Social discussion of CS in K-12

["Reese, George Clifford" <reese AT illinois.edu>]

Hi Charles,

 

I talk a lot about “what we know” with my colleague, Jana, here at MSTE. The discussion is usually around that massive amount of research and professional development writing and different programs for improvement, and yet some very basic good ideas endure. I think it comes down to the democratic idea that the people who make decisions should be as close as possible to those affected by them. In the case of assessments, that means teachers and students determine them. How would they do that? Portfolios, of course. Show me what you can do? Let’s find some experts in this area and see what they say? Makes sense, and it’s not exactly new. Here’s how CPESS did in 25 years ago.

https://vimeo.com/13992931

 

George

From: ctrl-shift-bounces AT lists.mste.illinois.edu [mailto:ctrl-shift-bounces AT lists.mste.illinois.edu] On Behalf Of Charles Schultz
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2016 6:16 AM
To: ctrl-shift AT lists.mste.illinois.edu
Subject: [Ctrl-Shift] The awesome dynamic nature of education

 

Good morning, Shifters!

 

I had a chance to catch up with my brother this weekend after he attended the NAEA National Convention ("the world's largest art education convention") in Chicago, and I was pleasantly shocked to learn about many of the sessions he attended that have a lot of overlap with things we discuss here.

 

For instance, instead of a strict disciplinary approach to assessment, there was an emphasis on a more organic approach through portfolio-based assessment, which my brother says he experimented with this past semester and found to be very helpful. He also attended a session that gave him more ideas of what a "teacher as a facilitator" looks like (ties into organic assessments), and another on allowing more students a greater degree of agency especially in regards to choosing their own projects and learning paths. We even talked about the possibility of online digital badges and how that can augment simple certificates, especially in regards to art-based online portfolios. To me it seems all of these efforts are aimed at increasing a student's love of learning, and facilitating an environment where a student inadvertently gets hooked, via inquiry and reflection, on their passions.

 

What opened my eyes is that it seems these are natural evolutions of educational philosophy; there wasn't a big revolution, nor a big-name sponsor with deep pockets hawking a product/method, but rather normal every day people (if teachers can be described as thus *grin*) coming together to share what works best for them. And yes, this convention was focused on the arts, but I fully believe it crosses over into all other aspects of education as well.

 

Food for thought.

 

--

Charles Schultz