Week 4 group get together

My group met on Tuesday this week instead of Monday. I went away for a few days and asked if we could meet on Tuesday and we all agreed on a time and met! It went very smooth with no problems at all.

We began the session discussing the WebQuest assignment. My group gave our PowerPoint slides to Jen and she submitted them to the class wiki website. Jen graciously did this and did a wonderful job! After WebQuest questions were cleared up, we discussed some of the class videos and readings we had to do for class. We briefly talked about the video where a smartboard was created by a WII controller. I thought that was amazing. I can see something like the WII becoming means of educational use in the future. The topic of how tests will be given 10 years down the road was also discussed. Some thought that a classroom may be a thing of the past or that coming to a class may be limited to only a few days a week. Lessons and discussions would be given via the Internet. How realistic is this? I do not know, but many things out there about technology seem to boggle my mind everyday so I believe anything is possible.

Standardized tests and authentic/performance based assessment was also talked about. We all agreed that authentic/performance based tests are better for students because the tests allow to measure student ability rather than measuring how well one takes tests. We all believe too many standardized tests are given, rather too many overall tests are given. An article talked about how many tests a students takes in a given school year and the number was a couple hundred! I mean is that fair? Are we putting too much stress on these students? I believe we are, and we all came to the consensus that performance based tests are more student friendly and a bit fun.

We also talked about the opportunities for professional development for teachers. The 21st century is a computer savvy one, and teachers need to know the proper usage of computers and how to successfully incorporate it into a daily classroom. There are tons of teachers, many of them in my district, that do not utilize computers or any kind of technology for that matter in the classroom at all. There are 8 veteran teachers in my middle school district, who do not use computers, smartboards, or anything educational for student use. It is sad because I know if these teachers went to mandatory professional development seminars on technology use in a classroom, that would chance in a heartbeat.

The last thing we discussed was the final project. We all seemed a bit confused and nervous about this assignment. Some people, one being myself, did not know the criteria of what needs to be included and discussed in it. However, another group member did. She told us where to go to find the information, and with that cleared up, I now have a better understanding of what is expected from me. Again, this is why group meetings are so wonderful. If one person has a problem or question about an assignment, most likely somebody in this group will know the answer and help out the other group members. We are a wonderful, hardworking team, and each week it shows more and more!