Authentic Assessment

The website, Authentic Assessment Toolbox, has a lot of great information about  tools and ideas for Authenitc Assessment.

New Horizons Keynote Speaker: Michael Wesch

Keynote Address: The End of Wonder in the Age of Whatever | May 15, 3:00pm-4:30pm | Crowne Ballroom

New media and technology present us with an overwhelming bounty of tools for connection, creativity, collaboration, and knowledge creation - a true "Age of Whatever" where anything seems possible. But any enthusiasm about these remarkable possibilities is immediately tempered by that other "Age of Whatever" - an age in which people feel increasingly disconnected, disempowered, tuned out, and alienated.

Such problems are especially prevalent in education, where the Internet (which must be the most remarkable creativity and collaboration machine in the history of the world) often enters our classrooms as a distraction device.It is not enough to merely deliver information in traditional fashion to make our students "knowledgeable." Nor is it enough to give them the skills to learn, making them "knowledge-able." Knowledge and skills are necessary, but not sufficient. What is needed more than ever is to inspire our students to wonder, to nurture their appetite for curiosity, exploration, and contemplation, to help them attain an insatiable appetite to ask and pursue big, authentic, and relevant questions, so that they can harness and leverage the bounty of possibility all around us and rediscover the "end" or purpose of wonder, and stave off the historical end of wonder.

Who is Michael Wesch? If you are not familiar with Mr. Wesch, he has a number of videos on YouTube that challenge our way of thinking about student learning, as illustrated in the video embedded below.

KCTCS New Horizons Conference: May 14-16, 2012

Registration is now open for the New Horizons Conference, May 14-16, 2012 in Lousiville, KY.

Visit the conference website to register and discover more about the newly renovated 2012 New Horizons Conference! Registration ends April 12 so complete yours today.

Assessing Online Learning: Strategies, Challenges and Opportunities

I am providing a link to another great article from Faculty Focus. They have gathered several articles on assessing online learning into one pulbication which will help all of us think more creatively about online assessment.

"When it comes to online education, one question still persists: "How do I know what my online students have learned?" While there are no simple answers, with a little creativity you will soon discover that the online learning environment opens up a host of new student assessment possibilities. And, just as with traditional courses, the trick is finding the right combination that works best for your particular course."