Lasting Lessons
by Melanie St. James, Ed.M.’06, a graduate of the Technology, Innovation, and Education Program and now a senior interactive media designer at Tufts University.
Rethinking assessment seems to be taking center stage at Tufts University. Everywhere I look, I see a growing awareness and sense of urgency. The dean of arts and sciences is changing how Tufts assesses students applying for admission, for example. The Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine is in the midst of revising how students are assessed, the department of occupational therapy has been piloting e-portfolios, and faculty members across schools are exploring new methods of assessment on their own.
I am fortunate to be part of the academic technology group in the University Information Technology department, which comprises talented educational technology specialists, instructional designers, developers, interactive media designers, and a faculty development liaison. Faculty members often come to us because they want to integrate technology into their teaching. Before we talk about technology, we discuss the instructional goals, challenges, and assessment strategies, which often surprises faculty members. My feeling is that only then can technology be discussed in support of a clearly defined purpose.
Former Assistant Professor Kate Bielaczyc’s course, Technology and Assessment, prepared me well to take an active role within my group and to consult with faculty. The course gave me a solid foundation in thinking through the complex dynamics between how students learn, how students expect to be assessed, what we want them to learn, and how we want them to use their knowledge. We also learned about how we assess them, the weight of traditional assessment, and resources and support to break away from those traditional methods. This points to the need to develop pedagogical strategies that are concerned with the desired outcome (and therefore assessment) before drafting a syllabus. Add technology to this picture, with its promise of automation sometimes at odds with a desire of gaining deeper insight into our students’ higher cognitive skills, and we navigate a very unique and exciting terrain.
Bielaczyc’s approach of diving into learning and assessment theories, the epistemology of knowledge, current research, and being hands-on with technology helped me develop an understanding that I can transfer and build upon in the “real world.” It also lets me contribute to the vibrant dialogue of teaching, learning, and assessing with technology. Last fall, for instance, I had the chance to collaborate with a lecturer in the political science department at Tufts to integrate concept mapping in her teaching,
which touched on many points mentioned above.
About the Article
A version of this article originally appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Ed., the magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
photo by Mark Morelli
