Developing Authentic Assessments: Have My Students Learned Anything?
PRLS 2013 at Leeward CC, Pearl City, Hawaii
May 13-17, 2013
Info: http://prls2013.weebly.com
You’ve designed the assignment, met with students as they worked on it, and now you have the finished product in front of you. The results are not what you expected, and you ask yourself, “Are my students really learning anything?”
If this scenario is even vaguely familiar, this workshop track is for you. We will go through a step-by-step process, starting with student learning outcomes and culminating with assessment tasks and measurement tools. Continue reading
New Employment Report
A very thorough study of California’s tech sector has just been published, including recommendations for educators. The NSF-funded MPICT Center was a collaborator and what follows is a quote from MPICT’s recent press release:
“According to the report, aggregated ICT industry and employment sectors are bigger and more strategically important than historically recognized in the U.S. and in California.
Synergy of Joining Multiple Projects
Combining the work of ATE’s Destination: Problem-Based Learning, ATE’s Plan Bioscience Technology program, and a Carl Perkin’s grant on Problem-Based Learning, faculty developed relevant coursework for transforming agriculture education in Hawaii. Traci Sylva,assistant researcher at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, was quoted in a US News Science article as saying: “We also try to develop such skills as communication, which is something industry has told us it needs, how to work in teams better (workplace etiquette, as well as the basics of business), and what it takes to grow food for our growing population,” she adds. “Employers want their employees to know the basics of business and how their work impacts that business.” –Full article
Technical Skills Certificate vs. College Degree
Last Sunday (July 10, 2011), the front page of the New York Times featured an article called “Tough Calculus as Technical Schools Face Deep Cuts.”
The article followed a high scoring student who was not interested in school until he joined a vocational program that taught a tangible skill. Enhanced motivation is seen as a reason to direct students to vocational programs.
On the other hand, the article gives the importance of learning soft skills as an example of why a college degree is valuable. Continue reading
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