does become acquired together, for example; after instructions are given out, it is possible to assess how well such individuals follow instructions by what outcomes appear within the program students are using. Therefore, assessment and learning seem to be inextricably tied together.
2. One type of assessment activity that can generate feedback and improve learning performance is to have the class and therefore student-peers assessing final projects. If there was some type of online survey or assessment that students could briefly fill out after each group presentation, this could help both the professor and their students gage an appropriate assessment, as well as have access to many different opinions. Thus, it is easy to see how technology can help in the assessment areas.
3. I think that the idea expressed in my answer to question 2 is just one of the ways you can make assessment activities less threatening to learners. I think that by allowing more participation within the assessment experience, you automatically begin to make the assessment period more group oriented which ultimately makes it less threatening and encouragingly more positive.
The chapter briefly mentions rubrics as a part of the online assessment that help make the learning meaningful. I would have to say that the rubrics and examples throughout the course and on the website were quite measurable and precise for the learning and assignments that were taking place within the course. Finally, the most interesting part about chapter 10 was surely the implementation and use of the ‘clicker’ technology in and throughout the classroom. I like the idea that instead of raising your hand for what sometimes feels forever, everyone can participate equally through the clicks they make. The fact that student responses are transmitted to a larger screen from a computer at the head of the classroom makes the learning more efficient and probably releases a lot of pressure off of the teacher. I’m sure Professor Bruzesse could have used this technology during the more strenuous times in the class – like during the website class, as I’m sure this technology would have made the class more organized from all angles. Thus, technology like the clicker and other means of assessment are helping to make the classroom and other places of learning a more efficient place.
Answers to Questions
1. Assessment and learning surely go hand in hand, as nothing can be assessed if nothing has been learned. Thus, assessment like the chapter exclaims, is a necessity in and throughout the classroom, otherwise there is no incentive to learn new knowledge. There are many ways to assess what students know using different applications of technology, and sometimes this assessment and learning does become acquired together, for example; after instructions are given out, it is possible to assess how well such individuals follow instructions by what outcomes appear within the program students are using. Therefore, assessment and learning seem to be inextricably tied together.
2. One type of assessment activity that can generate feedback and improve learning performance is to have the class and therefore student-peers assessing final projects. If there was some type of online survey or assessment that students could briefly fill out after each group presentation, this could help both the professor and their students gage an appropriate assessment, as well as have access to many different opinions. Thus, it is easy to see how technology can help in the assessment areas.
3. I think that the idea expressed in my answer to question 2 is just one of the ways you can make assessment activities less threatening to learners. I think that by allowing more participation within the assessment experience, you automatically begin to make the assessment period more group oriented which ultimately makes it less threatening and encouragingly more positive.
Journal 11: Weekly reflection
This week we started working on what will be our final project and presentation using movie-maker software. After learning how to use the new software, I and my group started experimenting with our own movie. Originally, we wanted to work the movie feature into a power-point presentation, but because we used the software of I-movie on a Macintosh it was a lot harder to transfer the file over to a pc. Thus, instead of re-doing the movie so that it would be able to transfer onto the a pc, we decided to just reinvent the whole assignment and make a longer movie-clip that would encompass both the ideas in the power-point and the movies we had already developed. Throughout this process I learned a lot about the different editing functions, as well as some movie making etiquette through the filming process. Overall, I really enjoyed experimenting with the movie-making technology and I think that I will most likely use this technology in the future as it was innovative and fun to use.
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