Category: Assessment & Evaluation

Assessment & EvaluationLeave a comment

A renaissance in assessment?

wenmothd

The end of year is a time where the focus of most teachers and students is on the summative assessments we incude in our education process. These forms of assessment have been with us for decades, and changed little despite significant change being experienced in other areas of our system, including pedagogy, technology etc. The video above is one of this year's Ten Trends from CORE, which makes the case for new apporaches to assessment.  The argument for re-thinking assessment is not new, but while it has been debated for some time, there has been little done to act on … Continue reading A renaissance in assessment?

Assessment & Evaluation, Education FuturesLeave a comment

Introducing PISA

wenmothd

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugz_1Clpsdk?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0&w=460&h=300%5D In New Zealand it seems we are constantly being reminded of our rankings in the international PISA results, particularly where disadvantaged groups of students are concerned. While the figures and comparisons get bandied around a lot, what's interesting is to understand how they are arrived at, what goes into collecting and representing the data that is shared. The OECD have just shared the video above in an effort to help us understand why the OECD’s number-crunchers trigger such intense debate about the state of education around the world every time they release the results of the latest PISA … Continue reading Introducing PISA

Assessment & Evaluation, Cloud computing, Education Futures, eLearning, Mobile Technologies, pedagogy, Personalisation, Reforming schooling, Virtualisation, cloud computing8 Comments

Pedagogically driven…?

wenmothd

Over the past few  years I’ve frequently heard the comments; “It’s not about the technology, it’s about the pedagogy”, or in relation to the advent of ultrafast broadband; “we’ve got to drive it from the teaching and learning.” These are well intended sentiments, but why is it that the technology still dominates much of the discussion, and so often becomes the starting point by default? And just what do we mean by letting the teaching and learning lead? How would you explain that to someone outside of education – or, for that matter, someone inside? I’ve been thinking about this … Continue reading Pedagogically driven…?

Assessment & Evaluation2 Comments

Assessment using technology

wenmothd

A brief but informative booklet has just been released by BECTA titled Messages from Evidence: Assessment using technology. A quick read of only 7 pages, the booklet works from the premise that technology has an important role to play in facilitating assessment for learning. For instance, technology can be used to administer a test and then link each learner to a suitable learning task, based on test results. (This is a key part of the design of e-asTTle, and other programmes such as Mathletics.) Also, using technology can help learners assess each other’s work (blogs are commonly being used in … Continue reading Assessment using technology

Advanced Networks, Assessment & Evaluation, Cloud computing, conference entry, Curriculum, Diary entry, Education Futures, eLearning, emerging technologies, Multi literacies, networks and learning, Open Source - Open Content, pedagogy, Reforming schooling, Virtualisation, cloud computingLeave a comment

CORE’s ten trends for 2010

wenmothd

Today I presented CORE’s ten trends for 2010 to an audience of around 400 delegates at the Learning@School conference in Rotorua. The ten trends are a collection of themes and issues that have been identified by CORE staff as trends in education that we imagine will impact on the work of teachers and leaders in early childhood centres, schools, and tertiary institutions in NZ in the coming year. While our focus is on the bigger picture of education, there is a focus on trends associated with the use of ICTs in education, reflecting the fact that we are living in … Continue reading CORE’s ten trends for 2010

Assessment & Evaluation, knowledge management, national standards, OLEs, VLEs, LMSs2 Comments

Measuring the right things

wenmothd

I’ve just read a fascinating publication from Microsoft titled “Interoperability: Improving Education” which came about as a result of 10 or so educators and ICT practitioners who were brought together by Microsoft for a meeting running alongside the annual NAACE conference held in Blackpool, England, earlier this year. The brief was to talk about the way that schools use pupil data. And the wisdoms that ensued are contained in an new Microsoft discussion document for school leaders and local authorities, “Interoperability: Improving schools” (download the PDF here). The contents of this paper provide timely insights for NZ educators because it … Continue reading Measuring the right things

Assessment & Evaluation, research and papersLeave a comment

Technology and the future of student assessment

wenmothd

“Students today are growing up in a world overflowing with a variety of high-tech tools, from computers and video games to increasingly sophisticated mobile devices. And unlike adults, these students don’t have to adjust to the information age—it will be all they’ve ever known. Their schools are gradually following suit, integrating a range of technologies both in and outside of the classroom for instructional use. But there’s one day a year when laptops power down and students’ mobile computing devices fall silent, a day when most schools across the country revert to an era when whiteboards were blackboards, and iPhones … Continue reading Technology and the future of student assessment

Assessment & Evaluation, Diary entry, Reforming schooling1 Comment

Taking formal education beyond exams

wenmothd

Interesting article in the New Straits Times here in Malaysia over the weekend titled Taking Formal Education Beyond Exams. IT features and interview with Datuk Dr Adi Badiozaman Tuah, the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate director in which he outlines his views on the need to review the focus of assessment in Malaysian schools. In the interview he states “Current practices see us focusing only on the mental capabilities and cognitive domain of our children. We want to go beyond the paper and pencil tests and look at other domains to show the individual’s progress and development”</em The director wants to create … Continue reading Taking formal education beyond exams

Advanced Networks, Assessment & Evaluation, Communities of Practice, conference entry, Diary entry, educational gaming, eLearning, emerging technologies, ePortfolios, Mobile Technologies, News & current events, OLEs, VLEs, LMSs, pedagogy, Web2.0Leave a comment

Ten Trends for 2007

wenmothd

We’ve added a new logo on the right hand side of the CORE website -titled CORE’s Ten Trends for 2007 Clicking on this logo will take you to a list of ten trends that we’ve identified as being particularly important in 2007. The aim is to create some dialogue around some of the things that are happening in the NZ context regarding the use of ICT in education. The emphasis is on looking at the bigger picture, rather than the things absorb our time every day at the “coal face”. I will be using these ten trends as the focus … Continue reading Ten Trends for 2007