Monday, January 31, 2011

Manipulative Tips

Recently added to the Math GAINS site are some one page tip sheets for how to use a variety of manipulatives. The topics include:

Algebra Tiles

Coloured Tiles

Connecting Cubes

Geoboards

Pattern Blocks

Relational Rods

Tangrams


Click this link to take you to the site where you can download the pdf. files.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

E-Textbooks Are On the Way, but Not Dominant in Classrooms Yet

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The same digital revolution that upended the music industry and is transforming TV, movies and books is slowly working its way into classrooms.

In many schools, students are just as likely to carry a cell phone as a backpack. Schools and libraries are wired, outfitted with desktop, laptop and netbook computers with high-speed Internet access. Many of them are beginning to experiment with touch-screen computer tablets like the Apple iPad or increasingly powerful smart phones.

But when it comes to the holy grail of electronic education — the e-textbook — Texas schools haven't quite arrived at the date when students can stop carrying printed textbooks around.

But they're getting there. For this first time, school districts in Texas had the option for the 2010-2011 school year to decide what percentage of their textbooks were electronic or printed and could use textbook money to instead purchase things such as electronic devices or supplemental Web-based educational materials.

But school districts, lawmakers, educational software developers and officials in the Texas Education Agency say a lack of ubiquitous Internet and computer access for students, weak e-textbook content and costs to schools and publishers are major obstacles that have to be overcome before printed textbooks are gone for good.

What is an 'e-textbook'?

Part of the problem with getting electronic textbooks into the hands of students in Texas has been that "e-textbooks" itself is a broad term that, for all its promise, doesn't really mean anything.

"The term 'e-textbooks' has been thrown around pretty indiscriminately," said state Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston. "There's been electronically produced textbooks since the mid-'90s."

Hochberg, who co-authored legislation last year that allows the state to purchase electronic content and distribute it to students instead of, say, printed texts bundled with CD-ROMs, said the term covers a wide variety of formats and devices.

The most basic kind of e-textbook a direct reproduction of a printed text in an electronic PDF format. But, under state law changes, it can now also be Web-based educational material, including video, interactive quizzes and discussion forums.

Legislation that passed last year also opened up billions of dollars in textbook funds that also can be used for laptops, smart phones, e-book readers or other devices we haven't even dreamt of yet that will access textbooks that are housed online.

Hochberg said he believes that the state and school districts will save money by distributing educational material through "open-source" licenses. The state would purchase electronic content from a publisher once and be given the ability to distribute it as many times as needed to students and teachers instead of paying for each textbook. If a print version were needed, it could be printed from the electronic version for about $25 for a single copy.

"We'd have as many copies as we needed," Hochberg said, "We'd never again have to buy Shakespeare."

Open-source, Web-based texts, he said, also allow the content to be accessible from any device, from an iPhone to a Kindle e-book reader to a desktop in a school's computer lab.

It's a large shift that puts the state in the position of managing large quantities of data and beginning to solicit new kinds of educational software and texts.

"It really puts Texas out front in the educational materials market," he said. "There's not a lot of states with enough students to get into the content development market."

Digitizing the district

John Alawneh , executive director of technology for Austin Independent School District, said many students, including his own three children, would love to abandon their bulky school books. "They would love to access everything they need online rather than carry their textbooks with them," he said. "They rely on Google to look up concepts they're exposed to in class to get quick information. I think that's what electronic textbooks will do."

But Alawneh and Dave Sanders, director of educational technology for the Austin district, both said that although administrators, teachers and students are excited about the educational opportunities new technologies might provide, issues of access and a lack of truly interactive content is delaying the shift.

"I think the value and the benefit is very clear," Alawneh said. "But I don't think the challenges have been resolved. How do you take full advantage of the electronic book and why is the cost still the same?"

In many cases, Alawneh said, publishers won't sell an electronic copy of a book without the purchase of a print edition as well. And frequently, that electronic copy is a PDF version of the text with no added interactive features or content.

Though the electronic texts are easy to print from and searchable, making it easy to find keywords, they're not the future, they said.

"An electronic textbook should be a lot more than a PDF of what the hard copy is," Sanders said. "It's online, so that's one step forward, but it should be a lot more."

