Digital media
is fast growing in today’s society and it is no wonder Comer, 2011 calls it the
“adolescent’s world.” In a time where youngsters are equipping themselves with
gadgets such as smart phones and laptops, it is best to allow them to learn and
be assessed through it.
The main strategies outlined by
Comer, 2011 are the use of twitter and a Cyber-hunt activity. Comer considers twitter an effective tool as
it allows the students to translate their “thoughts and feelings into words”.
However, one criticism I would have of using a platform such as twitter is the
rigid word cap. Students will be restricted to only a certain number of words
in response to any questions I may pose for them online to be answered via this
social media platform. One way to curb this problem is to use websites like
"paper.li" that work hand in hand with twitter. "Paper.li" allows students to
garner information from various sources and create their own newspaper. This
newspaper publishes itself on twitter. Thus, students will be able to “follow”
the works of one another. This assessment can be framed in a sort of reflection
for the weekly lessons where the teacher assigns students newspaper reports on
things learnt in class. For instance, a lesson on metaphors can produce an
article on “the different sorts of metaphors I can think of” where students
write an article on self-created metaphors and give explanations for it.
As this application works well
with either twitter or Facebook, teachers can use their twitter/Facebook
accounts to write key lesson information. Students will be able to take this
information and create an article around it. Thus, the teacher can actually
scaffold the students online. If all the twitter accounts of the students are
connected to each other, students can also receive updates on articles that are
done up by peers so that they can read it and even critique it. Thus, students
can help each other to improve as well. It is important for this form of
assessment to have a clear rubrics and unit plan. The teacher must ensure students
are given strong topics to write about after every lesson. The pieces must be
guided by some questions and suggestions by the teacher in order to work. Another possible limitation to this is the
language capabilities of the students. If a student is not proficient in
writing good reports, he/she may suffer in undertaking the task. As such, it is
important for the teacher, when designing the rubrics to focus on the area of
study rather than the writing skills. The writing skills are developed
gradually and the teacher should ease the student into this process so that it
only becomes a component as the students reach the later parts of the year.
This application serves as a
good piece of what Comer, 2011 defines as “authentic assessment”. Parents and
other teachers can actually access this media and closely monitor their
children’s progress. On top of this, it is relevant to the students’ interest.
For classrooms where the
students are not very proficient writers, I would have to use something like
podcasts to assess the students. As Ong, 2013 mentions in her piece on “ICT
infused learning in a Literature Classroom”, such students may find language a
stumbling block to their need to improve their analytical skills. As such, the
teacher must strike a balance between written work and the use of digital
media. One such idea would be the use of podcasts as mentioned by Comer, 2011.
Podcasts allow students to verbalize their thoughts and feelings of a novel and
they can easily post it up on podcast hosting websites. They can even post it
in blogs or their school’s own Wiki pages.
The advantage of this is to get
students gaining the skills needed for literary comprehension without being
tied back by their lack of English writing skills. Teachers can ask questions
that develop students’ ability to analyze and evaluate without them having to
write. This empowers weak writers and they can begin appreciating the subject
as their poor writing ability does not stifle their learning anymore. This assessment
can also be done in a journaling form where students keep audio journals and
reflect on certain questions outlined in the class weekly. One example would be
getting students to “Characterize a character from a prose using the evidence
they can collect from it". The student would just need to be given access to
computer laboratories to create these pieces of inference. This learning also ties
in well with assessment as learning since students can refer back to their
podcasts as and when they deem it fit.
Of course, even with the use of
podcasts, one cannot totally run away from the need to be a decent writer in
the final summative traditional assignments that come the way of the students.
As such, it is important to note that writing workshops need to occur hand in
hand with the podcast exercise.
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