Collaborative project idea
Jeremy McAnally
Ruby to some of the kids there. I'm going to be going back this
semester (and hope those guys and more of you will join me), but we're
going to try something a little different this year.
Last year the kids competed in the ACTE competition with their
projects. This was a really great outlet for geeks when I was in
school, but I think the quality has suffered greatly in the past few
years. ACTE fairs are basically science fairs: students create
projects in certain categories and present them where they are scored
for prizes/moving further in the competition. Unfortunately, I
noticed a lot of things that bothered me this year. They were nabbing
parents for judges the morning of the competition, meaning a lot of
the judges had little to no technical knowledge (surely skewing the
judging away from great technical solutions towards "OOO SHINY"). Our
kids placed 3rd and 4th or 2nd and 3rd I can't remember, but at the
end of the competition, they really wanted some feedback.
They wouldn't give it.
Now, I understand "not wanting to hurt the students' feelings," but
what I don't understand is placing them and then not telling them why
they got the place they did. Give them a numeric score with no
comments, have the judge create a report just for the student,
*something* so that they can go home and improve whatever the judge
felt was lacking. Unfortunately, no matter how much we cajoled, they
wouldn't even give the sponsors a peek at the sheets.
So, our teacher contact at the school, PJ, and myself started
discussing starting something separate. Here are the key principles
we've identified:
(1) Use technology effectively.
(2) Evaluation should happen by people who know what they're talking about.
(3) Be open and transparent in your evaluations.
As a result, we decided we'd try to launch something of our own to
basically compete with the ACTE. We want to build an app to handle
entering, presenting, evaluating, and scoring, maybe with an
end-competition party for everyone involved with award presentations.
Evaluation will happen by a teacher AND a technology professional, so
that age appropriateness can be judged alongside technical prowess.
Since it'll be all online, it should be easy to wrangle REAL
professionals in with little impact to their schedule. And these
evaluations will be at least partially open. Constructive feedback
and encouragement are ESSENTIAL to the growth of a child's skills (and
the development of effective instructors), so that will be front and
center here.
So, now, I'm coming to you all. Would you all be into helping us
build the app? It won't be complicated I don't think, but we'll need
all the hands we can get.
Thanks,
Jeremy
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