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What Caught my Eye this Week

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John Sowash had quite a discussion happening at his website, The Electric Educator, on how and why to Google-Proof a Question, using Bloom's Taxonomy.

 

What does that title suggest to you? John Sowash has a terrific web post that has turned into an even more in depth conversation.

When I read the title and the post I immediately thought about our digital learners.

Our digital learners  learn and participate differently. Think of how we learned about reading comprehension. We read a book as a class, we had the teacher ask us probing questions and if there was time, possibly  six students got to answer the questions.  Even in a small group of  students, reflecting on a book, there will be more than a few in the group who will not speak because they are fearful.

 

However, fast forward to a book talk by blogging. Our students today can go further,  by posting a comment or replying to a comment on a blog or ning, there is pride that their comment is valued. When blogging students have  time to be thoughtful and then write their comment , they are published and that  goes further than writing for their teacher. The best part is that students can speak out and reply anytime of day, night or weekend. This is a powerful concept for our young writers.

 

The Google it! mode of education today should force all educators to let go of the notion that we hold the keys to knowledge. Instead we are facilitators of knowledge. If a question can be answered by Googling it, then that question should not be the first question we ask. Those answers are for  rote memorization,  which our computers do quite efficiently. The computer gets the A+! However, when we pose challenges  such as ,  Using all the biome category headers, write a poem, using vocabulary to  illustrate the biome and be sure to address the  interconnectedness among all the biomes,  we lead our digital learners to the types of thinking, creating and uncovering of material where answers are thoughtful, reflective and tested. digital kids

Can  you Google-proof your question? Leave a question here and share how you would do this in your classroom.

Resources:

 What do we know about great instruction ?
A Bloom's Taxonomy wheel:
A new Bloom's Taxonomy 
Bloom's and ICT  
Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanjoselibrary/2800674717/ San Jose Library

Posted by Cheryl Oakes at 11/10/2009 05:30:38 AM | 


WRITE:

An essay describing your most comfortable place. Since your readers do not know you and cannot see the place, you must emphasize the details that make it the most comfortable place for you.

The full assignment can be found here http://cty.jhu.edu/ctyonline/writingcourses/samples/ema3.html Choice Two.

Of course, the task being an essay, I wouldn't do it in class. I would *discuss* the results in class.
Posted by: Ben Reynolds ( Email: ) at 11/12/2009 3:49 PM


I'm an advocate of Google-proof questions, but I want to point out that no question remains Google proof. The example essay question I provided in a previous post, is Google-proof only until the question and at least one post appear on the web and Google finds it. Same with Cheryl's biome poem.

After that, we are thrown back on the issue of trust. We don't know whether a student's description of a most comfortable room is *real* or plagiarized. We don't know if a biome poem is really the student's (unless we get more than 1 identical poem).

Especially with students who fear revealing a weakness or making a public error, the temptation to Google for any other published (therefore acceptable) answer is quite strong.
Posted by: Ben Reynolds ( Email: | Visit ) at 11/12/2009 4:06 PM


Thanks for the kind remarks. The discussion surrounding Google-proof questions has been fun to follow this week! The web is a wonderful place to mix ideas!
Posted by: John Sowash ( Email: | Visit ) at 11/14/2009 8:57 AM


I have taken passages of student essays or answers and googled them to show students how easy it is to find their information. If it only is attributed to one individual, then hopefully it is that student. Great discussion.
Posted by: Cheryl Oakes ( Email: | Visit ) at 11/14/2009 3:01 PM


You raise an important challenge to educators, and we shouldn't confuse the ideal for the possible. No human system can be perfect, but we can certainly make our essay and assignments more individualized and less easily Googled. For instance, if you can speak just a few minutes with each student before they begin writing - or review a hand-written, rough version in class before they write a longer, stronger version, you should get more authentic essays.
And, of course, just as every city has criminals, many classrooms will have plagiarists. Or so it seems to me.
Posted by: Eric H. Roth ( Email: | Visit ) at 11/16/2009 8:52 PM


Eric, you make a great point. A quick conversation letting your students know that this essay is personal, you are looking for their thoughts, you value their thoughts will go a long way towards each student meeting the challenge. I also think publishing for a wider audience has an impact far more than the essay published to the refrigerator door. Great point!
Posted by: cheryl oakes ( Email: | Visit ) at 11/22/2009 8:22 AM


The most effective way to discourage plagiarism and encourage original thought is to have students present their ideas on a topic/issue to the class. This gives them the opportunity to express THEIR ideas and to practice essential presentation skills as well. Writing for the teacher only is not very motivating for most students, but just jumping through another hoop to get a grade. That's why the incentive to cheat is greater using this type of strategy.
Posted by: Carl Janetka ( Email: | Visit ) at 11/30/2009 3:09 PM


The response to my initial blog post has been great and I am continuing to ponder the idea of "Google Proofing" questions. I'm currently conducting a survey on teacher assessment practices. If you have a few minutes, I would appreciate your feedback!

Survey: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFlkR0JTVFNiTF9uYlU3MTE0bVZnWlE6MA
Posted by: John Sowash ( Email: | Visit ) at 12/24/2009 1:57 PM


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