[IAEP] [Sugar-devel] interesting article on evaluation

[Sora Edwards-Thro]

Thanks for sharing, Walter. Evaluation is a key component of my own
research on kids using the XO-1 laptops to develop as readers and authors.
Here is the data we hope to collect:

-reading habits
        We will monitor which books individual students are downloading
from the server. We will also see the comments and rating readers leave on
the books.
-writing habits
        We will analyze writing samples published to the server for
vocabulary and grammatical complexity. The article is correct to point out
that these are key predictors of future success. I think it would be a good
idea to ask the students some of the questions proposed in the article and
see their responses.
-spoken stories
        For students who are not yet confident as writers, we hope to also
collect audio samples of oral storytelling / responses to prompts in order
to gauge their verbal and narrative abilities.
 -EGRA test results
       the EGRA test measures reading level by assessing students' ability
to recognize letters, sound out words, and comprehend short passages. It's
been adapted for Haiti and it's used in Africa as well. I don't really like
it (why so much emphasis on sounding out words, and only one section
devoted to comprehension, when the goal of reading is comprehension?), but
we're using it because USAID likes it and we like getting money from them /
people who trust them.

I remember talking to Martin Dluhos a little bit about his work, but I have
to admit I don't know much about the possibilities for looking at how
students are spending their time via the Journal. Where can I go to find
out more?

On Sat, Feb 28, 2015 at 2:43 PM, Dr. Gerald Ardito <gerald.ardito at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Walter,
>
> I agree with your position about this. I often think of it in these terms:
> we want to talk about depth of learning and not just proficiency in regards
> to skills and content. To do that, we need to offer al "alternative world"
> to the one that argues for more and more high stakes testing. The tools you
> propose seem really consistent with that.
> And thanks for sharing the article.
> Gerald
>
> On Sat, Feb 28, 2015 at 2:09 PM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Amidst all the discussion about the future of Sugar, it would be good
>> to keep in mind what more we can do in terms of analyitics and
>> evaluation. We have a pretty decent mechanism (wrtiten by Martin) for
>> data gathering about what kids do; the portfolio for assessing what
>> they have done; and a few rubrics for tying together some of these
>> data.  The ideas expressed in [1] suggest we could do more.
>>
>> regards.
>>
>> -walter
>>
>> [1]
>> http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2015/02/26/things-every-kid-should-master/uM72LGr63zeaStOp9zGyrJ/story.html
>>
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>> _______________________________________________
>> Sugar-devel mailing list
>> Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>>
>
>
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