Ahh, another Association for Advanced Computing in Education (AACE) event -- again in our beautiful city of Vancouver, BC Canada. Although I have been attending or presenting at AACE events since 2009 (specifically EdMedia), this week has been my first experience attending an E-Learning conference. Now that my role has advanced to executive committee member, I still had the good fortune of joining the conference delegates in pre-conference symposia, sessions, social events, and networking opportunities. All of the above have contributed to my teaching at BCIT and my knowledge in my career as a Communication Instructor engaged in Educational Technologies. I also have a new career hat as Writing Centre Coordinator at BCIT, and I endeavour to incorporate my past experiences and current opportunities into the Centre to benefit the BCIT populace.
Origins of my Current Quest
"Learning must be the product, not the testing". In June 2017, Sherry Elwood, Superintendent of the Richmond School District, was invited to the Learning and Teaching Summit at BCIT and shared this thought with us. She explained how the 21st Century philosophy of learning can create opportunities for post-secondary educators engaging the students coming into our institutions. The current method of learning sees students of all ages augmenting the learning they do in their classrooms with online resources. In a 21st century environment, students are following their passions and are inspired to find ways that they learn with the help of their instructors. How do we foster and inspire these learners who have access to sites like YouTube and Khan academy, not to mention networking they do through social media? With students challenging the traditional ways they have learned in the past, assessment also needs to be reevaluated. Assessment is predicted to be removed from certification in high school diplomas and degree granting institutes. If assessment is not how we will evaluate students, I have been pondering what this means for my teaching methodologies and assignment criteria. As a result, I have come to AACE with the goal of getting closer to an answer.
This summer, I attended The International Conference on Information Communication Technologies in Education (ICICTE 2017) in Rhodes, Greece. To follow my quest for knowledge on how to run a course without using assessment, I attended a workshop on this topic. The session was entitled 21st Century Learning and Digital Literacy: Pipe Dream or Smoke and Mirrors? by Iain McPhee
(University of the West of Scotland, United Kingdom) and Maria Eugenia Witzler D’Esposito (Faculdade Cultura Inglesa, Brazil). These longstanding ICICTE attendees and presenters banded together to discuss just the topic I have been wondering about, and I took the opportunity to continue my quest. An interesting re-occuring theme is the one of the principles of 21st century learning, and McPhee and Witzler D'Esposito cited the four pillars of learning proposed by UNESCO (Delors & UNESCO, 1996). Two key principles of learning is the learning environment of connectedness and making learning central. I have been developing my thoughts from not only assessment, but also if I am not assessing, then what would a learning environment look like.
After this workshop, I wanted to keep looking at assessment without grading and AACE 2017 had a relevant symposium I jumped at the chance to participate in and a symposium that was good for me to know about as a global citizen.
Pre-Conference Symposia
The E-Learning pre-conference symposium was entitled iPortfolio and iAssessment for Sustainable Learning in Higher Education. Presenters Madhumita Bhattacharya and Steven Coombs showed some of their thoughts and experiences engaging students (and symposium attendees) during the process and not the outcome.
Origins of my Current Quest
"Learning must be the product, not the testing". In June 2017, Sherry Elwood, Superintendent of the Richmond School District, was invited to the Learning and Teaching Summit at BCIT and shared this thought with us. She explained how the 21st Century philosophy of learning can create opportunities for post-secondary educators engaging the students coming into our institutions. The current method of learning sees students of all ages augmenting the learning they do in their classrooms with online resources. In a 21st century environment, students are following their passions and are inspired to find ways that they learn with the help of their instructors. How do we foster and inspire these learners who have access to sites like YouTube and Khan academy, not to mention networking they do through social media? With students challenging the traditional ways they have learned in the past, assessment also needs to be reevaluated. Assessment is predicted to be removed from certification in high school diplomas and degree granting institutes. If assessment is not how we will evaluate students, I have been pondering what this means for my teaching methodologies and assignment criteria. As a result, I have come to AACE with the goal of getting closer to an answer.
This summer, I attended The International Conference on Information Communication Technologies in Education (ICICTE 2017) in Rhodes, Greece. To follow my quest for knowledge on how to run a course without using assessment, I attended a workshop on this topic. The session was entitled 21st Century Learning and Digital Literacy: Pipe Dream or Smoke and Mirrors? by Iain McPhee
(University of the West of Scotland, United Kingdom) and Maria Eugenia Witzler D’Esposito (Faculdade Cultura Inglesa, Brazil). These longstanding ICICTE attendees and presenters banded together to discuss just the topic I have been wondering about, and I took the opportunity to continue my quest. An interesting re-occuring theme is the one of the principles of 21st century learning, and McPhee and Witzler D'Esposito cited the four pillars of learning proposed by UNESCO (Delors & UNESCO, 1996). Two key principles of learning is the learning environment of connectedness and making learning central. I have been developing my thoughts from not only assessment, but also if I am not assessing, then what would a learning environment look like.
After this workshop, I wanted to keep looking at assessment without grading and AACE 2017 had a relevant symposium I jumped at the chance to participate in and a symposium that was good for me to know about as a global citizen.
Pre-Conference Symposia
The E-Learning pre-conference symposium was entitled iPortfolio and iAssessment for Sustainable Learning in Higher Education. Presenters Madhumita Bhattacharya and Steven Coombs showed some of their thoughts and experiences engaging students (and symposium attendees) during the process and not the outcome.
In the other room at the concurrent symposium, Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) and Open Education in the Developing World, I was able to catch the first hour of their panel. Essentially, open education opportunities are available to the developing world through a cellular phone even if the owners have limited broadband. World banks and organizations are creating MOOCs so that people can access knowledge through the MOOCs through a phone line, and not just a website. Knowledge is being obtained without the need for certification, but knowledge itself. Organizations such as the Commonwealth of Learning create opportunities for the world to access knowledge and focus on the new world of learning and brain research and the need for world-wide knowledge without focusing on assessment. Linda Harasim of Simon Fraser University, Canada and others postulate that "edtech is the new industry".
