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Re-forming Summative Assessments

Re-forming Summative Assessments: Blurring the line between learning and testing

What if we could make that timeless question ‘Will this be on the test’ irrelevant? In today’s mainstream educational system we clearly differentiate between assessment and learning. Even when it comes to assessment meant to inform learning (formative assessment) we tend to distinguish between learning and showing that we learned new content and skills. What if we could bring the two much closer… so close that you can’t distinguish one from the other? In this show we will explore research and development efforts and products that move us closer to this seamless learning environment. We will examine what impact this has on products in development today and how this might change the way you think about your offering in the future.

We will explore the following questions:

  • What does a learning environment look like where learning and assessment are seamlessly integrated?
  • What are the benefits and issues with this approach?
  • Does this require technology or are there strategies that transcend the use of technology?
  • How does this integration fit in a world of high stakes assessment?
  • How can a content developer take advantage of this strategy to improve their existing and new products?

Guests at the table:

  1. Elizabeth Greninger, Ph.D.,  Managing Associate and Teacher Quality Specialist at edCount, LLC
  2. Stuart Kahl, Founding Principal and former CEO of Measured Progress
  3. Shawn Morgan, District Data Coordinator at CNY Regional Information Center

Moving from STEM to STEAM

Where Art Thou?:
Moving from STEM to STEAM

Ed Table Talk will be broadcasting LIVE Tuesday, December 16th, 2014

STEM is all the rage and rightly so. The skills our children need to learn regardless of their profession incorporate the skills that are taught in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics classes. With the emphasis on these studies one has to wonder what has become of a well-rounded liberal arts education. Schools in many cases have squeezed out fine and performing arts in order to make time for all STEM requirements. In the last five years however, many have come to understand, that arts incorporate complimentary processes to those addressed in STEM curricula. Things have started to heat up in moving from STEM to add the arts and move to STEAM. 

In this show, we will explore how the arts are integrated into a STEM centered curriculum and provide a vision of how arts can be better integrated to provide learning opportunities for all students. 

Join Host Michael Jay and ETT Guests ponder the following:

  1. What are some examples of the process of moving from STEM to STEAM?
  2. What benefits and trade offs are made in the process of incorporating arts into a STEM curriculum?
  3. How prepared are educators to engage learners in learning activities that incorporate the arts?
  4. What can publishers and curriculum developers do to incorporate more STEM into their arts curricula and/or more arts into their STEM curricula?

Guests at the table:

1. Michelle Cheng – Professional Development Manager at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

2. Bob Barboza – Founder & CEO of Super School K12 International University

3. Daniel Barstow – Senior Science Educator at TERC


Education Research to Guide Product Development

More Than Just A Good Idea:
Education Research to Guide Product Development

Ed Table Talk will be broadcased Tuesday, November 18th, 2014

Ideas abound for new teaching methodologies, and curriculum, and each claims to
be innovative and effective. Governments throughout the world fund a wealth of
research into educational strategies and instructional design every year, yet we find
that these communities often don’t communicate well with each other. It is not
unusual for popular educational solutions to lack research into their effectiveness
and how best they can be applied. Equally unusual, many educational research
programs, in which curriculum is developed, never see the commercial light of day,
or broad distribution.

We will examine what educational research brings to improving products today and
in the future and how publishers can take advantage of research findings to improve
their offerings.

Host Michael Jay and our leading education thinkers will contemplate the following:

  1. How closely tied is today’s research programs to educational practice?
  2. Where are there challenges for the research community in working with commercial vendors?
  3. How are requirements at funding agencies changing to bring these communities closer together?
  4. How are our universities and research institutions working to accommodate the commercialization of products from their research?
  5. How can publishers reach out to the research community to improve their offerings and gain greater credibility with the educational community?

Guests at the table:

1. Jeremy Roschelle– Director, Center for Technology in Learning, SRI International

2. Chad Dorsey– President and CEO, Concord Consortium 

3. Tammy Sumner – Executive Director, Digital Learning Sciences


Standards, Standards, Everywhere

July  2014 — Standards, Standards, Everywhere: 

The Technical Side of Education Standards

When someone mentions standards in education most people assume they are referring to curriculum or instructional standard. Get ready to delve into the world of technical standards that serve as the foundation of our digital offerings. We’ll take a look at a wide variety of such standards and examine how they impact your product implementation, platform support, and business development.

For those of you who shy away from the technical, this is an opportunity to unwrap some of the jargon you hear but have been too embarrassed to ask about… xml, HTML5, APIP, Dublin Core, RDFa all sound familiar but you have no idea what they mean? Stop just nodding knowingly and learn what you need to know to engage in discussion about how to apply these standards to make the best products.

For those propeller heads out there, we have a seat at the Table for you as well. Get up to date on the latest happenings on several different standards and join the online discussion. It’s a veritable technical feast!

Knowledge is key to driving business and structuring your solutions so you can address the needs of your customers. Join host Michael Jay and guests as they explore the structure behind standards and answer questions such as:

  1. How are instructional standards continuing to evolve?
  2. What are the impacts instructional standards have on teaching and learning?
  3. What standards are used by publishers and development shops?
  4. What impact do standards have on my business?

Ed Table Talk welcomes individuals at any level of expertise. Experts and beginners alike can embrace the value of understanding more about standards, and the common misconceptions. It’s going to get technical, as Michael Jay and guests explore the deeper side to standards.

Guests at The Table:

  • Bethann Canada, Director of Educational Information Management for the Virginia Dept. of Education
  • Jim Goodell, Senior Analyst at Quality Information Partners, Inc.
  • Matt Howard, Manager of Digital Experiences Strategy at Zaner-Bloser

Listen to the show down below:


Science Education: The Next Generation

April 2014 — Science Education: The Next Generation

What does it take to implement a science standard at a national level? National scale standards in the US level have been controversial and the science standards are no different. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) have taken an inventive approach to describe and represent the inherently complex process of how we engage learners in making sense of the world around them.

Science benefits from having a degree of universality like mathematics making the content somewhat less controversial than language arts or the social sciences. However, helping educators understand what it looks like to integrate those standards into their teaching, engage their students in learning and develop understanding is no small task. The NGSS delves into the process and content of science, while incorporating other standards. How is this reflected in pre-service and in-service programs that will support educators and school administrator’s practices to embrace the intent of these standards?

What are the expectations of publishers implementing the standard? How can educators use the standard to support their teaching methods, and how should parents expect that science teaching would look different? Join Michael Jay and guests as they discuss Science Education and how it will change science education for decades to come.

Guests at The Table:

  1. Peter McLaren, Science and Technology Specialist, R.I. Department of Education
  2. Pat Shane, Ph.D., Executive Director, North Carolina Science Leadership Association (NCSLA)
  3. Ted Willard, Program Director, National Science Teaching Association (NSTA)

Resources

Handouts of NSTA products, services, and additional resources.
Link: http://ngss.nsta.org/nsta-products-and-services/#handouts

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