How can we upgrade performance tasks with technology? (Part 5)
Today’s students are truly digital natives and it makes sense to let them play in the digital sandbox. Accordingly, an increasing number of schools provide students with technology (laptops and tablets) and/or allow their learners to BYOD (bring your own device) to the classroom. Authentic performance tasks offer many opportunities for involving students in the purposeful and productive use of technology for finding and processing information, interacting with others, and communicating. In addition to the increasing availability of digital devices, a growing number of free or very inexpensive applications (apps) are available to transform a mundane task or assignment. Most of these apps are built for Web 2.0, and many can be used on a variety of digital devices including cell phones and tablets.
In this blog, we will explore ways in which teachers and students can make use of various digital technologies and apps to enhance performance tasks.
Research-based Tasks
The ability to locate relevant information for a purpose is recognized as a particularly valuable skill in an information-rich world where knowledge continually expands. One type of performance task involves students in gathering information to explore a topic, answer a question, investigate an issue, or solve a problem. Such research-based tasks can clearly benefit from the application of digital tools and apps.
Flashback
“When I began teaching in the early 1970’s, students’ access to information in school was generally limited to the knowledge of teachers, textbooks (often outdated), encyclopedias and other reference sources available in libraries. How times have changed!” — Jay McTighe
Today’s students can access much of the world’s knowledge on their smart phones on a 24/7 basis, and there are innumerable websites offering up-to-date, well-organized and curated sources of information. Many of these excellent reference sites include primary source materials to enable students to conduct truly authentic research. Here are a few of my favorites:
Cautionary Notes
Despite the enormous potential offered by such Internet-based information sources to enhance meaningful research, the potential for superficial information gathering and uncritical analysis abounds.
Flashback
“As a student in the 60’s, the “research” I did consisted mostly of locating and copying information gleaned from an encyclopedia or a reference book. As a teacher in the 70’s and 80’s, I tried to teach students how to synthesize information from more than a single source and to communicate what they found in their own words, rather than simply copying verbatim from a source. It was always a struggle and the results were mixed.” — Jay
Today, we face the prospect that web-based research projects can too easily be accomplished by a speedy Google search, a “cut and paste” from a Wikipedia entry, or the appropriation of a previously published student research paper. To avoid these likelihoods, I recommend framing research-based performance tasks around authentic issues, problems and essential questions for which “the answer” cannot be Googled.
As an example, Benjamin Yeo, a high school World History teacher at an international school, frames his courses around open-ended, issues-based questions that require research, thoughtful analysis, discussion and debate, and communication with support for the position taken or solution proposed. This year, one of his questions is, Who is responsible for the plight of the world’s migrants? He also encourages student-generated questions that form the basis for research projects. His methodology engages students in “doing history” — not just learning facts about historical periods.
Here are examples of performance tasks built around information gathering and application to address authentic problems and issues.
Astronomer-Locating A Telescope (gr. 5)
Environmental Scientist: Fracking (gr. 7)
Marketing Segment Analyst (gr. 9)
The plethora of knowledge websites presents another challenge for today’s digital learners and their teachers. While volumes of information are immediately accessible, the credibility of that information is not guaranteed. Indeed, the instant availability of “stuff” on-line demands a commitment to developing the critical thinking capacities needed to enable students to know how to gauge the extent to which the information they find online is accurate, complete and unbiased.
I endorse the systematic teaching of critical thinking skills and associated dispositions, including comparing and evaluating sources, distinguishing fact from opinion, identifying potential bias and willingness to change one’s mind if the evidence is compelling. Such instruction can be guided by an overarching essential question that can be posed to students from the elementary grades through college: How do I know what to believe in what I see, read and hear? For research-based, performance tasks, I also recommend that their associated rubrics include a trait for critical analysis of information to make it clear that merely locating information is insufficient.
Idea
Use the following website in a lesson to help cultivate a more skeptical attitude toward on-line information!
Similarly, introducing a verification website like Snopes (http://www.snopes.com) gives learners a tool to debunk the many “urban legends” and bogus claims circulating on the Internet.
Tasks involving Authentic Audiences and Products
In Blog #3 in this series, I presented the G.R.A.S.P.S. format as a way of creating a more authentic context for performance tasks, by establishing: a real-world Goal; a meaningful Role for the student; an authentic (or simulated) Audience(s); a contextualized Situation that involves real-world application; student-generated Products and Performances; and performance Standards (criteria) by which successful performance would be judged.
The “A” and “P” categories within G.R.A.S.P.S. offer natural opportunities for upgrading tasks with digital tools.
Rather than simply completing a task on paper to turn into their teacher or share with their class, students can target a world-wide audience and publish their work using the many available apps. For instance, instead of an oral presentation to one’s classmates, students can record a “Ted Talk” and upload it as a Podcast or Vodcast. As they develop skills of narrative writing, young students can use cartoon creation apps such as Strip Generator or Toondoo to practice plot/character development and story sequencing. Instead of composing an editorial to the school paper, students can share their opinions via a blog post through WordPress or EduBlog.
Figure 1 presents a before-and-after example of a performance task for which Role, Audience, and Product have been upgraded. Figure 2 offers a chart suggesting ways in which traditional products and performances could be upgraded through the use of free apps.
Note: When appropriate, students may be given some choice in how they show their learning, and the many available apps offer practical ways for personalizing performance tasks. Experience shows that when students are given appropriate choices on worthy tasks, they are more likely to put forth effort and experience a genuine sense of accomplishment for a job well done. See my Blog #4 in this series in which the topic of differentiation in performance tasks is discussed.
Conclusion
While I encourage teachers to incorporate digital tools as part of their performance tasks whenever possible and appropriate, another cautionary note is in order. We must always keep in mind that our aim in using performance tasks is to engage students in authentic and meaningful learning and to collect appropriate evidence of that learning — not to simply jump on the latest “cool” app or tech tool. Students can easily become absorbed in the bells and whistles of the technology or become absorbed in product creation and lose site of the overall purpose of the task. If and when we incorporate digital tools as part of performance tasks, we want to insure that “the juice is worth the squeeze.”
- McTighe, J. (2013). Core learning: Assessing what matters most. Midvale, UT: School Improvement Network.
- McTighe, J. and March, T. (2015). “Choosing apps by design.” Educational Leadership, May 2015. Alexandria, VA:, ASCD
For a collection of authentic performance tasks and associated rubrics, see Defined STEM: http://www.definedstem.com
For a complete professional development course on performance tasks for your school or district, see Performance Task PD with Jay McTighe: http://www.performancetask.com
For more information about the design and use of performance tasks, see Core Learning: Assessing What Matters Most by Jay McTighe: http://www.schoolimprovement.com
