tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4778608909198518776.post1385299754392918142..comments2024-03-04T17:08:30.238-05:00Comments on re-mediating assessment: I'm bringing sexyback: some thoughts on formative assessmentAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11170497669879668928noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4778608909198518776.post-9804584601243221992009-07-23T14:59:41.844-04:002009-07-23T14:59:41.844-04:00It seems to me that real formative assessment (fee...It seems to me that real formative assessment (feedback that leads to improvement) happens all the time in games. It also seems that gamers (which will include most college-age folk) will be much more amenable to receiving formative assessment and putting it to good use. Now we have to train teachers (for whom gaming is probably less pervasive) to construct useful formative assessments.<br /><br />The assertion that many so-called formative assessments are really "'early warning' summative assessments" is a major problem because it's still not ok to fail at them. In games, everyone knows they will fail repeatedly, but that's a big part of the model. And failing doesn't bother gamers (well, unless it's really too hard). It eggs them on to master whatever the skill or puzzle is. This is a trick that we need to learn in education. How can we devise tasks that students are bound to fail at but that they will really want to master? Or how can we change the educational culture to one where there is plenty of room for learning from our mistakes?<br /><br />You know, it used to really bother me that games were set up with lots of lives and the ability for characters to take lots of damage before there were really any consequences. It wasn't realistic, and it worried me that players (aka my kids) were learning about a way of life without consequences for their actions. Turns out that this kind of learning works, and most people understand the difference between the game and reality.Maggie Riccihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00158916131885884424noreply@blogger.com