Creating an assessment instrument

After designing a plan to learn about the optional topic, our next stage involves creating an assessment instrument that will target on how to effectively demonstrate the acquisition of the knowledge and skills required.

Our assignment for the day consists of:
- Create an assignment that will cover the range of topics and skills needed and that takes into account the nature of the course, incorporating into analysis, critical thinking, and specifically the evaluation of the social and ethical implications of the topic chosen.
- The assignment must involve the use of technology and/or software in some form.
- Create a detailed rubric that will serve as a reference criteria for awarding grades to the project.

Please post your assignment before the end of the lesson today.

Computers in Education

One of the areas of impact that we will be studying within the syllabus is Education.

Today we will introduce the topic and briefly discuss some of the social implications of the technological advances in Education.

The following is the list of topics for the unit as stated by IB:
• Telelearning: isolated and remote areas; use in hospitals, prisons, retirement homes
• Modification of hardware and software for special needs: voice recognition software, text-to-speech, special input and output devices, Internet resources
• Software in the classroom: science experiments, social studies modelling and simulation, instructional tools and media, computer-aided instruction, computer-aided learning
• School library systems: catalogues, security systems, online research • Hardware in the classroom: laptops, notebooks, teleconferencing
• Software in school administration: record keeping, scheduling, Intranets, public information
• Training, tutorials, simulators

Your assignment, working in groups of 3 students, this time will consist in the production of a short video based freely on one of these topics. The video should be entirely based on evidence gathered at the school, interviews and/or other filming done at school and should address the implications of the chosen topic based on research to be performed at school.

Steps:
- Supporting web based research, sequence and overall plan for the video (to be submitted at the end of today’s lesson)
- Script and plan of interviews (to be submitted by the end of Thursday, September 15th) -
- Draft of the video (Thursday, September 29th)
- Finished video (Thursday, October 6th)

Learning about Tutorials and Wizards

Our next step is to research web sites and find resources that cover the topics listed in the previous entry related to Tutorials and Wizards.

Your will work in pairs, and the assignment will entail:

- Creating a blog entry similar to the ones that I have posted in the past for other units, with an introduction and comments relative to the resources found (On Tutorials and Wizards), highlighting why you think they are relevant.
- Design an assignment that will allow students in the class to learn and deepen their understanding on the topics chosen.

You will be assessed on the relevancy and quality of the resources found, the related explanations, and the originality and usefulness of the assignment proposed.