Sanders and Alawneh said that a bigger concern is that as school districts move to electronic textbooks it's important that all students have access to them, whether they're at school or at home.

"Going electronic with the books at the state level is going to cut down a lot of cost. But then you need these devices at the school level," Alawneh said. Whether it's a netbook, iPad, smart phone or e-reader, he said, "Equipping each kid with some kind of device is not cheap. Most likely the district is going to have to take on that responsibility if the state or the community does not find a solution to make sure all kids have the tools and digital resources to access (e-textbooks) from anywhere."

Av fast Internet connection in homes is also an obstacle. Data from the state show that although 97 percent of homes in the state have access to broadband Internet, only 62 percent use it. The situation is more dire in Hispanic and black non-Hispanic homes. According to 2009 U.S. Census Bureau data, only 39.7 percent of Hispanics and 45.9 percent of black non-Hispanics have high-speed Internet at home in the U.S., compared with 65.7 percent of white non-Hispanics and 67.3 percent of Asian non-Hispanics.

Nevertheless, AISD is optimistic that eventually costs will go down and that the growing world of educational mobile apps and video-rich Web content will be the future of classroom learning.

"We know we can't go 100 percent digital at this moment in time," Sanders said. "But we feel we're headed that way."

The devices they'll use

What that educational future looks like has been the central preoccupation of Michael Mayrath, president of a small Austin company called GetYa Learn On. Mayrath has a doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Texas and spent a year at Harvard University as a post-doctoral fellow studying educational testing.

Along the way, he's been a tester of e-textbooks for the Texas Education Association (a position he's leaving soon to focus on his company) and has developed an iPhone/iPad app, "Statistics 1," that has sold about 5,000 copies.

From what he's seen of e-textbook submissions and in his own education research, he believes the materials can improve substantially.

Big publishers aren't using the advantage of the digital medium, he said. "If an e-textbook is Web-based, think of all you could do with online learning."

Mayrath said that could include virtual worlds (like the online game "Second Life"), educational games, simulations and programs that cater to the student's individual learning needs and interests.

In addition to multimedia, built-in quizzes and flash cards, e-textbooks could also offer more tools for teachers and continuous assessments that would give educators more insight into a student's learning.

Those kinds of e-textbooks will need to be available for a wide variety of devices, but Mayrath and many teachers and software developers are impressed with the capabilities that apps for smart phones and for devices like the iPad are bringing to the table.

One app in particular, "The Elements: A Visual Exploration," a visual representation of the Periodic Table, has been a hit in some classrooms and was mentioned several times by sources interviewed for this story as an example of the next generation of educational tools. In "Elements," each element is represented as a 3-D object that can be rotated by touch.

Apple Inc. itself has been doing iPad pilot programs in Texas in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, in Beaumont and in White Oak Independent School District in East Texas.

Closer to home, Dell Inc. is bullish on the market for its devices as e-textbooks begin to take off. Mark Horan, vice president and general manager of the company's educational business, said the company was an advocate of last year's law changes based on demand from its customers.

"I think we played a big role in making that happen," Horan said. "We believe the technology will engage students and help them a great deal."

Horan said he believes school districts will opt for devices that do more than simply access textbooks from a website. "Offering up a multifunction device like a PC or a tablet allows you to collaborate online and prepare content and do more than one thing," he said.

The company has an education lab at its Round Rock headquarters and is eyeing devices that could be used in schools. This month it released the Streak, a mini-tablet with a 5-inch screen that can also work as a smart phone. The company is also expected to release a larger tablet device soon.

"We're definitely looking at all different possibilities," Horan said. "It's a great opportunity for Dell to work with publishers and content providers in the (education) industry."

What's available now

In April, Gov. Rick Perry predicted that electronic textbooks would be the only textbooks by 2014.

"I don't see any reason in the world we need to have textbooks in Texas in the next four years," he told a computer-gaming education conference at the time.

After the education laws were passed last year in the Texas Legislature, the state authorized the creation of a Texas Education Association Commissioner's List of electronic versions of textbooks.

So far, about 15 texts are on that list, mostly in areas of literature and English. Anita Givens, association commissioner for standards and programs at the TEA, said the list is expanding to include science materials and resources for teachers. Though it takes about three years for textbooks to go through the State Board of Education's selection process, e-textbooks bound for the commissioner's list will only take one year.

