assessment

We talk about badges again on this episode of +Teachers Teaching Teachers. This is our second show of what promises to be more than a few this fall. On the first TTT about badges and learning goo.gl/97zku, we jumped into an ongoing conversation with educators who are developing a practical, pedagogical discourse between the heckling and the hype around badges.

+Paul Allison @paulallison, +monika hardy @monk51295, +Chris Sloan @csloan hosted, +Peter Rawsthorne @prawsthorne, +Andrea Zellner @AndreaZellner, +Vanessa Gennarelli @VGennarelli, +Elyse Eidman-Aadahl @ElyseEA, +Sheryl Grant @slgrant, +Sunny Lee @threeqube, +dave cormier @davecormier .

There’s only so much that this many thoughtful participants can say in an hour, so we invited everybody back and a few others for this episode of TTT

+Peter Rawsthorne and +Sheryl Grant from the first conversation are joined in this episode by: +Barry Joseph – goo.gl/EY6hc, +Doug Belshaw @dajbelshaw– goo.gl/x0x10 and goo.gl/YIued, +Myrna Rubel – vimeo.com/41312848, +Samuel Abramovich, +Kathryn Godwin, +Leora Wollner, and +Amy Lewark @fat4thought .

We welcome you to join us. We’ll continue these conversations about learning and the peril and possibility of badges this fall. We're live at edtechtalk.com/ttt on Wednesdays at 9:00 PM Eastern / 6:00 PM Pacific.

We’ll continue to focus on incorporating badges into K-12 education and beyond. There’s so much to say on the topic. What’s your favorite blog post, video, article, resource about Badges? Please add a couple of links in the comments below. We want to be open and flexile about all of the ways people are talking about the issues involved. And, we are interested in keeping it real. We’ve been developing some ideas around badges for Youth Voices youthvoices.net/play, and there’s more about this on P2PUgoo.gl/oKQ1R.

Tonight I participated in my first live educational conference online through EdTechTalk. The conference is called “Teachers Teaching Teachers” and takes place every Wednesday night. I did not join the group via video, but rather just watched/listened to the other participants and participated through a live chat feature....

It took me a while to catch up to what was being discussed. Participants were throwing around the term “Youth Voices” and I thought at first that it was just a cool catch phrase for high school kids who were blogging. It wasn’t until i joined the live chat that I got a better idea of what Youth Voices is. Youth Voices, it turns out, is a huge site where the main purpose is to offer a space for youth to participate in discussion. It is a place where youth can post their thoughts and comment on other youth’s thoughts....

One of the discussions among the video participants revolved around how teachers should/are assessing their student’s contributions on Youth Voices. One educator shared how she is setting guidelines for how much/what her students need to contribute to Youth Voices within a specific time frame. For example, she will stipulate that her students need to write one post and make one comment within a week, and if they do both they get the marks for it. This particular educator works at a school in the Bronx and has found that participating in Youth Voices has empowered her students to have their voices heard. She noted how much time and effort can be put into a short comment, because the students are very aware of their online presence and ensuring they present themselves appropriately.

... It was an interesting experience to view it. I think the biggest thing I got out of the experience was that I was also able to network with educators from far and wide- always a positive when you are working on developing your professional learning network.

... I would love to come back to join in a conversation in the future, especially if I am looking for information specifically related to the topic being discussed. I am curious to know whether there are any live educator chats/conferences specifically for Early Childhood Educators. If you know of one, pass it on!

For this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, Monika Hardy @monk51295 invited a few of her colleagues:

• Thomas Steele-Maley @steelemaley
• Roberto Greco @rogre
• Mary Ann Rielly @MaryAnnRielly
• Amanda Judd @venueX
• Amy Lewark @fat4thought

to join Chris Sloan @csloan and me @paulallison to introduce why we need lab spaces to disrupt and redefine school (Lab Connections). The goal is to facilitate self-directed learning. Here’s how Monika and others introduce their work in an in-progress book they are writing:

Students in Loveland, CO crafted a four year plan of disruption to redefine school. We are just beginning year two. Year four has community/life as school, with the city as the floor plan. Who, what, when, where, how, and with whom you learn, per choice. The premise… nothing is for everyone. We’re redefining success per individual/community. We’re respectfully questioning everything, especially what public education deems as normal. Imagine if the 7 hours a day we currently call school would/could awaken indispensable people. It’s a quiet revolution.

There has been plenty of theory/research invested in what we are doing, and that will be ongoing. But mostly, we have had the privilege and delight to indulge in experimentation/failure/prototyping/etc. The following is our best attempt to capture the key elements learned from key failures. If you are so inclined, shuffle along with us. It’s a kick. You might just fall in love with it.

For more history of the lab, see this video set/documentation (reverse chronological order):redefineschool.tumblr.com

For current updates/info on the lab, see labconnections: http://labconnections.blogspot.com/p/about.html

This was a first, exploratory conversation, and one that we hope will inspire you to join as well. We'll be continuing our conversations with Monika Hardy and her colleagues in the coming weeks on Teachers Teaching Teachers. Join us every Wednesday at edtechtalk.com/live where you’ll hear and see a Livestream broadcast of our conversation, and be invited to chat and ask questions as well.