Andrea's Annotations

2011 Highlights

2011-12-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

December 2011
I hope this letter finds you warm and in good health.
January sent Greg back to UW LaCrosse for a second semester and Sammi finishing her junior year at Spooner High School. It’s usually a pretty quiet month around our house, except that this year there was a little hubbub about the Superbowl.

We finished out the rest of the winter with a regular routine, then March Madness sets in and things start to get crazy. Sammi was in the spring play, Becoming Juliet.

In track, she almost qualified for regionals in the high jump and their relay team took second at the conference meet.

She did well at the solo ensemble competition, was on prom court,

was inducted into the National Honor Society and elected Secretary,

was elected Student Council President for their senior year, and Senior Class Vice President.

The high school baseball team that Dan helps coach made it all the way to the Championship game at the state tournament, so we all made the trip to Appleton to cheer them on.

Spring was polished off with Sammi’s dance recital.

Summer was pretty low key this year. Greg came home and worked full time at the grocery store and part time at Pair ‘O Lakes restaurant and played on a couple of baseball teams. He and a buddy had coached a 7th grade team in LaCrosse, so he had been playing a little,

but took one between the eyes at one of the first practices and ended up with two black eyes.

Sammi worked part time at both Pair ‘O Lakes and Victory Fireworks and drove down to Rice Lake two mornings a week to take a college algebra course at UW Barron County. Dan painted a few houses and took a couple of motorcycle trips with friends. Dan and I took a ride up in the UP of Michigan for a few days. It was hot – until you got near Lake Superior.

There were some pretty big changes in the fall. The biggest was the arrival of our foreign exchange student from Belgium, Malvine. It’s been interesting learning about the similarities and differences between our cultures.

Greg transferred to the University of Minnesota – Duluth. He is still majoring in computer science, but now has season tickets to the Bulldog hockey games, a season pass at Spirit Mountain, a Frisbee golf course out his back door, and has been active in Campus Crusade for Christ.

Sammi’s senior year is in full swing. She was on the volleyball team,

the student director for the senior class play, The Teahouse of the August Moon,

was the Master of Ceremonies at the annual Veteran's Day ceremony

and is applying to colleges and trying to figure out what she wants to do next year.

During Thanksgiving break, Sammi, Malvine and I took a trip to Orlando. We walked in the waves of the Atlantic,

spent a day hitting the highlights of Disney

and another day at Sea World.

I continue to work at the technical college and am plugging away one online course a semester toward my Ed.S. in Career and Technical Education from UW Stout. Hopefully, next year's Christmas message will include a picture of me in a cap and gown!

Wishing you a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy 2012.

Assessment of or for Learning

2010-04-08T12:08:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for online resources on the topic of using assessment to improve student learning. So far, I've found two that I really like.

The first one is a Pearson Issue Paper titled Using Assessments to Improve Learning and Student Progress. This paper makes the distinction between assessment for learning (formative) and assessment of learning (summative) and the reasons both are needed to improve student learning and the organizations that support them.

The second is titled Using Assessment to Improve Instruction from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and outlines an eight-step process for data analysis and action. They promote their book outlining the steps, which I might just have to get a copy of.

Any other sites you know about on this topic?

The Whirlwind Has Quieted

2010-04-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

The last several weeks have been exciting and full. My mantra, "Who wants a boring life, anyway?!" was put to the test.

Besides my regular job and facilitating two online courses and taking another, we had many extra social events: the end of my son's hockey season for which I volunteered to put together the team yearbook, and his Eagle Scout ceremony and reception. Then to round out the month, both kids were in the musical Oklahoma with seven performances in two weekends (I attended five - it was sooo good!).

Now the online courses are finished and the track and baseball seasons are just beginning. And graduation will be here before you know it!

Making Connections

2010-03-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

Though it might drive me to my grave early, there have been some advantages to teaching two different certification courses and completing the practicum of my eLearning for Educators Certificate simultaneously. The biggest advantage is seeing the connections. Like most professions, I suppose, teaching is a science as well as an art. There are some strategies that have substantial research to back them up, but when it comes to the moment, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What works for one teacher, one learner, and one piece of content has so many variables to consider. As educators, it's our job to know about as many of the variables as possible, know ourselves, know our learners, know our content, and then use our expertise in these things we know to create the most beneficial learning experience for the moment.

Good Stories

2010-02-16T21:53:00.000-08:00

What was your best learning experience? What was your worst? What learning theories are reflected in your classroom?