Not everyone is thrilled with the TEA's progress. In an editorial published in May, State Board of Education member Geraldine "Tincy" Miller worried about outdated electronics, the cost of books shifting to districts and a lack of standards for electronic texts that aren't properly vetted.

"u2026 If we don't have quality content, the devices will simply be empty boxes," she wrote.

Givens is optimistic that e-textbooks, especially ones that will offer more interactive features, will feed a growing demand.

"The main thing is our schools are hungry for these new types of instructional resources," Givens said. "These are new and innovate ways of engaging students."

Monday, January 24, 2011

Windsor Whiz kid, 10, Kept Out of High School

This article is a couple months old, but i just happened upon through the Committed Sardine...

Since he was a toddler, Bachar Sbeiti was been recognized as being a gifted learner. At the age of three he could speak three languages and had memorized the capitals and flags of 40 countries. He was an accelerated learner in elementary school, being bumped up grade after grade. Now aged 10, when most kids his age are in the fifth grade, he has already completed grade eight and wants to start his grade nine cirriculum.

But a school district says no way. The superintendent doesn't believe in accelerating students, citing research that high school students learn from 'common experiences'. They expect Sbeiti to attend school in an age-appropriate grade, which means he would have to repeat grade six.

Sbeiti, who sounds wise beyond his years, thinks the city should encourage people to push themselves to go higher and be smarter, and that he would be bored doing grade six all over again.

This raises so many questions that my head is swimming. Is the school district getting in his way because of tradition and relying on doing things the way they've always done them? Is the superintendent failing to recognize the learning methods and teaching requirements of a gifted member of the digital generation, and failing to change to meet those needs? Or does the school district have a point - would the young genius be better off with kids his own age? What if this situation is exactly what is wrong with the education system today, and what can be done about it?

Food for thought - chew on this.


originally posted by Mick Harper
Sep 1, 2010

view the original source for this post

Windsor Whiz kid, 10, Kept Out of High School

An academically gifted 10-year-old will have to repeat some grade levels -- because he's too young for high school.

Windsor resident Bachar Sbeiti said he's growing depressed the public school board won't let him enrol in Grade 9 this fall despite his completion of the Grade 8 curriculum through private school.

"It makes me feel bad," said the boy. "The city, I believe, should encourage people to go higher and be smarter."

But Sharon Pyke, a superintendent of education with the Greater Essex County District School Board, said a child of Bachar's age belongs in Grade 5 -- at the most, Grade 6.

"Our belief is that we do not accelerate students," Pyke said.

"We recognize that students work really well with their peers, and want to be with their peers.

"He's coming from a different system. He would be placed in his age-appropriate grade."

Bachar can't help sounding indignant about the school board's position. "I finished Grade 6," he said. "I don't understand the point of doing it again. And I finished Grade 8, too. I just want to go to high school.

"I don't really mind being with people older than me. I want to actually challenge myself."

Recognized as gifted since he was a toddler, Bachar's schooling has been atypical. At the age of three, he could speak three languages, had memorized the capitals and flags of 40 countries, and could recite the 99 Islamic names for God.

He was first enrolled in the Roeper school for gifted children in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. His mother, Hala Sbeiti, said the U.S. location proved too inconvenient and they moved back to Windsor.

Most of Bachar's education thus far has been at the Stellar Leadership Academy -- a local private school that covers the intermediate grades of the Ontario curriculum.


Hala said she's looked into other private facilities that cover the high school grades, such as Academie Ste. Cecile and the First Lutheran Christian Academy. "They have no programs for him."

As a single parent on social assistance, Hala has depended on the support of the Arab community to pay for Bachar's private schooling. The Lebanese-born mother said she's trying to make sure her only child gets the best education possible, but now she feels stuck. "I don't know what to do with him," she said. "There's nothing for gifted children like him."

Asked if she'd consider leaving Windsor so that Bachar can attend other schools, Hala said her son would never accept it.

"He loves Windsor. He refuses to move anywhere. It's his community. It's his life here."

Meanwhile, Pyke said the school board's position is backed by research. She pointed out that in high school, students are also learning from "common experiences" such as obtaining their driving licences. "That would not happen with a 10-year-old."

