Dailia’s UWStout Class Blog

It’s the last day of the last week and I can honestly say I have learned a lot about assessments.  I’d never done a blog or participated in a wiki before this class.  The final project was challenging for me, but it’s allowed me to stretch and learn new things.  It’s also putting me one step closer to where I ultimately want to be – Teaching on a university level.

My classmates are all very knowledgible and willing to share their knowledge.  Everyone wants everyone to succeed.  Is that because we’re all adults?  Nope, it’s because everyone honestly cares.

I look forward to seeing my classmates in another class somewhere in the future.

This week I’ve felt like I’m drowning.  I know I’m the only one who was disappointed in the web conference.  I assumed since we were given a phone number to call in with, that was one of the ways we would be communicating with each other.  However, since the majority could use a microphone with their computers, the telephone option was dropped and the audio on the web conference was very difficult due to the echos we experienced when almost everyone talked.  It was very difficult for me to follow the conversation.  My computer also froze up during the middle of the presentation and I had to log in again after rebooting my computer.  Everyone assured me I didn’t miss any of the key points, but it was very frustrating for me.

I’ve also come up against a mental wall this week as I try to get my head around this final project.  This is so very different from the way we develop training modules, but I know if I’m going to get to my final goal of teaching at the university level, primarily online, I have to master this difference.  I still feel lost, but I’m not even sure what questions I need to ask.  Hopefully, as I continue to work through this project one task at a time, it will become clearer to me.  At any rate, I’m going to give it my best shot.

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Wow! Is Week 5 gone already? Time is flying by.

This week we primarily focused on using Bloom’s Taxonomy of Assessment on a potential journalism class. I understood it much better after I looked at the revised/shorter version, than the long/original one. I like to see a summary, or condensed version first, so I get a better idea of what to look for in the longer version. Back in my f2f days as a student, I would often listen to the lecture, take notes, and then go back and read the assignment. It’s backwards to some people, and difinitely doesn’t work in those classes where the instructor insisted on having a short quiz at the start of every class.

As I was reading this week, the assessment taxonomy made me think of a conversation I had with a history professor I was privledged to have taken two classes under — 15 years apart. The first class was an American History class where we mostly memorized names, dates, etc, and spit them back out on a test. The second class was a World History class. In this class we had to read about an important person in the past and write a paper every week. One I remember in particular was comparing Saddam Hussien to Adolph Hitler.

The professor and I were talking about the two completely different styles of teaching and how much more I got out of the later class than the first. Of course being older has something to do with it, but the professor said something I will never forget. He said, “Back when you took American History I was convinced that was the way to teach it because that’s the way it had always been taught. Now, I know you can always look up names, dates, and places; but being able to apply what you’ve learned is so much more important.” That’s pretty much sums up, to me, what this week’s class was about.

Here’s the link to the review of Casey’s journalism class using Bloom’s Taxonomy of Assessment

http://sites.google.com/site/dailiaadamsportfolio/assessments-class-documents/bloom-s-taxonomy-of-assessment/Assessment_taxonomy_Casey.doc?attredirects=0

It’s been an extremely busy week for me this week.  I’ve been on vacation from work, but I’ve had grandkids underfoot almost every day (and most nights).  Trying to squeeze in class time between entertaining them has been quite challenging.  Now I remember why I postponed my education while my own kids were small.

However, this week in class we learned about two new assessment techniques; jigsaw and concept mapping.  I’ve been doing jigsaw for years and just never called it that.  Every group project I ever did while obtaining my MBA from the University of Phoenix was done that way.  It works very well on the whole.  Basically jigsaw is just dividing up the sections and tasks of a project, a paper in this case, among the team members.  Then every one goes about gathering the information for their section and brings it back to the group.  From there it’s combined, given an intro and conclusion, edited, and submitted.  Pretty simple stuff that can occasionally go hay wire.  Much simpler to grasp than concept mapping.

When I read the case study, my first thought was, “Oh no, this is going to be complicated.”.  Then as I started to work with it, I realized it was very similar to computer programming flow charts and some other tools I’ve used in the past.  If there were a simpler case study to use in class I think the idea would come across a lot faster to the students.  It’s very simply a visual outline.  It can be as simple or as detailed as it needs to be.

And how could I forget about the coming e-storm.  Coming is a misnomer now, but it was written in 2005.  Once a year the Marketing e-team (of which I am a part) get’s together to assess where we want to be in the coming year, what technology we’re going to add or delete, software upgrades, etc.  The e-storm is all around us everyday.  It seems that every time I open my e-mail at work I’m being requested to take a look at this software, look at a new piece of equipment, etc.  And all of this is just from my end!!. 

The users are more confused and just as bombarded.  Part of my job is to try to make the technology hide in the background so it doesn’t interfer with the training modules they are taking. 

Well, now it’s on to week 4 and the team project.  The half way point is in sight!!

Another week is coming to a close in the Assessments class. 

This week was another new adventure in learning how to set up and use a blog.  Like wiki’s it was another new experience for me.  Of course I’ve read blogs before, but I just never took the time to create one for myself.  As a whole I like them.  I do have one sticking point about blogs and maybe I’ll eventually find a way around it.

That one thing is in posting on a page.  It’s reverse chronological order.  I can see where that’s very helpful for someone who has subscribed to the blog for a very long time – they only have to go to a page to see the latest post.  The problem is for someone who hasn’t always subscribed.  As they read through the blog, especially if they aren’t familar with blogging, they will read a solution to a problem, or a question to an answer before they know what the problem or question is.  It makes me think of the Jeopardy game in this respect.

I’m sure I’ll either eventually adjust or figure out a way to make it easier for both the existing subscriber’s and the newbies to find the information easier.