Week 8: Multimodality and Assessment.

In his article on multi modality and assessment in the classroom, John Vincent states that "in the early years of school, children work multi modally. Teachers accept, and indeed encourage, expression in multiple forms; drama, gesture, written words, drawings and song." (Vincent, 2006). I have had the honour of teaching French Immersion Kindergarten students as well as Grade 2 (FI) - I have also worked as school librarian and computer lab resource teacher. 

In my experiences with primary students, there is no doubt that multi modality is the norm (at least in my classroom). Teaching a second (or third, or fourth) language in an immersion setting increases the use of multi modality on the part of the teacher as well as the students. My Kindergarten classes were always noisy, dramatic, gesture-rich, environments where we would use our whole self to communicate with each other. My students drew, sculpted, engaged heavily with nature, played, role-played, and mostly laughed a great deal while learning. How did I assess their learning? Through observation, anecdotal notes, and via video and photo evidence which parents could also enjoy as it would reside on the class blog. When asked by parents how their child was doing, I would always tell them that their development was a process that would see them develop over time. I told them that I scaffold learning activities and encourage reflection and peer to peer sharing so that each student can learn from me, from his/her peers, and from him/herself. I would show parents the progression in ability from one month to another by having digital portfolios of student work accessible only to the parent - where the blossoming of their child revealed itself on the pixelated page.  Assessment was always ongoing, in progress, formative, collaborative, and overt. My students all learned how to self-evaluate and how to provide critical feedback to their peers - they weren't always great at it but learning to assess is itself, another skill to be learned over time.

When I took on the role of school librarian and computer resource I was excited to work with junior and intermediate students using digital technologies and visual arts. I taught in fact every grade in this capacity and had carte blanche to teach them what I wanted. While instilling a love of reading was high on my list of priorities, so too was the use of digital technologies and what I now understand to be digital literacies. However, I was shocked to discover that the older the child, the longer s/he had been in school, the less imagination s/he seemed to have and also the less curiosity or motivation. I just watched Sir Ken Robinson's "Changing Educational Paradigms" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U) and cannot wait to watch everything else he has available online. His point of view that children are forced into molds for an education built on antiquated values originating in the industrial revolution, and that those who do not comply are anaesthetized, was mind-blowing for me. Vincent states that the further from the Kindergarten classroom, the more the focus on writing, and the further from free expression of learning via multi modalities. Teachers spend their time on classroom management, encouraging "hyper" students to sit still, and "phased out" kids to snap out of it. What's weird is that even when I offered an open-ended project using digital tools, the students had a significantly difficult time engaging and opening up their minds to creativity and imagination... It is tragic that we bludgeon creativity out of our students in school. It is particularly tragic when you stop to consider that in the work world into which they will enter; problem solving and ingenuity are highly valued skills.

Anyway, I'm off on a bit of tangent (as usual) - but all this to say that it seems clear that we ought all to be integrating multi modalities in our classrooms. There's just a couple of tiny things that get in the way...

1. Our educational system itself: “The current generation of decision makers ranging from politicians to teachers sees the world from a different perspective than the digital generation (Green & Hannon, 2007). The young people of today cannot remember a world without the internet, SMS, MSN, iPod, MySpace and Facebook. However, the decision-makers decide how digital media will be used in the schools and the professional world. They make laws and regulations that restrict the potential inherent in digital media. This represents a short-term solution to a long-term challenge. The problem is that schools run the risk of basing their teaching on presentation, communication and assessment methods that are about to become obsolete in both form and content” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2008, p. 145).  It is this legacy that keeps classrooms teacher-centric and, as stated by Mezirow "the very definition of education itself is almost universally understood in terms of an organized effort to facilitate behavioural change".
2. Standardized testing. For as long standardized testing remains as antiquated in design and purpose as the educational system, there is no room for creativity. The tests are deadening for even the brightest minds, and frustrating to the point of lunacy for many, as evidenced in the spoken word YouTube video offered to us tonight by Rebekah. Also consider that these tests are only capable of assessing what is easy to measure. Is ingenuity measurable on a test? How about lateral thinking? Deductive reasoning? How sad that the issuers of these tests seem to place more value on recall than on high level, or critical thinking skills. 
3. The curriculum. Enough said, surely??! 
4. Assessment practises. It would seem to me, the newbie, that at least some serious thought is currently going into how to design assessment around new learning, new literacies, and multi modalities. Hooray. The sad part is that, much like educational reform, I suspect that by the time assessment practises have caught up with teacher reality, they will already be out-dated. I do not believe that assessment can be "canned". After all, teaching is not canned. What is required however is perhaps some well-structured professional development that helps teachers to understand that what needs assessing is the process of learning; perhaps by focussing on design, visualization of literacy, modes and modal affordances, transmodal operation, cohesion and staged multi modality (Wyatt-Smith and Kimber, 2009). Teachers also need to understand that whatever criteria are being measured should be made explicit to the students and, ideally, co-created and negotiated with the students. They should know that assessment needs to be longitudinal; in other words, student and teacher should conference regularly to revisit the rubric (if one is used) and to assess where the student is, what can be changed or what extra focus is necessary. These conferences should also be opportunities for the teacher to gain a deeper understanding of the thought process and design choices made by the student. Students can be encouraged to create an online journal, wiki, or blog in which to document the learning process. This can be private, shared with only the teacher, or shared with a select number of peers to encourage peer to peer reflection and analysis. Ultimately, the use of digital multi modalities represents yet another evolving, new, and exciting area for education. Unfortunately, this also translates into yet another learning curve for educators. Those who truly wish to prepare their students for life will jump on the bandwagon. They will learn, evolve, revise, implement, revise, reflect, reimplement every responsibility in their role as educator for their students' sake. The others... who can say?