Pyke said she's not familiar with Bachar's case, but the board's policy with all gifted students is to develop individual education plans, expanding and adding depth to existing curricula.

She said she's conducted her own interviews with gifted students and a recurring theme has been that "kids want to stay with their friends."

But Bachar -- who counts math as his favourite subject -- said he's ready for the high school environment.

"I really don't mind. Most of my friends now are teenagers."

Asked if he's sure he wants to try Grade 9 mathematics -- which includes algebra expressions with exponents, analytic geometry and the study of "linear relations" -- Bachar said he's "very sure."

"I'd get really bored doing Grade 6 again."

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Culture of Compliance

for the love of learning: Culture of Compliance: "I remember a friend of mine telling me about how they started to blog about education and shared links to their blog with colleagues via e-m..."

Friday, January 14, 2011

A Little Laughter to Longhouse Week


The picture says it all. This article pretty much sums up the question of whether literacy is still relevant and important in the education system today.

posted by Mick Harper
Aug 22, 2010

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America's Educational System Captured in a Single Photo

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Well here's something to make your old English teacher gasp in horror: A road contractor hired to paint the word "school" on a freshly paved stretch of highway near Southern Guilford High School in North Carolina rendering the traffic area in question a "shcool" lane.

But fear not for the surely confused area youth! The contractor, an area company named Traffic Markings, has already corrected the error.

This isn't the first such mishap on record. Last year, for instance, a Miami area road crew offered the variant spelling of "scohol," while in 2007, a Kalamazoo team managed to do the same "h" and "c" reversal.

Chalk it all up to a bad day's wrok.


Thursday, January 13, 2011

Maybe Math Textbooks WILL be a thing of the Past...



This recently-unveiled touch screen prototype manufactured in India is aimed at students, and in intended to give the pricey iPad a run at a fraction of the cost. A cheap knockoff? Or an affordable technology to enhance learning? And how will the rest of the market respond? You decide.

posted by Ian Jukes
Aug 10, 2010

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India's iPad Rival to Cost $35

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It looks like an iPad, only it's 1/14th the cost: India has unveiled the prototype of a $35 (U.S.) basic touch screen tablet aimed at students, which it hopes to bring into production by 2011.

If the government can find a manufacturer, the Linux operating system-based computer would be the latest in a string of “world's cheapest” innovations to hit the market out of India, which is home to the $2,100 compact Nano car, the $16 water purifier and the $2,000 open-heart surgery.

The tablet can be used for functions like word processing, web browsing and video-conferencing. It has a solar power option too – important for India's energy-starved hinterlands – though that add-on costs extra.

“This is our answer to MIT's $100 computer,” Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal told the Economic Times when he unveiled the device Thursday.

In 2005, Nicholas Negroponte – co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab – unveiled a prototype of a $100 laptop for children in the developing world. India rejected that as too expensive and embarked on a multiyear effort to develop a cheaper option of its own.

Mr. Negroponte's laptop ended up costing about $200, but in May his non-profit association, One Laptop Per Child, said it plans to launch a basic tablet computer for $99.

“Depending on the quality of material they are using, certainly it's plausible,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research. “The question is, is it good enough for students?”

Mr. Sibal turned to students and professors at India's elite technical universities to develop the $35 tablet after receiving a “lukewarm” response from private sector players. He hopes to get the cost down to $10 eventually.

Mamta Varma, a ministry spokeswoman, said falling hardware costs and intelligent design make the price tag plausible. The tablet doesn't have a hard disk, but instead uses a memory card, much like a mobile phone. The tablet design cuts hardware costs, and the use of open-source software also adds to savings, she said.

Ms. Varma said several global manufacturers, including at least one from Taiwan, have shown interest in making the low-cost device, but no manufacturing or distribution deals have been finalized. She declined to name any of the companies.

India plans to subsidize the cost of the tablet for its students, bringing the purchase price down to around $20.

“Depending on the quality of material they are using, certainly it's plausible,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research. “The question is, is it good enough for students?”

Profitability is also a question for the $35 machine.

Epps said government subsidies or dual marketing - where higher-priced sales in the developed world are used to subside low-cost sales in markets like India - could convince a manufacturer to come on board.

This and similar efforts - like the Kakai Kno and the Entourage Edge tablets - show that there is global demand for an affordable device to trim high textbook costs, she said.