Personal Applications
Since attending these symposium and workshops, I have been discussing with my friends and students, the future of assessment and learning for learning's sake. One friend of mine said they relied on "grades" to make hiring decisions of staff and wondered how employers could evaluate job applicants without having a copy of the transcript. The students, on the other hand, who are beyond coming from through the high school system using the 21st century methodologies, are quite pleased to hear that assessment and grading may evolve or go extinct? Students seem to have higher anxiety than I have ever seen in my 28 years of teaching. I've heard that one cause is that students have access to world news through social media which impacts their sense of peace and security. Removing the stress of exams may be a nice complement to the ever-changing world -- a world that requires modern competencies that go beyond life skills, yet include social emotional competencies. Finding a balance is key.
I have dabbled throughout my course this term with the vision that assessment may not be a part of students meeting completion criteria for my course. In a conference session I attended in the last couple of years, I was inspired to find new ways for all students with a variety of access needs to complete assignments. The first change I have made is a reflection assignment where students have a choice to reflect in writing or through a video report. Luckily, I met one of the co-founders of a leading video discussion platform called Flipgrid (available at www.flipgrid.com). After learning about Flipgrid, I immediately integrated the technology into my practice.
For the presentation assignment in one of the courses I teach, I have students completing a required component to their presentation: a reflection. My course also includes a participation mark where students have to complete a variety of components which are assessed by completion only. With the flipped classroom model, coming to class prepared is crucial for the engagement to occur. Other events I have students do is collaborative writing with google docs and peer evaluation of completed drafts written individually. By allowing students to participate by videotaping their reflections, they can address multiple challenges. For example, they can speak instead of write for an assignment, and they can do a component of the course by mere completion which matches the non-assessment goal I've been hunting for. As a result, I'm continuing to find ways through social media tools to engage and not always assess my learners.
The engaged community is a success and students are glad for the interactive activities. Here is what just one student has said in an online, anonymous survey: "I like the interactive activities and assignments. It keeps us paying attention and interested. Overall, I really enjoy this class."
So I'd say my quest to learn not how to assess students, but to engage them is working, and I want to continue this quest and focus on building communities of learners and people who are ready for the "ever changing work and social environment... with higher quality learning experiences (C21 Canada 2012)." With the help of these conferences, I can learn how to "re-engineer curriculum" as the students and I learn, unlearn, and relearn (Tofler, 2014).
Sources
C21 Canada. (2012). A 21st Century Vision of Public Education for Canada. Available from http://www.c21canada.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/C21-Canada-Shifting-Version-2.0.pdf .
Toffler, A. (2014). Learn, Unlearn, and Relearn: How to Stay Current and Get Ahead. Forbes. Available in https://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2014/02/03/learn-unlearn-and-relearn/#5b6c642b676f
Personal Applications
Since attending these symposium and workshops, I have been discussing with my friends and students, the future of assessment and learning for learning's sake. One friend of mine said they relied on "grades" to make hiring decisions of staff and wondered how employers could evaluate job applicants without having a copy of the transcript. The students, on the other hand, who are beyond coming from through the high school system using the 21st century methodologies, are quite pleased to hear that assessment and grading may evolve or go extinct? Students seem to have higher anxiety than I have ever seen in my 28 years of teaching. I've heard that one cause is that students have access to world news through social media which impacts their sense of peace and security. Removing the stress of exams may be a nice complement to the ever-changing world -- a world that requires modern competencies that go beyond life skills, yet include social emotional competencies. Finding a balance is key.
I have dabbled throughout my course this term with the vision that assessment may not be a part of students meeting completion criteria for my course. In a conference session I attended in the last couple of years, I was inspired to find new ways for all students with a variety of access needs to complete assignments. The first change I have made is a reflection assignment where students have a choice to reflect in writing or through a video report. Luckily, I met one of the co-founders of a leading video discussion platform called Flipgrid (available at www.flipgrid.com). After learning about Flipgrid, I immediately integrated the technology into my practice.
For the presentation assignment in one of the courses I teach, I have students completing a required component to their presentation: a reflection. My course also includes a participation mark where students have to complete a variety of components which are assessed by completion only. With the flipped classroom model, coming to class prepared is crucial for the engagement to occur. Other events I have students do is collaborative writing with google docs and peer evaluation of completed drafts written individually. By allowing students to participate by videotaping their reflections, they can address multiple challenges. For example, they can speak instead of write for an assignment, and they can do a component of the course by mere completion which matches the non-assessment goal I've been hunting for. As a result, I'm continuing to find ways through social media tools to engage and not always assess my learners.
The engaged community is a success and students are glad for the interactive activities. Here is what just one student has said in an online, anonymous survey: "I like the interactive activities and assignments. It keeps us paying attention and interested. Overall, I really enjoy this class."
So I'd say my quest to learn not how to assess students, but to engage them is working, and I want to continue this quest and focus on building communities of learners and people who are ready for the "ever changing work and social environment... with higher quality learning experiences (C21 Canada 2012)." With the help of these conferences, I can learn how to "re-engineer curriculum" as the students and I learn, unlearn, and relearn (Tofler, 2014).
Sources
C21 Canada. (2012). A 21st Century Vision of Public Education for Canada. Available from http://www.c21canada.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/C21-Canada-Shifting-Version-2.0.pdf .
Toffler, A. (2014). Learn, Unlearn, and Relearn: How to Stay Current and Get Ahead. Forbes. Available in https://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2014/02/03/learn-unlearn-and-relearn/#5b6c642b676f
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