Why Do We Need to Assess? My Top 5 Reasons

A couple of weeks ago, I read an article about why schools in Finland are successful. There was one sentence in this article that really stuck with me.

“We prepare children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test.” 
- Pasi Sahlberg, a former math and physics teacher who is now in Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture.

I think this sentence captures the essence of why we should assess learning and performance. It is important to realize who all benefit from assessment. While the learner needs to be at the core of any assessment strategy, instructional designers, subject matter experts and schools or organizations also tend to benefit from the assessment exercise. But we need to appreciate that assessment is about learning and not (only) about numbers.

As Richard J. Stiggins in his article, Assessment Crisis: The Absence Of Assessment FOR Learning, says “Assessments of and for learning are both important. If assessments of learning provide evidence of achievement for public reporting, then assessments for learning serve to help students learn more. The crucial distinction is between assessment to determine the status of learning and assessment to promote greater learning.”

So, here are my top 5 reasons for assessing learning and performance:

• To identify gaps in performance and learning needs (pre-assessment)
• To encourage and support learning (continuous assessment)
• To measure learning and improve achievement (continuous assessment)
• To prepare learners for the next step in the learning journey (post-assessment)
• To seek feedback and areas of improvement in the instructional design process (continuous assessment)

Assessment is a collaborative and ongoing process. It is about both me as an instructional designer and my learner as the key customer. By leveraging a continuous two-way feedback process, assessment can help learners take responsibility for their own learning and help instructional designers become more responsible about the design of appropriate learning interventions.

As a training consultant, my goal is to use assessment to encourage learning, promote reflection and educate so that everyone becomes a better learner. I leave you with the following quote by Dave Carter: "Teachers assess to test; educators assess to assist learning".

Top 5 Tips for Embracing Change

Change is the only constant. It is a process of becoming different. As a professional learning consultant, I am always working with “change” – either trying to cause it or helping learners deal with it. I love change and thrive on it.

Recently, I have had one of the biggest changes in my life. My family and I have moved from New Delhi, India to Vancouver, B.C. Canada. This is a permanent move, so there are all sorts of changes– physical, environmental, social, professional, personal and so on.

Here are my top 5 tips for embracing change and making it work!

• 1)    Accept and embrace: It is important to realize and accept that change happens. It always does. Change is a process that is constantly happening. To move forward, we need to be aware of what’s changing and embrace it.
• 2)    Plan and prepare: We planned and prepared for this change over the last 3 years. It may seem sudden but it never is. We need to learn and change a little bit everyday and that’s the best way to deal with what we may perceive as ‘dramatic’ change.
• 3)      Communicate and share: It is always important to communicate but even so when you are going through change. Share your feelings with others who matter or who have gone through the change before. Discuss and feel light!
• 4)      Be flexible and adapt: It is good to plan but not all things go as we planned. To deal with change, we need to be flexible and adapt ourselves. Re-evaluate your skills, be open to learning and assess your plans at every step of change.
• 5)      Stay positive and happy: This is a tough one but perhaps the most important one. We can’t change every situation; we can however, change our response to it. Remember that you can’t control everything. Keep a positive attitude and stay happy as you try to walk along the new path.

Remember, change is progressive because it helps us learn and unlearn.

“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.”

~Henri Bergson~

Starting a Blog in 5 Easy Steps and Keeping at it!

Recently, Tumblr reached 10 Billion posts mark. Tumblr is a microblogging platform that started in 2007 and went from 1 billion to 10 billion posts in just one year! A study by Universal McCann reports that over 77% of Internet users read blogs. In US alone, this 77% would conservatively mean more than 54 million readers. It is also reported that there are 900,000 blog posts posted every day in 81 different languages. All these statistics point to the power of blogging.

My friends and family often ask me about the best way to start blogging. Do you also want to start your own blog but don’t know where to begin?

I started blogging in 2008 and consistently publish atleast one post every month (My posts are usually long, descriptive and based on best practices, therefore 1= many!).  After 55 blog posts, more than 15,000 visits worldwide, and 43 visits in the last 24 hours (as of 14 September 2011), I think I am a fairly successful blogger. I think I am now equipped to share some of the best practices, tips and traps about blogging!

So, here is a short how-to guide that can help you start your blog in 5 easy steps.

Step 1: Identify what you want to blog about.

A blog can be a personal dairy of thoughts and feelings or it can be a professional collection of articles, notes, and ideas. The first step is to identify what you want to blog about and why. Remember to pick a topic that you are passionate about. Writing a blog is all about self-motivation and if you don’t like what you are blogging about, you won’t be able to sustain your energy and keep up the blog.

Step 2: Sign into a blogging service

Before you decide to spend money on hosted services for a blog, experiment using one of the free services available including:
·         www.blogger.com
·         www.wordpress.com
·         www.typepad.com
·         www.Tumblr.com
·         www.livejournal.com

All these services offer free registration and options to customise the look and feel of your blog. You can compare the feature set of these services and then choose the one that works best as per your requirements. Here is a website that offers a comparison of blog services.

Step 3: Select a theme and layout

Most blogging services allow you to customise the theme and layout of your blog. Much of this is really about selecting options and does not require technical knowledge about codes and tags. After signing up, you will be able to select from a gallery of available themes and layouts. To begin with, use the standard themes available and then personalize the theme as you get comfortable with using the blogging service and the idea of blogging.

Step 4: Add generic content

Before you publish a post, you must include some generic content in your blog including information about you, how readers can get in touch with you, comments and feedback boxes and other hyperlinks perhaps to your twitter, facebook or LinkedIn pages. You can think of this as the ‘About’ page for your blog. Feel free to control the amount and type of information that you’d like to share with people. Use the generic layouts that offer ready-to-use templates to add this information easily.

Step 5: Write a post and publish it

Now that the blog is set up, it is time to write your first post. In the beginning, it may be difficult to write about your chosen topic and you may also undergo the writer’s block. But as you begin to type your thoughts, the task will become easier. You may save drafts and continue to work on posts over long periods. After you are convinced that you are ready to publish a post, if available, click on the preview option to see what the post will look like after being published. The editors are usually WYSIWYG. So, it is easy to make the necessary adjustments and then publish the post. Different services offer various publishing options including the date-time stamp, key words, and whether readers are allowed to post comments etc.

As you walk the blogging path, use the following tips:

Tips:

1.       Market your blog by sharing the URL of your blog with colleagues, friends and family in an email and publish the url on other social networking accounts such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
2.       Network with bloggers in the blogosphere, visit other blogs and leave meaningful comments with a link to your blog.
3.       Update your blog frequently and consistently and always spell-check before publishing a post.
4.       Keep your posts interesting and thought-provoking to invite participation. Always remain true to the main idea of your blog.
5.       When you receive a comment or a compliment, be sure to acknowledge it.

Here are some traps that you should avoid:

Traps

1.       It is easy to copy content from the web. But please write original content. If you like another post or want to quote a website, use appropriate references, citations and hyperlinks.
2.       It is easy to get demotivated when blogging. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t have visitors in the first few weeks or months. The more useful your posts, the better the chances of people dropping by.
3.       It is easy to get spammed when blogging. So, avoid posting anything personal or divulging too much information about your own self.
4.       It is easy to get into arguments with readers especially when you can’t clarify your point in a verbal conversation. Avoid it. Also, don’t criticize others or pass judgements about specific people in your posts.
5.       It is tempting to share ground-breaking news about your company that was just announced in a company meeting. But please avoid posting any content related to your company unless you are writing the official company blog post on the company website.

Always remember, it is fairly easy to start a blog but it is difficult to maintain it. So, keep at it and happy blogging!