NSBA: Evaluating Digital Products
October 26th, 2005 | by Tim Wilson |Evaluating Digital Products: Raising the Bar For Student Achievement, Bernajean Porter, BJP Consulting
We watched an example of a student-produced film about the bombing of Hiroshima and discussed how we would assess it. It was difficult to say since we weren’t the ones that gave the assignment, but it got the conversation started. Our speaker said that in many cases a scoring guide (i.e., rubric) isn’t even provided, or the scoring guide focuses exclusively on the mechanics of the product (e.g., number of images, number of PowerPoint slides). Too often, she says, the product is simply turned in without the kind of serious assessment that we usually give to more traditional writing assignments. I’ve observed this over the years as well, and have often felt like technological glitz has been substituted for high quality content. This is especially common with teachers who may not be very technosavvy themselves and may be more likely to be overly impressed with the polish that modern ditial tools can impart without any effort on the part of the student.
The speaker is against the idea of teachers creating their own rubrics, preferring instead to have teachers work in teams to develop common rubrics. Consistent standards will help students who have multiple teachers.
Porter’s book, Evaluating Digital Products, has lots of examples of scoring guides for 14 different types of assignments. Her Website, DigiTales, has a series of forms that teachers can use to create custom rubrics to guide the students’ work. She stresses that no technology should be used until the scripts and storyboards are conferenced and the content is solid. She believes that students should be encouraged to connect the content they’re presenting to their own context in a way that answers the “so what?” question.
This was a great session. It validated a lot of things that I’ve observed over the years. It may sound counter-intuitive, but I think we need to get the technology out of the assessment of digital projects. It’s not about the tech, it’s about the learning. I will definitely be starting a conversation about these issues with teachers back home.
Tags: assessment, digital storytelling, nsba2005, rubrics
2 Responses to “NSBA: Evaluating Digital Products”
By Cindy Grabe on Oct 26, 2005 | Reply
Tim,
So appreciate your blogging the conference. I so agree the content is paramount when assessing digital projects. However, I do think we need to include comment on the “grammar” of digital projects - navigation- media’s ability to enhance the communication of the content, easily read text, etc.
By Bernajean Porter on Dec 24, 2005 | Reply
Cindy - absolutely. the review did not include the idea that 50% of the grade would be the craftsmanship of the communication. This is where the technical elements are assessed in context with the content. Did the elements used decorate - illustrate or illuminate the message? There are six elements within the craftsmanship - see my website for details of items to assess regardless of the type of technology used. Bernajean