The Learning Record

New Dimension of Learning

2009-05-04T15:54:00.003-05:00

I have had conversations with Myra Barrs in London in March, and email discussions with Mary Barr, both founders of the Learning Record for K-12 students, about a new, optional dimension of learning:

Creativity, originality, imagination. As learners gain confidence and independence, knowledge and understanding, skills and strategies, ability to use prior and emerging experience in new situations, and reflectiveness, they generally become more playful and experimental, more creative in the expression of that learning. This is true not only in "creative" domains such as the arts, but in nearly all domains: research, argumentation, history, psychology. In all fields the primary contributions to the field are the result of creative or imaginative work. This optional dimension may be adopted by teachers or schools to make explicit the value of creativity, originality, and imagination in students' development and achievement. Among other things, it recognizes the value of creative experimentation even when the final result of the work may not succeed as the student may hope.

Please note that this is an optional dimension, to be adopted as you wish. I would love to hear the results of your use of it.

IITAP 2007 Award!

2007-04-24T16:25:00.000-05:00

I'm delighted to announce that the Learning Record has received the silver award in the University of Texas IITAP 2007 Resource Development category! This was completely unexpected, because the Learning Record has been so simplified technologically that it is not very showy. In his talk before the awards were announced, one of the judges for the competition, Victor Edmonds, Director of Educational Technology Services at UC Berkeley, singled out the Learning Record and praised its simplicity. This showed how carefully the judges had considered each entry, and made it clear that they had really grasped the implications of the Learning Record and its underlying model. The variety and sophistication of the entries in this competition was terrific to see. It is gratifying to be a part of an institution that takes teaching and learning with technology so seriously and supports it so well. For a look at the winners, check here.

A teacher's plea

2007-04-11T14:04:00.000-05:00

Please read the April 8, 2007 Washington Post article "Classroom Caste System," by David Keyes, a second-grade teacher who has taught in schools with mostly wealthy students and in schools with low-income, mostly minority students. It provides a clear argument from someone who is on the front lines of the administration's punishing effects on teaching and learning.

Two tips for teachers

2007-02-14T20:41:00.000-06:00

Here are two handy tips for teachers using the Learning Record:

Tip 1: In Word you can choose Navigation Pane from the View menu. This provides a handy navigation menu to the left that allows readers to jump directly from one part of the LR to another. Simply click on one of the items in the navigation menu to jump to that point. The navigation pane can be resized to make it wider or narrower. The triangles allow you to collapse or expand sections of the menu.

Tip 2: I've found it helpful to create a visual reminder of where I am in the process of responding to Learning Records. I use Apple's file label colors to do this. You will find these in the File menu when you have a file or folder selected. The students' LR folders, once I have received them and put them into the class folder have no label. When I have read one, I make its file label red. When I have emailed the teacher comments to the student, I turn the file label blue.

New forms and information posted

2007-02-03T18:22:00.000-06:00

There are several additions to the Learning Record web site: On the downloads page we have posted all official Learning Record forms for grades K-6, 6-12, and college courses. We have also posted the files for grade level expectations for K-12 students. These chart where on the developmental scales we expect students to fall at each grade level.

The grades K-6 and 6-12 Learning Record files are provided in multiple formats. The .doc and .rtf files are intended for those using computers to complete the forms. They include copies of the scales and scale descriptors. There are also print versions of the K-6 and 6-12 Learning Record forms for those completing them by hand.

We suggest that beginning about grade 4, students begin contributing to the Learning Record, gradually taking over more and more of the responsibility for their own record. By high school the student should be expected to take full responsibility for the Learning Record, with teachers responding as needed. Where teachers in middle school or junior high schools have multiple classes we recommend they use the secondary (6-12) version of the Learning Record.

Some high school classes may lend themselves to the college-level Learning Record, so high school teachers may want to familiarize themselves with it. Be sure to read the teacher's manual, which describes how to transfer Learning Record files and teacher comments between the student and the teacher.

Moderation instructions may be useful for teachers at any level. The basic principles described can be adapted for particular situations. The moderation process provides a "reality check" for the evaluations provided by teachers and students.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Peg Syverson

Moderation instructions, K-12 Learning Record

2007-01-20T17:01:00.000-06:00

Three news items about the Learning Record.
I posted instructions for moderation readings on the web site at http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olr/moderations/instructions.html

I've also been working steadily on the K-12 version of the new Learning Record. I've posted the elementary level Learning Record at the weg site. You can download it from the Learning Record downloads page, http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olr/olr.html

Finally, I have started a Google group for anyone interested in the Learning Record. It will provide an email discussion list that you may choose to receive as emails or to read on the web, a place to upload documents (such as school site reports or other information), and a membership list so that members may contact each other. For the time being, I am going to set it so that only members may post to the email discussion list, but anyone may request an invitation for membership privileges. This reduces spam. The URL for the Google group is:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/learning-record

Roses, grasses, chicks, and children

2006-12-28T10:38:00.000-06:00

In all of nature it is obvious that the developmental process is both structured and diverse. It is structured in the sense that all healthy chicks seem to develop along the same path, from embryo to full grown adult. Yet even in the same brood, chicks do not all hatch at the same time. Grasses grow and set seeds higher or lower, depending on rainfall. In the flower garden, roses, even from the same rose bush, do not set buds and flower all at the same time, much less across the garden, where there are flowers that bloom in April, May, June, July; where there are some that bloom in the early morning, while some do not open until the afternoon sun. Yet, a daisy unfolds as a daisy, a tulip as a tulip, reliably and predictably, provided there is not some hindrance: poor soil, lack of water, blight or pests. Each thing unfolds in its own time, in its own perfection, in accord with the life circumstances it encounters. (...more)

Joy to the world!

