Assessment Data and the Implications of Transfer

In last week’s class, we had more conversations on the differences between formative and summative assessment. We were asked to discuss ways in which formative or summative assessment could be applied in different situations, including forming a curriculum and during instruction, during a think-pair-share activity. I really like think-pair-shares for their ability to develop a personal idea into a conversation point and then a group topic. I continue to be intrigued by how formative assessment involves continuous data collection from learners. It is this data that allows instructors to make decisions about their own practices as well as what themes to focus on in a particular setting. I think there are limits to what formative assessment can tell you about the learners you are interacting with, and there might be underlying problems to your teaching that you are not gleaning from this data. I am still struggling with how to get around this problem.

            One of the main activities in this class was watching a TED talk by Jane McGonigal about how playing video games builds skills that can make for a better world. We then had to fill out a survey that asked us to rate how well we could hear the listener, whether we remembered specific elements of the talk, and to apply concepts we learned from class to the talk. I found this to be a fascinating exercise in data collection, as every question had an intention that was apparent to the instructor, but was not to the learner (me in this case). For instance, why did we get a question about the speaker’s shoes? I was caught off guard by this question. Should I have focused on her outfit and not what she was saying. However, it was a question that gauged how well we were paying attention to the video, which is potentially useful for learning activities where you want the learner to focus on visual elements. As for the talk itself, I was enthralled by her optimism for gaming communities, which I have since lost, but I think she has an important point to make about how gaming can teach us skills that are valuable for our lives outside virtual worlds. I think McGonigal could have focused more on the games that she regarded as successful examples of transfer. There are real implications that the games she cited can advance causes like climate change advocacy and diplomatic peace because that means the inverse is also possible. To what extent can video game players transfer their skills to warfare, which is becoming more simulated and dependent on algorithms? I think having that conversation about the successful transfer of skills from virtual worlds to physical worlds demands our attention to multiple possibilities, not just the peaceful ones.

            Those questions about transfer make this week’s readings all the more appropriate. Knowing what makes transfer possible is essential to applying it both in the classroom and our everyday lives. An important point in the chapter of How People Learn was how building on existing knowledge to produce transfer only works when the subject matter is both tangible and culturally relevant. Making sure that new pieces of knowledge connect authentically to students while not developing misconceptions is a difficult task. I ran into this difficulty while making my screencast about how MPrint works, as I was trying to think of an easy way to get this process across to people who have little experience with the website and come from many different backgrounds. I ultimately used a package metaphor to illustrate how a document is sent to be printed. I hoped that a package sending process would be able to be communicated across cultures and generations, and thus, would be useful metaphor that someone can easily remember and be able to apply it to other situations where file transfer and storage is needed to perform a task. As instructors, we need to be capable of thinking about the different circumstances and perspectives of our learners, as we all bring a personal history when we enter a physical or digital classroom. Applying techniques that facilitate transfer require that personal knowledge of our learners so we know how they can bring those skills to a different context.