If it works, Epps predicts the device could send a shiver of cost-consciousness through the industry.

“It puts pressure on all device manufacturers to keep costs down and innovate,” she said.

The project is part of an ambitious education technology initiative, which also aims to bring broadband connectivity to India's 25,000 colleges and 504 universities and make study materials available online.

So far nearly 8,500 colleges have been connected and nearly 500 web and video-based courses have been uploaded on YouTube and other portals, the ministry said.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Are iPads, Smartphones, and the Mobile Web Rewiring the Way We Think?

A very interesting article with some great points/arguments about the way we think...not sure if i'll ever be able to not sit and read books but i do admit the distractions keep mounting...

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Monday, January 10, 2011

Some Neat Resources, Albeit Non-math related

This is a general update of the material I have found on the wire this week. There stuff for art, history and social studies, ITGS and computer studies as well as economics and social studies

posted by Andrew Churches
Jul 24, 2010

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On the Wire – Art, Maps, Science, ITGS, Social Media and Advertising

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1. An essential guide to digital photography – http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/essential-guide-digital-photography-pdf/ - This is a useful resource from the Make use of team. Well worth investigating and using in you art/photography classes. This Scribd digital book is worth looking at too.


Check out slideshow The Absolute Beginner's guide to Digital Photography

2. History maps for teachers & students – http://etc.usf.edu/maps/index.htm - This is a resource from Florida’s Education clearinghouse. This site gives you access to a broad range of maps useful in social studies and history.

3. Moonbase Alpha – http://store.steampowered.com/app/39000/ – this is a steam-powered simulation/game of a moon base, called Moonbase Alpha. The product is produced by NASA and is a free resource. Worth investigating for its obvious links to science. It also has interesting opportunities for cross-curricular studies, too.

4. Google and social media – http://mashable.com/2010/07/09/google-social-media-attempts/ – this is an info-graphic examining Google's ventures into social media. (My word, they have been busy—but that's very Google.) An interesting resource for ITGS, computer studies, and anyone interested in social media and its evolution.

5. Admongo – http://www.admongo.gov/ - this is a U.S. government website that examines advertising. With resources for teachers, parents, and students this is an interesting website to visit and use for economics, humanities etc. This is a resource focused at 8-12 year olds

6. And finally, this from Lifehacker – the 5 best WYSIWYG HTML editors – a good article and worth reading –http://lifehacker.com/5579328/five-best-wysiwyg-html-editors

Friday, January 7, 2011

I Still LOVE my iPad though...

A recent study done on usability for e-readers using the Kindle and iPad as the lab rats gave somewhat disquieting but not surprising news—it takes a bit longer to read on an e-reader than it does on a book. But take into account that books are everywhere, and if you read a lot, your level of subconscious reading fluency is likely quite high. The e-reader platform will take some getting used to, for sure, but its own niche in fluent usage is not far away.

posted by Ross Crockett
Jul 26, 2010

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Study: E-books Take Longer To Read Than Print

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It takes longer to read books on a Kindle 2 or an iPad versus a printed book, Jakob Nielsen of product development consultancy Nielsen Norman Group discovered in a recent usability survey.

The study found that reading speeds declined by 6.2 percent on the iPad and 10.7 percent on theKindle compared to print. However, Nielsen conceded that the differences in reading speed between the two devices were not "statistically significant because of the data's fairly high variability" -- in other words, the study did not prove that the iPad allowed for faster reading than the Kindle.

A total of 24 participants (10 is about average for a usability survey) were given short stories by Ernest Hemingway to read in print and oniPads, Kindles and desktop PCs. Hemingway was chosen because his work utilizes simple language and is "pleasant and engaging to read."

The narratives took an average of 17 minutes and 20 seconds from start to finish -- enough time to get readers fully "immersed" in the stories, Nielsen explained.

After reading, participants filled out a brief comprehension questionnaire to make sure no one had skimmed through a story. Users rated their satisfaction with each device; the iPad, Kindle and printed book scored 5.8, 5.7 and 5.6, on a scale of 7, respectively, while the PC received an average score of 3.6 -- due, in part, because reading on a PC reminded readers of work.

Participants also complained about the weight of the iPad and the Kindle's weak contrast.

