Today the discussion group discussed Chapter 4 in Rethinking Education: The Four Main Developments of American Schools. We discussed in small groups the negatives and that changes that could be made in the different eras of schooling. I thought it was very interesting to see what my peers thought will change in the coming years. I thought is was interesting to hear about how "Tests" could change by someday maybe teachers will be able to incorporate alternative assessments such as journals or interviews. I'm almost positive tests would always be present. Like it or not, some people are just poor test takers. It would be interesting to see if someday that change will occur. I really thought their activity helped me understand that chapter a lot better. During discussion debrief we talked about positives and areas to improve on. They did a great job of encouraging deeper thinking during discussion and restating comments for the group as a whole. I think those are two key aspects of teaching a successful lesson. I hope my group can bring those aspects to our discussion. Time management is very important for these discussions too because we only get 15 minutes to present.
Next we talked about the iRLO assignment. I learned that is stands for Interactive (provides user control and appropriate feedback), Reusable (can be used repeatedly), Learning (users should learn new content, review previously learned content or practice a skill), and Object (a generic term, but it refers to the Scratch file that you will create). Interactive it the key part! We were able to see some examples from the Scratch site. I've never heard of this kind of software and it's very unfamiliar to me. It looks kind of scary, but I'm sure Boyer is right that it will get easier as you play with the software. He also shared some resources that will help us understand Scratch more. I definitely plan on watching the video tutorials, so I will be more educated on Scratch before the next discussion period.
No comments:
Post a Comment