These questions were the prompts for some good story telling this week. We realized that one of the best factors for best learning experiences is teachers who are passionate about their topics and the success of their students. We also realized that how we teach is dependent on who and what we teach. Or maybe we're drawn to who and what we teach because of how we like to teach and feel most effective?

The Love of Chaos

2010-02-08T12:56:00.000-08:00

The first week of certification courses I am facilitating is now complete. I'm facilitating #50 Curriculum and Course Construction and #53 Educational Psychology. The first week is always a little hectic getting the technology and expectations figured out. Both courses have the benefit of being filled with learners with a wide variety of educational and experiential backgrounds. Sometimes people who might be seen as having the least amount of experience in a given topic are the ones who have the ability to see things the oldtimers overlook - similar to not being the best person to proofread your own paper. On the other hand, those who have been around teaching and learning for awhile have great stories to illustrate points. The mix creates a rich learning environment.

I'm also using the Curriculum and Course Construction course as my practicum for the E-Learning for Educators graduate certificate from UW-Stout. It's interesting being a facilitator and learner at the same time. Though I do just as much learning as a facilitator and facilitating as a learner - there's something in that thought...

These facilitating and learning experiences are enjoyable and enlightening. But note to self for next year - running the courses sequentially rather than concurrently might be better for everyone involved. I love chaos. I must; whenever I put one thing to rest I seem to replace it with at least one new thing. (My husband is a bit apprehensive about what will replace our children leaving the nest.) From Margaret J. Wheatley's book Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World (1999), "But the greatest challenge for me lies not in adopting any one new method, but in learning generally to live in a process world. It's a completely new way to be. Life demands that I participate with things as they unfold, to honor the mystery of it, and to see what emerges...It's not easy to give up the role of master creator and move into the dance of life" (153-154). My goal: Let go, embrace the chaos, dance.

Branching Out

2010-02-01T09:44:00.000-08:00

I've just expanded the purpose of my blog to reflect on the teaching and learning going on in the two courses I'm facilitating over the next two months. The courses are Curriculum and Course Construction and Educational Psychology; both are certification courses for technical college instructors. It looks like there are some dynamic individuals with diverse backgrounds that will lead to some interesting discussions. I'm looking forward to it!

Week 8 Relfections

2009-11-15T13:50:00.001-08:00

The final week of the course has ended. If you haven't had the experience of online interaction, you might not believe it when I say I will miss the other students in the course. I do look forward to logging in to the discussion board to see what others thought about the readings, projects created, feedback on my thoughts and projects. The varied backgrounds of the other students provides multiple viewpoints.

This week we finalized our final projects and read a couple of articles on using discussion boards. One article titled, Benefits of An Online Discussion List in A Traditional Distance Education Course, by Bradshaw and Hinton (2004) made a couple of points that interested me. One is the idea of exposure versus transformation in learning situations. A second is "if the course content is meaningful within the student's particular social context and their cultural and value system, learning is more likely to occur."

Many years ago I taught grammar and punctuation to middle school students and adult learners. Students are exposed to grammar and punctuation starting in first grade, though for many the concepts never seem to click and stick - no transformation occurs. In my mind, the secret lays somewhere in the second concept listed above. There lacks meaning in their social context, culture, and/or value system. The issue is not exclusive to English. When I figure out how to redesign learning systems to address this, I'm sure you'll hear about it.

My classmates have developed interesting projects for this course. I hope they continue to update their blogs as they implement them. I would like to see their results.

Week 7 Reflections

2009-11-08T14:17:00.000-08:00

Developing the draft of our final project this week was a perfect example of an assessment that can be used in an online course that fosters high-level critical thinking skills and creativity. It would be nearly impossible for a student to find anything that could be plagiarized.

I asked a question on the course discussion board about utilizing information from the midterm assessments completed by our classmates. This was not done to be a smarty-pants; I could see a reasonable argument for either side. The "do your own work" side keeps participants from selecting assessments already completed to save themselves some work - even if they may not be the most appropriate assessments for their course. Also, by doing your own research on the selected assessment tools, you may find some information or features that were not uncovered in the work done by your classmate.

The argument for the "collaborative" side is that sharing work already completed reduces the duplication of effort. Teachers are notorious for working in solitude and often spend hours redeveloping work that has already been done by others. Starting with work that has already been completed frees time for adapting for the new learning experience and expanding on the work that has already been started. As long as permission is asked and credit is given, using and expanding on the work of others is a reasonable, and even desirable, task.

It will be interesting to see the many approaches to this final project by my classmates. I'm sure each will have a component or strategy that will spark an idea for me.