As Nielsen notes, the satisfaction ratings on the survey are promising for the future of e-readers and tablet devices. However, I can see universities and businesses taking less kindly to e-readers if further studies prove that they handicap reading speed.

What do you think of the results? Do you prefer to read on an e-reader, tablet or in print -- and why?

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Computer-savvy students cheating more, getting caught less

Read the entire original article here...

Here is a snippet...

Those vintage forms of academic dishonesty – crib notes scribbled on a palm, or cheat sheets tucked into a sleeve– haven’t gone away, but a generation of students more computer literate than their parents is forcing teachers to re-think the way they test students and blurring the definition of cheating.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Courtesy the Committed Sardine...

British School Launches Talking PCs for Students Who Can’t Speak English

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A primary school where more than half the students do not speak English recently became Britain’s first to provide every child with a computerized translator, Asian News International reports.

The scheme, dubbed "damaging and dangerous" by critics, will enable 60 per cent of the 384 pupils to communicate with teachers using the software.

Children type questions into the computer in their native language, which are translated out loud into English for the teacher.

Teachers type instructions for pupils which can be translated back into 25 different languages.

English-speaking pupils also use the translator to communicate with foreign classmates

Manor Park Primary School in Aston, Birmingham, is the first in the UK to give the "Talking Tutor" software to every student.

But some like Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, are unhappy with the move.

"Surely it would be better to give foreign-speaking youngsters an intensive course in English before they start school," The Daily Express quoted him, as saying.

Seaton added: "There is a danger that this computer translator will keep children within their own social group, which could be damaging to their future prospects.

"When these children leave school they will not be able to rely on translators - even more reason why they should learn how to speak English from a young age."

Head teacher Jason Smith has, however, come forward in the scheme's defence.

He said: "It can vary but at any one time we have 30-plus languages being spoken at the school, so this is invaluable to us. Last week we enrolled a pupil from Gambia who could speak only a tribal language, so we checked online to see if we had something that closely matched.

We found the closest match and both child and parent could understand us."

The school will spend 700pound a year for the software, which comes with on-screen pictures based on the ethnic background of the pupils.

Developed by Lincoln-based EMAS UK, at a cost of more than 2.5million pounds, the software translates English into 25 languages including Polish, Urdu and Chinese. A further 200 can be translated on-screen.

Smith said: "Just because English isn't a pupil's first language, it doesn't mean they aren't academically gifted, so this allows us to assess them in their own language while helping them with their English at the same time."

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Solo Taxonomy

Solo Taxonomy has been sitting on my to-do list for a while. Dean Groom, during his presentation at MICDS, reminded me and I took a little time to have a play with it.

SOLO stands for Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes. It was developed in 1982 by John B. Biggs and Kelvin Collis. It is essentially a hierarchy which has 5 stages or levels that attempts to assess the students learning based on the quality of their work. A more detailed description is posted below—check it out!

posted by Andrew Churches
Jul 28, 2010

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SOLO Taxonomy

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SOLO stands for Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes. Like Bloom’s taxonomy it looks and structures many of the key verbs used in assessment into different levels.

Source: http://www.johnbiggs.com.au/solo_graph.html

Prestructural – Lower Order

Students acquires unconnected information. The information is not organised amd makes no sense.

UniStructural

Simple connections are created between ideas. Connections are obvious—Keywords: Identify, Name

MultiStructural

More connections are being created, but lacks the meta-connections between them—Keywords: combine, describe, list, order

Relational

Student sees the significence of the various pieces of information and can develop relationships between them—Keywords:Analyse, apply, argue, debate, compare, contrast, check, judge, critique, explain, moderate, relate, integrate, justify

Extended Abstract

Can make connections beyond the probable. Can generalize and apply to new situation. Can transfer learning and make links between subject areas—Keywords: Reflect, evaluate, create, hypothesize, design, invent, conceptualize, theorize, project, abstract

We want to have our students working at the highest levels of extended abstract, where they can make relationships that stretch beyond the bounds of the discipline or subject area, and can be applied in a variety of situations.

Solo Taxonomy shares similarities with the Modified Daggett’s Application Model, where the higher levels of learning are achieved when learning is applied in real world unpredicatable situations, rather than just applying it to studies within a single unit of learning.