Glogowski's Blog Assessment Findings

Konrad Glogowski did research on 21st C assessment on blogging communities and literacy. Students participated by completing a variety of writing tasks but he soon started to question his own role as a teacher/researcher in the blog process. He said he didn't want to just assign work or evaluate the work and felt his role should consist of something more. During this process, he "developed an assessment strategy" that was more than just a mark! The strategy took into consideration many things such as "accounting for the complexity of student interactions online and recognizing the process as much as the final product."
"http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/2009/02/20/thoughts-on-assessment/

Glogowski discovered that his students helped him create an effective assessment tool. In his reflections and by observing the students' interactions with each other he saw the following: Students own blog participation in their written assignments, brainstorming,feedback, engagement in discussions,personal reflections about the choices of work they committed themselves to, and questions and comments they asked and gave to each other.

He realized the students were asking each other rather than their teacher for support because he wasn't writing, 'contributing or participating' in the assignments or an active member in their 'community of writers'. The students wanted ideas to help make their writing better. He realized upon reflection that they didn't yet want a grade which they perceived his only role as being.

Glogowski says that correcting and marking does not 'engage students' in their work and yet that has been the role of most teachers' level of teaching in a student's life. "This kind of practice does not engage our students in those rich interactive processes of talking about their work and their ideas."

K.Glogowski saw himself and most teachers as only being present and confident for the 'beginning and ending' of the student's participation in his class. He introduced the assignment and waited for the finished product. He completely was absent and unsure about his role from the 'rich middle'part of the student's academic practices: 'Online conversations, blogging,brainstorming, giving and receiving feedback, and engaging them in conversations.'

The most obvious thing for Glogowski to do was to engage, get involved, participate in these vital student discussions about their work beginning with the brainstorming of ideas through the process of creativity and "complex and interactive process of knowledge building", as well as making and taking the opportunity to learn more about exactly who he was teaching and how they perceived themselves to be as "students and as individuals."

The message is that teachers need to expand their focus from presenting content and assessment to that of becoming an active and willing participant in the learning process- finding out how students learn, engage in the process of learning and initiating "rich interactions" to help support them in their discoveries as students and as people.
Collaboration and co assessment between students and teacher needs to occur to remove the traditional "hierarchical relationship that exists between teacher and learner."
The 'process of learning and assessment' is reciprocal when a teacher enters the students' domain intending to support and engage rather than solely evaluate or judge. The students are also able to voice their opinions and questions about their ideas without fear of being graded solely on the finished product. The process of writing and the conversations held about writing becomes an integral part of the assessment.

The best part of the blog process in this class has been listening to and reading the others' opinions and questions. I have heard others agree that they have never read so much as they have in the last two months and this has led to an awareness and improved practice in the are of Web 2.0 tools. More than a few of us have said it would be great if we all had more time to do more reading, conversing, and writing.Wow! What great qualities for any student to have!!

My own students like submitting ideas for checklists they can follow during a unit study. If they can contribute they can most likely meet that criteria with one or two more in tow. When I hear conversations between two students that are genuine and happen to be about the topic of study without any prompt from me, I feel good. I also feel like they have assumed responsibility for their own enquiries and are searching out a solution or assistance with a collaborator.