Rethinking 8

"How can schools cope with the new technologies?"

I try to relate this title with the chapter content.  Later on page 119, the authors say, "
Commercial video games can also be adapted to meet content standards in schools."

I wonder whether the authors are really writing about the problem of students playing games all the time rather than using the technology to do academic things.  Of course games can be adapted just like scratch can be.  Teachers need to keep students busy doing fun things that they can be successful doing.  But, who will modify the games?  Are you going to pay the owners to do that?  You aren't going to do it.  Why didn't the authors post an online portion of the book and demonstrate some of their ideas?  It's easy to do, I think.  Maybe it's because the authors are college professors like myself who don't know how to teach?  Or, what?  Well, I can see War Games being used to demonstrate historical battles.  And, I can see students simulating alternatives like, "What if General Custer had never gone to subdue the Sioux?  Would we still have casinos in Wisconsin?"  Maybe students could use games to operate on dead bodies anmd create Frankenstein monsters.  Or, what if students could modify the actions of Romeo and Juliet?  That reminds me that I accidentally went to a movie that I thought was Romeo and Juliet but turned out to be "The Secret Sex Lives of Romeo and Juliet".  It turned out to be a comedy.  I didn't stay long because I was afraid it was something more.  Maybe it was.  I'll never know.  If there is too much content in these so called games, will students still have fun playing them?

"Performance-Based Assessment"  Page 113

During this year I have become increasingly interested in the idea of performance based assessments.  Show me what you can do?  During the interview last week, the new auto shop teacher who will soon start at Adams-Friendship was taken into the auto shop by the vice principal (former principal) and asked to show (proove) that he knew how to use the equipment and machines there.  I thought that the vice principal was quite wise for doing that. 

If students can show me that they can do something and I can record video of their performances, why do I need to give them written tests?  This seems so very logical.  I feel that this idea has to be considered any time I develop an assessment.  Can they find the information?  Can a student show me how to reeconstruct a skeleton?  Can a student construct a concept map of the biosphere?  Can a student construct a food web of plants and animals that are sympatric on the shortgrass prairie in eastern Colorado?  Can a student cut down a tree and make it fall on a specific target?  Can forestry students identify the types of wood in a series of samples.  Can forestry students measure the volume of wood in a stand of trees?  Can a forestry student scale (measure it and esrtimate the board feet of lumber it has) an individual tree?  Sometimes the score would be pass/fail.  They can do it, or not.  When they can perform enough specific tasks, they pass because they are qualified for the job.  I like the idea.  Gee, it sounds like vocational education. 


"Students would create a portfolio of credentials for purposes of employment or college applications.......................Developing a performance-based certification system would also force educators to be more careful about defining what they expect students to know and to do." Page 116

Didn't I just say this?  Why should it take a threat from technology to make schools do this?  Shouldn't schools be doing this regardless of technology?  Is the problem expressed in the saying, "Those who can do; those who can't teach"?  Is it any wonder that Neil Simon would write lyrics like, "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school.........."?    

"....., its a wonder I can think at all!"