Organised (As Usual)
Weeks and weeks beyond the starting date, I'm finally finding time to get over this "hurdle".
What do I think assessment is?
I've had a fair bit of time to think about this now and to discover what other people think but its still not a simple question. Assessment is all sorts of different things (a contested idea). It is concieved in different ways by different people. There is official policy that tells us what it must be. And then there are teachers who enact assessment in real life. Assessment is an essential part of communication, we cannot avoid being immersed in feedback that tells us how particular interactions are going. But it seems that everyone wants grading, relative assessments that compare one student to another. For me assessment of students should always be about learning but it seems all to often (as I see it) to be about competition. Some may think that this is necessary (employers and governments and worried parents). We need to know how good Sally is when compared to John or how will we ever know who to employ (exploit), who to reawrd. I think this misses the point. Sally (or John) may only be 'good' within the artificial system that graded assessment of academic performance must be.
Of course such grading is a normal part of social interaction. Whether we like it or not we all live on a scale of status and influence and power (amongst many other things) that is very finely nuanced (we've evolved to make it so). I suggest that this natural social grading (while its asumptions and prejudices must constantly be challenged) cannot be replaced (very effectively) by one made of tests and numbers. More on this (I'm sure) in future.
SYN FM. The workshop there was good. Tonnes of ideas. There are old, underfunded, unused community transmitters all over the place. I love the idea of student run radio in some country town. Power to the people.
'Pedagogy of Multiliteracies'- I guess we had to get into it eventually. Could we construct a phrase more likely to leave non professionals cold.
For me it means attempting to make the learning environments in which we work ones in which meaning is recognised to live in modes of communication other than those characterised by a verbal/liguistic interaction. I say 'live' because this is what I mean, living meaning, the meanings that people make, not the ones that words constrain. I'm thinking about scales of constraint and ambiguity.
Lastly (at the moment): Cyborgs
The cyborg in this world is a connection machine. Carbon networks and silicon networks, at the moment there are massive differences but are they inherent or contingent. The cyborg's mind expands to encompass the networks in which it is embedded and to intersect with the other minds embedded in those same networks. Should we draw a circle around our skulls and attempt to wall the organic away from the cybernetic or should we embrace the electrodes and accept a new idea of mind. Who can telll what the future will hold, but that our minds will remain inviolable is unlikely. Perhaps the electrodes will be real but at the moment they are just a methaphor for letting the connections in.
What do I think assessment is?
I've had a fair bit of time to think about this now and to discover what other people think but its still not a simple question. Assessment is all sorts of different things (a contested idea). It is concieved in different ways by different people. There is official policy that tells us what it must be. And then there are teachers who enact assessment in real life. Assessment is an essential part of communication, we cannot avoid being immersed in feedback that tells us how particular interactions are going. But it seems that everyone wants grading, relative assessments that compare one student to another. For me assessment of students should always be about learning but it seems all to often (as I see it) to be about competition. Some may think that this is necessary (employers and governments and worried parents). We need to know how good Sally is when compared to John or how will we ever know who to employ (exploit), who to reawrd. I think this misses the point. Sally (or John) may only be 'good' within the artificial system that graded assessment of academic performance must be.
Of course such grading is a normal part of social interaction. Whether we like it or not we all live on a scale of status and influence and power (amongst many other things) that is very finely nuanced (we've evolved to make it so). I suggest that this natural social grading (while its asumptions and prejudices must constantly be challenged) cannot be replaced (very effectively) by one made of tests and numbers. More on this (I'm sure) in future.
SYN FM. The workshop there was good. Tonnes of ideas. There are old, underfunded, unused community transmitters all over the place. I love the idea of student run radio in some country town. Power to the people.
'Pedagogy of Multiliteracies'- I guess we had to get into it eventually. Could we construct a phrase more likely to leave non professionals cold.
For me it means attempting to make the learning environments in which we work ones in which meaning is recognised to live in modes of communication other than those characterised by a verbal/liguistic interaction. I say 'live' because this is what I mean, living meaning, the meanings that people make, not the ones that words constrain. I'm thinking about scales of constraint and ambiguity.
Lastly (at the moment): Cyborgs
The cyborg in this world is a connection machine. Carbon networks and silicon networks, at the moment there are massive differences but are they inherent or contingent. The cyborg's mind expands to encompass the networks in which it is embedded and to intersect with the other minds embedded in those same networks. Should we draw a circle around our skulls and attempt to wall the organic away from the cybernetic or should we embrace the electrodes and accept a new idea of mind. Who can telll what the future will hold, but that our minds will remain inviolable is unlikely. Perhaps the electrodes will be real but at the moment they are just a methaphor for letting the connections in.
posted by Chris at 5:41 PM
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