2006-12-22T20:31:00.000-06:00

The word assessment arouses a variety of responses in teachers and students, but it is safe to say that none of them are happy ones. For some it represents a punishing ordeal, for others an indictment of their faults or defects, and for still others, the oppressive weight of an inhumane and usually highly-technologized administrative mandate. Results are used to celebrate a tiny fraction of the privileged while confronting the rest with their inherent “inadequacies,” insufficient “effort,” and lack of status. Posing behind a facade of “objectivity,” and “standards,” judgments are made that derail lives, create suffering, and reify social inequalities. It is costly, labor-intensive, and punishing. And all of this is entirely unnecessary(...more)

From the Web to Walden: a Manifesto

2006-12-20T08:00:00.000-06:00

It is often asserted that evolutionary change proceeds in the direction of greater complexity: the more complex the organism, the more highly evolved it is. It is possible, though debatable, that this holds true for biology. It is less clear whether it holds true in the domains of social structures, theories, or technology. Even in biological ecosystems, surely there have been extinctions that directly resulted from organisms evolving into greater complexity and specialization only to encounter life conditions that required simplicity and flexibility. Viruses are much simpler than humans, yet they are capable of species-level mutation at blindingly faster speeds. Who is more adaptive? Which species is “more evolved?”

In the evolution of both pedagogical methods and technologies, it seems clearer and clearer to me that the simple-minded belief that more complexity = higher levels of evolution cannot be supported. In fact, the lessons of research and observation both for teaching and learning and for the usability of new technologies demonstrate quite convincingly that real evolution often entails a reduction in complexity and a shift toward greater simplicity. It seems paradoxical, but consider the immense leap forward in technology afforded by the graphical user interface, which greatly simplified the demands on human cognitive resources required by complex command-line applications. (more...)

Teacher's Manual and Reference Guide

2006-12-05T17:31:00.000-06:00

There is now a Teacher's manual and a Reference Guide for the Learning Record. They are posted, along with the LR forms at:

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olr/olr.html

I hope this will help clarify how to use the Learning Record effectively.
A slightly revised version of the LR has also been posted, to add an entry for the teacher's absence policy and a place for a student picture.

Any suggestions or feedback are welcome! Thanks for your patience and support.

New Learning Record version!

2006-12-04T15:54:00.000-06:00

After exhaustive (and exhausting) efforts to provide the Learning Record in a standalone database format, we have returned to the simplicity and ease of use of a basic text document created in Microsoft Word. The new version takes advantage of some useful features in Word, including data fields and hyperlinks. I think you may be surprised at just how lean and easy this version will be. There were a number of contributing factors to this decision, including the fact that the database could not be held down to a size that is portable via email, we had questions about accessibility for students and instructors with disabilities, and the complexity of the application was overwhelming the very simple structure of the Learning Record model. The database version was 9.8 MB, the .doc version is 120 k. The database had 69 layouts, the .doc version has 1. The database version had 81 scripts and countless buttons, the .doc version has none. What it does have is some nifty features that may make it much easier and more fun to use.

You may download the new version in either .doc or .rtf format. There are tips there for how to use it and how to maintain an organized process for transmitting things back and forth between the teacher and the student. There is also a reference guide and a Teacher's Manual. Here is the link to the files:
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olr/olr.html

Please let me know if you have any questions about this transition or the new version of the LR.

New Learning Record Web Site debuts

2006-10-07T23:05:00.000-05:00

The long-overdue update of the Learning Record web site has now been completed. Please check out the pages at http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olr and let me know if you discover any inaccuracies or errors.

Learning Record LAITS Award

2006-07-29T18:31:00.000-05:00

We are happy to announce that the Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services grants program has awarded the Learning Record funding for development of the standalone version of the Learning Record for the summer of 2006. (A complete list of funded projects can be found here). This funding, together with prior funding provided by the Division of Rhetoric and Writing, will enable us to prepare the new version of the Learning Record for fall classes. This new version has been developed in FileMaker Pro, however students and teachers will not need to have the FileMaker application to run the Learning Record program; it is a completely self-contained application. When it is ready for distribution, you may download it here:
http://cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olr/download.html
For further information, please contact Peg Syverson at syverson_at_uts.cc.utexas.edu

Welcome!

2005-09-30T12:21:00.000-05:00

This blog will provide news and information about the Learning Record, an electronic portfolio system for evaluating student performance, for research on teaching and learning, and for professional development of teachers. More information about the Learning Record can be found at the main information site: http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olr/.