Role reversal: students writing their own revision quiz??

After using ClassMarker previously with a group of current learners and experiencing much success, I would most certainly use this tool again however this time as a student-centred technology.

I would do this according to Marzano & Pickering’s (1997) Dimensions of Learning framework with a targeted focus on developing/transferring students’ declarative knowledge to procedural knowledge/skills. I would achieve this by using the software with a group of senior learners as they are more likely to embrace the technology/process more quickly and implement it at a faster rate than their junior counterparts (as time gets very tight by the last 2 weeks of term!).

My Year 12 Geography students (only 10 of them) would do this in week 8/9 (revision week) where they firstly design and then develop/implement their own knowledge-based quiz on Sustaining Biodiversity. A single lesson would be spent modelling the technology to the students on how to create their own quiz and the remainder of the week would be left to the students to write up their questions and suitable answers, implement their quiz and assessing their peer’s knowledge.

This testing system is effective to use for this theory-based assessment however, it would be unsuitable for a higher-order thinking assessment item such as a short-response/response to stimulus test due to the types of answers allowed on the quizzes. This student-centred tool incorporates elements from Oliver’s Learning Design Theory (1999) as the technology (ClassMarker) is used as an ICT learning resource that plays a clear and purposeful role in facilitating the students’ learning in the context of a collaborative learning environment.

References:

Marzano, R & Pickering, D 1997, Dimensions of learning: Teacher's manual (2nd ed.), Aurora, Colorado: McRel.

Oliver, R 1999, Learning Design: The Learning Design Construct, viewed 9 August 2009, http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/project/learn_design.htm.