Objective or Subjective? That is the question.

Reflect on the idea that tests are the only objective assessments of student learning.

Are tests the only objective assessment of student learning? The answer is not an easy one to explain. I feel that tests are one of the only ways to assess student learning of specific, logical, factual content. The questions have difinitive answers that adhere to a specific and logical pattern, sequence, or fact. Tests, in that respect, offer objectivity in assessment because there exists no gray area. Unfortunately, in education, we are not always working in a black and white, hit or miss environment.

While I feel that tests may be the most objective way to assess specific learning objectives, I would also like to think that educators make their best effort to evaluate any student assessment objectively. It is our jobs as educators to be objective in our assessments, however, we must also assess the areas "in between" that are not covered by numbers, dates, times, names, terminology, etc. It is much harder to assess critical and creative thinking abilities and higher-order thinking skills. These are developed over time and are much more difficult to assess.

Accepting that we must incorporate a varying array of assessment strategies into our instruction will help to ensure that our students are learning everything they need to know in order to be successful adults. It is necessary to implement all types of assessments, the objective as well as the subjective, in order to provide all the necessary guidance for learning to our students.

The cartoon above represents an example of subjective assessment.



The video above represents a school that is working hard to incorporate authentic assessment that effectively assesses objective as well as subjective content matter.

A Tour of the Technology-Infused Classroom

Reflect on the idea of what a technology-infused classroom looks like. How do you plan to have a technology-infused classroom?
When walking through the classroom of the early 20th-Century, less than one hundred years ago, it would have looked completely different from the classroom of today. A black chalkboard may have graced the front of the room with rows of single desks filling the empty space between the walls. The only visual elements may have been included in textbooks or photographs on the wall. You might have found a standing globe or maps and diagrams plastered across the wall.

Fast-forward to present day, classrooms today have a much different appearance. In a technology-infused classroom, you might find computer workstations within the classroom that may include desktops, laptops, tablets, or mobile devices. Collaborative devices used to survey the class or communicate with students around the world may be found and used in conjunction with productivity software such as the Microsoft Office Suite or OpenOffice software. Chalkboards may be a tool of the past, with electronic white boards and SMART Boards that can perform all the functions of a chalkboard as well as numerous others. Teachers use PowerPoint to deliver lectures and presentations through permanent projector screens set up within the classroom. On the walls, there is also evidence of visual literacy, with the use of posters, graphics, and projects completed by students using specific technology software.

I plan to update my classroom and continue to strive for a technology-infused classroom for as long as I continue to teach. I am faced with the challenge of creating a technology-infused classroom for a content area which requires a great amount of physical activity, dance, which focuses a great deal on training the actual body. However, I would like to include computer workstations within my classroom to work on projects such as costume, program, ticket, and advertisement design for performing arts concerts. Also, I would like my students to work collaboratively with choreography software as well as create multimedia projects that involve dance and dance on film. There are a great deal of opportunities to incorporate technology with dance, and I plan to continue to find those opportunities as best I can.

The video below was created for a class project and posted to YouTube.com by user meade123. The video is a timeline of how classrooms have changed throughout the years in regards to technology.

Visual Literacy and the Internet in the Classroom

How can visual literacy and the use of the Internet impact the teaching and learning process in the classroom? What are some visual-thinking strategies you would like to use in your classroom? What role do you want the Internet play in your classroom?

Visual literacy in the classroom allows for students to become proficient in comprehending, understanding the meaning behind, and communicating through the use of images and multimedia. The internet is an essential resource for delivering such images and multimedia to students in the K-12 classroom. Graphics, images, photographs, and videos have become increasingly used and needed in our society. Teaching students to “read” these images and videos will allow them to develop their critical thinking abilities and make smart decisions based on visual literacy. I feel that with guided instruction, visual literacy can impart a substantial impact on the teaching and learning process in the classroom. Teachers will discover exciting and motivational ways to teach rigorous material while students feel as though they can learn and stay entertained at the same time.

There exist quite a few visual thinking strategies that I would like to use in my classroom. Charts and timelines are two great examples of visual literacy. Timelines present a fantastic strategy for aiding students in learning the chronological order of historical events and help students to piece history together and construct their knowledge of specific historical events and contents. Charts can be used to represent data for the visual learner to help make sense of lists of numbers. These strategies along with using images of dancers to display body alignment are all ways in which I would like to use visual literacy strategies in the classroom. With the internet, I am able to locate such graphics, charts, timelines, and images to use in the classroom. Students can benefit from the internet in the classroom in finding their own representations of concepts and ideas that adhere to the guidelines of visual literacy.

The video below displays a set of images creating to spark discussion in a visually-based lesson.

Teaching Strategies In The Classroom

Describe the importance of the using a variety of instructional strategies and the value they add to education of students in the 21st century. Evaluate the role technology plays in the implementation of various instructional strategies. How will this impact your teaching of students in the 21st century?

The cartoon to the right represents a feeling that many teachers harbour and think about fairly often. Learning the art of education and continuing to mold and change my views on how to deliver the best instruction often leads me back to the the thought of why adolescents are not designed to simply "do what the teacher says." Unfortunately, the task is not quite that easy. Students are complex human beings just like the adults that teach them. Therefore, implementing various instructional strategies such as drill-and-practice, presentation, problem-based learning, discussion, simulation, among others, reflects as a critical technique of any educator. Varying instructional strategies keeps students motivated and benefits different learners at different times, overall benefitting each and every learner equally.

Technology also plays a substantial role in implementing these instructional strategies for the 21st-Century learner. The students we are educating today are quite different from those of past decades, also known as digital immigrants. Today, students are digital natives and have been born into a technologically enhanced lifestyle. Instead of learning technology as adults, they have lived the technology since childhood. Technology can assist in the implementation of instructional strategies such as drill and practice through the use of educational math software that allows students to "drill" problems and see immediate results. Technology can also enhance cooperative learning and discussion through the use of collaborative learning software as well as blogs and discussion forums that encourage educational discussions.

There exist an endless number of possibilities for incorporating technology into an educator's teaching strategies. I feel that technology will allow me to enhance my teaching strategies in the content area of dance to allow for students to enhance critical thinking skills by videotaping students as they progress through learning their dance technique. The students in the video below are using drill-and-practice to enhance their tendu and pirouette skills in ballet. The video could be used as a tool for analysis and a basis for potential discussions.