Final Project Draft

2009-11-07T21:18:00.000-08:00

The final project for Assessment in E-Learning is an in-depth analysis of how four assessment tools will be implemented in our online course. My final project draft is posted on my Google electronic porfolio as "Andrea's Final Project." All questions, comments, and revision suggestions are welcome.

Week 6 Reflections

2009-10-31T10:50:00.000-07:00

This week's focus topics were cybercoaching, constructivism, and analyzing different course plans to clarify and identify components of effective learning.

As I was reading the article, "Cybercoaching: Rubrics, Metacognition, and Feedback, Oh My!" by Naomi Jeffrey Petersen, I studied the diagram of Chang and Petersen's Harmonic Feedback Loop with interest. In that diagram I could connect the process we use at WITC to develop and implement curriculum. The course design and stated objectives of the diagram parallel with our course outcome summaries and the teaching, learning, and assessment feedback loop represents what happens in the learning experiences designed by the instructors.

The Cybercoaching article contained many additional applications for implementing sound pedagogical practices online including personal feedback directly related to improving performance on the designated outcomes and using rubrics to facilitate learner independence and self evaluation. In my upcoming course, I want to pay particular attention to the coaching techniques regarding feedback to learners.

We also developed a pre-course survey to send to learners to gather information we can use to assess skills and knowledge learners have coming into the course. My survey focuses on technology and background in facilitating learning.

The final project draft is due next week. I want to get my learning objectives out on the practice post for feedback since they are in a format that is different than I'm used to. Looking at the objectives from a different perspective provides an opportunity to further clarify them - always a good practice.

Week 5 Reflections

2009-10-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

The discussion board was on Bloom's Taxonomy was very interesting this week. Being able to interpret the level of an activity or assessment from a few sentences is not an easy task. At what age are learners able to work at the critical thinking levels? Are there different levels of critical thinking for different age groups?
I was recently introduced to a twist in Bloom's Taxonomy referred to as EASy - Evaluate, Analyze, and Synthesize - putting creating something new as the highest level of critical thinking. An article in APA Online titled Using the new Bloom's Taxonomy to Design Meaningful Learning Assessments explains the thinking that supports the shift.

The site on plagiarism was very informative. Though, as instructors if we move toward more authentic assessments that incorporate applied and personal experiences, the ability to plagiarize significantly decreases.

The activity of just considering how an activity meets or doesn't meet certain criteria for higher levels of a taxonomy is significant for our own practice. Are we asking learners to really dig into topics and discover, make connections, create something new? Then we will have created learning experiences that can't be copied from a book or the web, can't be memorized and forgotten.

Bloom's Taxonomy Assessment

2009-10-26T18:40:00.000-07:00

One of this week's assignments was to review a unit and categorize the activities according to the level of Bloom's Taxonomy we thought it represented.

This task proved to be thought provoking and challenging. Assumptions had to be made about the details of the activities to categorize them. Not one student's taxonomy table was the same as another - some had similarities, but all had differences. This discussion board generated quite a bit of discussion.

Link to my taxonomy table.

Week 4 Reflections

2009-10-21T11:14:00.000-07:00

This week seemed a little odd. Because our team finished our project early, it almost felt like we had the week off. We had a great team that rolled with the contributions of each other - no duplicated efforts, strong focus, and a common vision of the goal. Our product, the toolbox posted below, is concise and informative. When you can get past the idea that testing is the ultimate assessment tool, you are presented with a wide variety of possibilities that are more robust and inform you of students' skills and knowledge in a much deeper way than tests ever could.

Assessment Toolbox

2009-10-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Our midterm assignment was a collaborative group project to develop an assessment toolbox. Our group's toolbox is posted on my ePortfolio Assessment in E-Learning page.

Our toolbox came together smoothly, with each member taking on tasks and responsibilities as they presented themselves. Our group - Matt, Jennie, Laurie, and I - worked well together by building on each other's work and completing our individual tasks in an efficient and timely manner.

Week 3 Reflections

2009-10-10T19:00:00.000-07:00

Curtis Bonk's article, "The Perfect E-Storm: emerging technology, enormous learner demand, enhanced pedagogy, and erased budgets" (2004) published by The Observatory on Higher Education generated quite a bit of discussion this week. The overall response to Bonk's list of 30 emerging technologies is a feeling of never being able to keep up. I guess you just start with something you think will help your students learn the content and see how it works. It could be easy to get caught up in the cool tools.

The electronic concept maps is one tool I can see a use for in my work. I've used concept mapping when I work with instructors to develop a new course using big paper and colored markers. Now I will have the option to use this strategy electronically. No more toting big rolls of paper around! I happened upon a list of 50 Uses for Inspiration on UW Stout's website. It might give a couple more ideas on how to use this tool.

