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

[Walter Bender]

On Sat, Feb 28, 2015 at 5:10 PM, Sora Edwards-Thro <sora at unleashkids.org> wrote:
> 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
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
>

Martin Abente can tell you more about the data collection side of
Sugar (all of that work is in the new release, I believe. It is a
matter of turning on a server.) Regarding analyzing the writing
samples, etc. we don't have any automated tools for that in place. (We
do have some tools for analyzing Turtle Art projects). We also have
some tools for audio storytelling (the Story activity).

-walter

-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org