Chapter 11 in the textbook is about engaging students in performance assessment and reflective learning. It has a ton on good information on building portfolios and doing assessments. The first concept that I wanted to explore further is preassessments. Preassessments are various strategies that teachers use to assess the knowledge of their students. This makes the teachers aware of what the students know and what the students need to work on. Teachers can then start working on their lesson plans. Teachers can use multiple things to assess their student’s knowledge. Some of those things are “pretests, writing prompts, graphic organizers, observations, questions, and surveys.” (Maloy, et al, 2013, p.285) I think that these strategies are all great ways for a teacher to assess their students. I think it is very important for a teacher to know where their students are in their education journey. It gives both the student and the teacher a good starting point. A good online preassessment you can create is a FlipQuiz. Below is a link of an assessment that I created on this chapter.
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Photo Created by Morten Oddvik on Flickr
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The second concept that caught my attention was reflection. Reflection is a way for a teacher to look back at what they have done and think about what they can do to to better. Some lessons may need to be modified while others may not be useful and they may need to be cut. A good way for a teacher to do this is to maintain a portfolio and keep it updated. "It is a meaningful and effective way to summarize the knowledge, skills, and dispositions one has gained into the complex process of teaching."(Maloy, et al, 2013, p.281) I think it is also a great way for teachers to keep up with new ways of teaching and technology's that can assist them in creating better lessons.
“Study the past if you would define the future.”
― Confucius
The third and last concept is digital teaching portfolio. A digital teaching portfolio is "a collection of educational and professional materials stored in an electronic format."(Maloy, et al, 2013, p.279) This is a great way to teachers to keep everything that have learned in one spot and allow them to go back and view everything. This is also where a teacher would go when they are doing their reflection. A great use of this portfolio is so teachers can reuse information for their lesson. All the research done to find the information is stored and can easily be found and reused. I think this is a great thing for all teachers to have. It is a time saver, a learning tool, and a good use of technology in the classroom.
In conclusion, technology can be seen throughout the teaching process. Teachers can use surveys online and other technology for student preassessments. This helps both the students and the teachers. If a teacher creates a digital teaching portfolio they can also use everything they collect to reflect on what they are teaching and what can be improved upon. This will assist teachers in keeping up with new teaching techniques and new technology that can be used in the classroom.
Resources:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon
A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming
Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education,
Inc.
There is definitely an important interplay between digital portfolios and reflection - all of which will hopefully translate to continuous improvement and deeper learning! Although set up a bit different, the element of reflective writing for these blog posts is the starting point for the direction you will go with educational technology, as well. Also, like your FlipQuiz - you can imagine the impact of something as 'simple' as these online opportunities in helping students either demonstrate their learning by creating their own or reviewing for a more formal assessment.
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