EDUC 7726 Final Assignment - Summarizing My Learning

For our final assignment in EDUC 7726, we were asked to create a conceptual map of our learning from the class.  This could be done in a few different ways.  We could choose to summarize our learning from the class or relate our learning to future plans and how the program would be used in our future endeavors.  I chose to create a concept map that summarized the learning of the class as a whole.  I created this map using Coggle. Below is an image of my map:

The title/topic of my concept map was Assessing in the Digital Era.  I focused on the different ways to assess that we talked about in our EDUC 7726 class.  These different assessment techniques were:

• Technology and Assessment
• Symbiotic
• Visual
• Technical Quality
• Assessing Digital Literacy
• Assessing Digital Competencies
• Assessing MOOCs
• 21st Century Skills
• Summative and Formative Assessments
• Barriers to Technology

In the technology and assessment section of my mind map, I discuss symbiotic assessment, visual assessment, and technical quality.  Symbiotic assessments are purposeful, planned, and use multiple measure to assess students.  Symbiotic assessments provides and opportunity for teaching, learning and assessing to be interchanged.  With visible assessments, it is more student centered and students are aware of the methods, targets, and strategies.  The technical quality of assessments speaks to the validity, reliability, and fairness of the assessments used.

When assessing digital literacies and digital competencies, there are many important topics to consider.  Some of these are creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking.

A new type of course that is being integrating is called a MOOC.  A MOOC is a massive open online course and there are many different considerations to assessing these types of courses.  The most recent have been peer assessments and automated grading systems.

One important topic that we briefly discussed this trimester was on 21st century skills.  21st century skills focus on critical thinking where students are asked to evaluate, synthesize, and analyze.  They also focus on problem solving where students are asked to reason, interpret, and apply.  They also focus on creativity, where students must be innovative and curious in their work.  Lastly, they focus on metacognition, where skills on mindfulness and reflection are focused on.

Two types of assessments that can be applies digitally are formative and summative assessments.  Formative assessments use a variety of different collaborative online tools.  These can be given at the beginning of class, middle of class or the end of class. Students can be given choices , such as project based learning.  Summative assessments typically end a unit.  Summative assessments can be done using a variety of technological tools.  Some tools can include: clickers, Google Forms, Socrative, etc.

The top barriers to technology integration are a lack of vision, lack of leadership, lack of money, curriculum, infastructure, parental involvement, time, and assessment.

I really enjoyed learning about different ways to assess through technolgy.  Throughout this course I learned many different techniques from my colleagues.  There are many different ideas that I plan to take away from this course and this program.

A link to my mind map can be found here: Assessing in the Digital Era Mind Map

ED 7724 Week 12 Prompt #1

For our first prompt this week, we were to act as a student with a disability that uses an AT device and write a letter to a post-secondary university explaining the device and why it is necessary.  My letter is below:


To Whom it May Concern,

My name is Amy Paskov and I suffer from a visual impairment called Optic Nerve Hypoplasia or ONH. ONH refers to the underdevelopment of the optic nerve during pregnancy. ONH is one of the three most common causes of visual impairment in children and unfortunately it can not be cured.  Throughout my educational career, I have dealt with this disability.  Optic Nerve Hypoplaysia is stable and it will not deteriorate my vision, in fact as I grow older, my vision may improve as my brain matures, however, my lack of depth perception and photophobia (not being able to look directly at the light) is what I worry about the most.  Which is why I am writing this letter to you.

Being accepted to a post secondary school was a dream come true.  I always had the best accommodations growing up and I am hoping that I can continue receiving these services.  If they do not continue, I fear that my vision could worsen if I do not receive services for my vision and depth perception.  I am asking that you allow me to use my screen magnification reader as I can read large text, but not small text. I also use a text to speech reader on the computer that allows me to write on the computer and reads back to me. 

Also I have included some strategies that may help professors that I come into contact with in class.

• Allow student to sit near the board (within 3 to 5 feet) and in a central location.
• If possible, provide a copy of what you have written on the board to the student. (or enlarge print)
• Lighting can cause sensitivity to the student's eyes, so please allow student to wear tinted lenses in class if needed.
• Avoid glares on working surfaces (a piece of dark colored paper taped to the entire desk surface diminishes glare off the desk)
• Avoid using red/orange/yellow on Smartboards or Whiteboards
• Give the student extra time especially on tests.

I would like this institution to let me continue my use of my magnification reader and speech reader.  I do not want to make more work for anyone and I will answer any questions anyone has about my disability.  I just want all of the professors to be made aware of my disability and the accommodations that will be necessary for my success at this institution.  I thank you in advance for you assistance and look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

Amy Paskov

References:

Emilio, Born with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia. (n.d.). - VisionAware. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from http://www.visionaware.org/info/eye-conditions-personal-stories/emilio-born-with-optic-nerve-hypoplasia/35

Optic Nerve Hypoplasia Pediatric Visual Diagnosis Fact Sheet™. (n.d.). Optic Nerve Hypoplasia Pediatric Visual Diagnosis Fact Sheet. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from http://www.tsbvi.edu/seehear/spring99/opticnerve.htm

Visual Impairment, Including Blindness. (n.d.). National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from http://nichcy.org/disability/specific/visualimpairment#types

ED 7726 Week 10 Soapbox

For this week's assignment, we met online and had a "soapbox" hangout.  I enjoyed this types of hangout, as we each chose a topic and developed a short presentation on it to share with our colleagues.  It was really nice to get an in depth look into some of the topics that my colleagues chose.

I chose to speak about Assessing MOOCs.  A large part about assessing MOOCs is using peer assessment.  What made me really connect our soapbox to assessing MOOCs was that we were asked to peer assess two of our colleagues during our hangout.

When you are assessing MOOCs there are often many students that are enrolled in the MOOC course.  We often wonder that if there are so many students, how do you know that the students are doing so well if there are so many, where does the assessment come in?  This brought back a journey that I took when we enrolled in a DLMOOC during our Distance Learning class with Ian.  Although we were not being "assessed" by anyone in the MOOC, we all knew that Ian was watching us and the work we completed, so ultimately we were being assessed.

However, many MOOCs are not looking into automated grading.  For multiple choice, true/false and short answer, automated grading has been working for many years.  However, many MOOCS are looking into automated grading for essays.  If you begin grading essays through an automated grading system, you take out a lot of the creativity and personality that students put into their writing.  This is a benefit of having a human teacher correcting these types of assignments.

All in all, upsides and downsides to MOOCs and ways to assessing them.  As MOOCs become more and more popular, assessment strategies will become more common.  This may mean students will have to go to a facility to take an exam or an exam may be corrected by a computer teacher.  Only time will tell.

Here is a link to my presentation on Assessing MOOCs: Assessing MOOCs Presentation