I see the benefit to this, unfortunately, articles like this set the bar pret...

Jefferey Cave - 2018-08-24 08:05:44-0400 - Updated: 2018-08-24 09:51:05-0400

I see the benefit to this, unfortunately, articles like this set the bar pretty high.

From my (very inexperienced) perspective, there is no question that educators want to create an environment like this, and that thier institutions want an environment like this; but nobody knows how to do it.

From my (software guy) perspective, Data Analysis and metrics gathering are the key to identifying students that need more help: students that are easily meeting objectives, don't need my attention.

Unfortunately, there are no tools in place to aid with this. Don't get me wrong, there are a thousand software vendors, offering a thousand solutions, but the processes behind those solutions are poorly understood, resulting in difficult to use systems, with meaningless reporting.

My take has been to write my own software solutions that fill the gaps, but that suffers from issues as well:

* poor integration with institutionally mandated tools (we don't have an API license)
* automated assessments require slowly changing curriculum (you have to be able to reuse the assessments, and get many people to agree to use them)
* perception that software removes the "personal touch" (people confuse measures with decisions)

I suppose my point is that after reading an article like this, be careful in your thinking. Doing something like this is hard, and there are a lot of barriers to making it a reality.

Kudos to Dr. Muhs for pulling it off.

Want to help students graduate? Make it personal

Walter Hawn - 2018-08-24 12:23:33-0400 - Updated: 2018-08-24 12:30:47-0400

The flaw is in your belief that "students that are easily meeting objectives, don't need my attention." When that rubric is applied, you will find that capable students become incapable in order to merit attention. Kids need attention and will go to any lengths to get it.

That rubric is applied, albeit unconsciously in many cases, in the day-to-day functions of most schools. Attention is given to those who aren't keeping up, and those at the median and above are left to flounder.

Good teachers will tell you that is wrong, wrong, wrong, but the system requires that they behave in that way.

Those students at the very top, perhaps the 90th percentile and above, usually will do okay and may even flourish, but even they suffer from attention deprivation.

Jefferey Cave - 2018-08-24 15:29:04-0400 - Updated: 2018-08-24 16:05:53-0400

That's fair (and an error in thinking I was cognizant of, and not meaning to fall into).

I think I was getting more at the aspect of identifying successes and failures, in teaching. If everyone is getting a concept, we can move on. If everyone is not getting it, we should stop. If some people are getting it, and others not .... things start to get a little fuzzier. Having data to assess what is going on is useful.

Also, I think its less relevant at the post-secondary level. We have 4 hours a week with students, how do we optimize?

Considerations:
1. More challenges for 90th percentile students? (Not usually a problem)
2. Release them to their night job? the pub? their kids?

Walter Hawn - 2018-08-24 16:24:01-0400

At post-secondary, my thought is that, if they flunk out, they flunk out. Too many people are going to college, easily half of whom should never be there in the first place. Many of those would be much better served at a trade-school or, even better, OJT.

Jefferey Cave - 2018-08-24 16:36:38-0400 - Updated: 2018-08-24 16:37:06-0400

I'm including trade-school in post-secondary: (aka. adult education, post-high-school).

(probably an incorrect usage of the term..but whatever)

Walter Hawn - 2018-08-24 16:53:10-0400

That does make a difference, though, making the concept much more broad than what I had in mind. My HS teacher daughter tells me that one of the problems she sees is that mandated testing is lessening the amount of student data a teacher has to work with. Informal Friday quizzes and the like are good diagnostic tools, but the testing cuts into class time so badly that many times a teacher has to forgo them in order to cover the curriculum on time.

Jefferey Cave - 2018-08-24 18:05:18-0400

I did recently attend a class on that demonstrated integrating informal assessments into the learn process (which works). Unfortunately, the official record keeping systems don't handle informal assessments easily, and definitely don't report well; which brings me back around to my data collection and aggregation issues.