This morning on my drive into work I heard a story on the BBC World News radio program about schools in Denmark allowing students to take final exams while accessing the Internet. The article the story was based on can be found here. What I like about the story's concept is that the questions Danish students are being asked require them to use knowledge rather than regurgitate knowledge. In today's highly-connected world, finding information has become much easier and in turn it has become more difficult to be the "smartest person in the room." This is an important concept to remember when planning lessons and designing assessments. As educators in today's highly-connected world we need to be designing lessons and assessments that ask students to synthesize and apply the information they locate.
The other part of the story that I enjoyed was the interviews with teachers and students. The obvious concern that a lot of people listening to and reading the story will have is about cheating. The teachers addressed this concern by creating questions that cannot, in most cases, be answered well with simple cut and paste. The teachers and students also claim that the penalties for cheating are too severe to take the risk of cheating by emailing or instant messaging other students. While the stiff penalties are certainly a deterrent to cheating, it's more important to note that the emphasis of the exams is placed on application of knowledge rather than recitation of knowledge.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Open Book Exams Become Open Internet Exams
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12 comments:
pretty cool! It's matter of time when there will be personalized test for every student.
Pretty cool...
Soon there will be personalized tests for students.
I very much agree that it should be about the application of, rather than regurgitation of knowledge. I think that it's a good thing that our schooling reflects the world we live in. As an educator and student, I think deterrents for cheating come in the form of sound assessment design that encourges opinion, personal input, and thought.
Surely this makes exams far more sensible. A traditional exam only really tests short term memory but this way the teachers will get an idea about how good students are at using information and how well they know and understand the foundational principles of their subject. About time, I say.
Interesting story.... I guess multiple choice is out. What an interesting way to test students. They enjoy working on the computer so completing a test online would probaly be less stressful for them. YP
Interesting story...... I guess multiple choiceis out. Students already enjoy working on computers. Taking a test online would probably be less stress for them. I still wonder how teachers would manage cheating and even plagarism.
I think that this is a great idea. Especially in a day and age that appears to try to dumb our educational system by training our youth to simply learn how to test. It almost seems as though "No Child Left Behind" has sucked creative thinking away from our school systems. As a high school teacher, I would love to see this implemented in our school. Personally, I feel that it is more important to grow up and learn how to think freely, than to learn to test well.
In a day in age in which technology is taking over the world, this is real life application. Isn't that what the younger generation needs to learn to do, understand the world around them technology?
Finally!!! Educators brave enough to test towards reality! "fountain pen and a sheet of lines paper" ...what??? Denmark is onto something big here!!!
I think that this is a great idea
But
You can find plenty of materials in archives or in formats difficult to search, then cut & paste so that you can refer to all arguments and judgments e.g. tiff/jpeg/pdf formats. Powerful arguments in favor and equally powerful against but in difficult to access formats,.
However there is one way to get around, if you Click http://www.onlinedocumentconversion.com/
upload, convert to rtf & then you can cut & paste selected paragraphs in MS Word. 24x7, Paypal, few cents per page( paid sites are better ) is easy.
Learning for the sake of acquiring knowledge versus assessment - what a concept! This is the way our world works and schools needs to acknowledge this. We employ technology whenever possible with our students. Get more information at our website about tutoring and test
prep
I think that Greve High School is piloting a program that will take off around the country very soon. Technology has quickly changed lives around the world. The majority of jobs need people who are well acquainted with computers. The internet has made information available when we need it. For example, we go to the internet to find out what times movies are playing, to keep in touch with friends, to order groceries and do other shopping as well. If our lives are geared towards using technology, then why are we not teaching students how to use it in schools?
Students at Greve High School will know how to find the information they need and this practice will apply in their lives after high school as well. I also agree that application of knowledge is more important than recalling facts. Dates are not what students need to know....the process and the effects are the things we should be reinforcing.
Kathryn, I completely agree with your thoughts concerning future employers. Instead of resisting and fighting it in our schools, it needs to be embraced!
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