The jigsaw midterm project should result in a useful list of tools for online teaching and learning. My teammates are go getters and I'm looking forward to working with them.

Concept Maps

2009-10-09T11:32:00.000-07:00

This week's assignment was to write 2-5 learning objectives and incorporate them into a concept map for an online course. Putting the competencies in a concept map format provides a "big picture" image of the course and its components and their relationships.

I used Inspiration to develop my concept map for the course I teach online, Curriculum and Course Construction, a Wisconsin Technical College certification course. This format follows the Worldwide Instructional Design Software, WIDS, model utilized by the Wisconsin Technical College System. The learning objectives (called competencies in the WIDS model) I mapped include the following:

1. Examine performance based learning course design.
2. Develop competencies that describe intended learning outcomes.
3. Develop performance standards (criteria and conditions) for each competency.
4. Write learning objectives for your competencies.

As an assessment tool, having learners create concept maps can help instructors and learners determine whether they have captured the major points of a learning experience and detemine the relationships among them. It would be interesting to see the similarities and differences in individual concept maps at the end of a learning experience. What are students taking away from the experience?

Week 2 Reflections

2009-10-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

Creating this blog was a new endeavor for me. Looking each other's blogs created a sense of community for me - seeing the choices made shows a little more of our personalities, incorporating the good ideas you see in other blogs into your own... The trick, as mentioned in the discussion board, will be to somehow manage viewing the blogs of others. Having the wiki with everyone's blog link is a handy tool.

There were so many interesting topics in the discussion board this week regarding discussion board/blog posts: assessment parameters, timelines, orientation to posting, benefits and challenges. I am going to storyboard a learning object for Wisc-Online about creating robust discussion posts and responses. Any ideas about what should be included would be welcomed.

Welcome to my blog!

2009-09-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

This blog has been started as an assignment for my Assessment in E-Learning course. Assessment is the backbone of education - it's where learning starts and ends and starts again. I'm looking forward to some quality time reflecting on it.

To begin the course, we found a partner, email interviewed each other and posted our introductions to the rest of the class. Here is the introduction of me posted by my partner, Suzan VanBeaver:

I am pleased to introduce Andrea Schullo.

Andrea has worked for the Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College (WITC) for the past 18 years where she currently works as a Curriculum Design Specialist and she also helps area high schools develop articulation agreements. She has been a Tech Prep Specialist, a Professional Development Specialist, an adjunct instructor in communications and human relations, and before life at WITC, she has had a smattering of other jobs.

Andrea has been married for 21 years and has a son and daughter, Greg and Sammi, both in high school. She spends lots of time at the kids’ activities (football, hockey, baseball, volleyball, singing, ballet, piano, and plays). Andrea has two dogs and two cats. She co-leads the high school Youth Group and she is on the figure skating board. She likes to hike, bike, ski, read, scrapbook, and work puzzles. In the future, Andrea would like to do more traveling - in the US and abroad. Whew…. Andrea notes she’s a strong J on the Meyers Briggs and a self-diagnosed recovering anal-retentive and says “I blame it all on my mother for toilet training me too young.”

Here’s something funny that happened to Andrea. The night before her daughter was born, her husband went out to put some wood in the outdoor house furnace. She heard a yell and ran down the stairs just in time to see her husband standing in the middle of the septic tank, which had collapsed around him. Warning to all septic tank owners, do not walk on top of your tank!

What is special about Andrea besides her organizational skills is that she loves to learn and people continue to entertain and fascinate her. Thoughts about online learning and teaching: Andrea has been involved in online learning for the past ten years and has a rich background in developing and teaching online courses. Andrea loves online learning because 1) the time factor - she can sit in her big comfy chair with a snack and her dogs; 2) she finds tech tools very cool; and 3) location, location, location. Andrea says online learning forces one to think about how to assess differently. She states trying to fit the old-paradigm assessment practices into new-paradigm learning venues might not be the easiest fit. Andrea is a highly knowledgeable and skilled person and you will hear more from her soon!

Ineractive Inventory Reaction:
When learning and assessment activities are designed for teachers and learners to work together toward mastery of established outcomes, it looks very different from teacher presenting and learners trying to guess how they will be evaluated. I agreed with the statements in this activity except for one: Assessment is used to monitor learning. The snag might be in the word monitor. If an assessment determines where a learner is proficient and where additional work is needed, is that not monitoring? I would say this is one of the primary tasks of assessment.