For those of you visual people, or people with highly visual learning students or children....
I've been working on some web design lately for one of our homeschooling projects, and I came upon an Online Color Challenge by x-rite. Now, I am not a very visual learning; I'm much more of an oral learner, and a textual learning. But I thought I was pretty good at color perception.
But according to this online test, NOT! I did so much worse than I thought.
Nonetheless, it is a relative quick, but I thought fun and interesting thing to try. My son is an extremely visual learner, but seems to be much less oriented to color than I am. So I will be interested to give him this quiz and see if he does better than I do.
But try it yourself by clicking here. And let me know how you do. Am I the only one who found it much harder (or, that is, performed much worse) that I thought?
Showing posts with label online assessment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label online assessment. Show all posts
Friday, December 2, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Match Your Writing Style to Famous Authors
So our glorious adventure of NaNoWriMo has come to an end! I really enjoyed the experience, but it was intense. Today is the first day in a month that I haven't written some of, or even thought about, the contents of my great American novel. Instead, I developed a Survey Monkey poll, worked on a website, played around with designing a logo, drafted a promotional email for an upcoming event, and trying to figure out how to create an email sign-up list for a big project we're doing. Oh, and of course, made sure we did science, art, PE, math, writing, and Spanish today. You know, just the ordinary day in the life of a non-NaNoWriMo homeschooler....
It has been so long since I've read any Asimov that I don't know if I think that is true or not (and, of course, even thinking of any comparison is an insult to him). But whatever the website does, it does it pretty consistently, because I put various blog posts and some other writing in as well, and Asimov came up pretty often. And when I put some of my son's posts or other writing it, he gets totally different authors than I do.
I think it could be a great thing to use with middle schoolers and high schoolers. Because once the program tells them they write like whoever, that's a great incentive to get them to read some of that person's books and analyze on their own any similarities or differences.
So I don't know how legitimate it is, but it is fun to try. Click here to check it out. Add what famous author your writing style compares to in the comments below.
But one last thing that I wanted to share about NaNoWriMo (which if you aren't into, you are probably sick of hearing about by now) is this fun website I found. It is called I Write Like, and it analyzes any text you've written and input to the site and tells you what author your writing style is similar to. It looks at word choices and sentence structure and such to figure it out.
So, of course, last night I put my entire novel into the Analyzer and discovered that, according to this website, ....
It has been so long since I've read any Asimov that I don't know if I think that is true or not (and, of course, even thinking of any comparison is an insult to him). But whatever the website does, it does it pretty consistently, because I put various blog posts and some other writing in as well, and Asimov came up pretty often. And when I put some of my son's posts or other writing it, he gets totally different authors than I do.
I think it could be a great thing to use with middle schoolers and high schoolers. Because once the program tells them they write like whoever, that's a great incentive to get them to read some of that person's books and analyze on their own any similarities or differences.
So I don't know how legitimate it is, but it is fun to try. Click here to check it out. Add what famous author your writing style compares to in the comments below.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Curriculum Resource: Khan Academy
Only a few more days until Monday's webinar with Blockhead author Joseph D'Agnese talking about using his picture book on Fibonacci for teaching math. (If you missed it earlier, see this post with more details about the webinar and how to participate, or this post about how to win a free copy of the book.) But is you are looking for an even more multimedia approach to math instruction, along with a wider range of topics, a great place to look is Khan Academy.
Khan Academy has a library of 2,100 different educational videos on a range of middle school through college topics, but focused heavily on science and especially math. Just the math subjects offered are extensive--Basic or Developmental Math, Geometry, Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Trigonometry, Differential Equations, Calculus. (In contrast, the History section covers the French Revolution and Napoleon, and that's about it....for now, at least.) So if there is a math topic that your student could use some help with, it's likely that Khan Academy has a video on it.
And the great thing about Khan Academy is that they are giving it all away for free. Sal Khan is a man with a vision--to make education freely available to anyone in the world with an Internet connection. Although he now is getting funding from the Gates Foundation, he started by creating hundreds of video on his own and just making them available via the web. Khan is committed to keep churning out videos until he has the entire curriculum covered. So he's going to be busy for quite a while...
In addition to the videos, he has some interactive exercises and assessments, and a mechanism to allow learning coaches to keep track of their learners' progress through things. It's a wonderful resource for homeschoolers to take advantage of as is appropriate for their students--and the price is certainly right!
Khan Academy has a library of 2,100 different educational videos on a range of middle school through college topics, but focused heavily on science and especially math. Just the math subjects offered are extensive--Basic or Developmental Math, Geometry, Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Trigonometry, Differential Equations, Calculus. (In contrast, the History section covers the French Revolution and Napoleon, and that's about it....for now, at least.) So if there is a math topic that your student could use some help with, it's likely that Khan Academy has a video on it.
And the great thing about Khan Academy is that they are giving it all away for free. Sal Khan is a man with a vision--to make education freely available to anyone in the world with an Internet connection. Although he now is getting funding from the Gates Foundation, he started by creating hundreds of video on his own and just making them available via the web. Khan is committed to keep churning out videos until he has the entire curriculum covered. So he's going to be busy for quite a while...
In addition to the videos, he has some interactive exercises and assessments, and a mechanism to allow learning coaches to keep track of their learners' progress through things. It's a wonderful resource for homeschoolers to take advantage of as is appropriate for their students--and the price is certainly right!
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Career Exploration Resources: Interest and Values Profilers
I had mentioned in a previous post that middle school is a good time for students to start exploring their future careers. I ran into an interesting online source that might help them in that task.
The O*NET Online website, developed by the US Department of Labor, bills itself as "the nation's primary source of occupational information." It has a wealth of information about different occupations, skills required in different fields, and such topics as apprenticeships and education. The information and assessment tests on the site are linked to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' comprehensive database entitled the Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-2011. The Handbook projects the job outlook for a plethora of different occupations up to 2018, as well as containing such valuable information as average salary, educational or experiential requirements, etc.
My favorite part of O*NET are the online career assessment tools they have. One, the Computerized Interest Profiler (CIP), asks questions about what you would or would not like to do for work, and then suggests occupations that fit with your interests. It categorizes your specific interests into six different themes that suggest what aspects of jobs are most important to you personally. So, for example, when I took the test, I scored VERY high on Social, fairly high on Artistic and Investigative---and got ZERO (0) points in both Realistic and Conventional (scores that I'm sure will shock those who know me).
The other assessment is the Work Importance Profiler (WIP), which is more an assessment of the values that are important to you....that is, such factors as job security, on-the-job training, recognition, or advancement, the ability to work alone and/or independently, those sorts of things. I think this one might be trickier for students to answer, because you have to rank things in relative importance, which is harder than just saying whether or not you like to do something. I think it may also be hard for them to consider some of these factors if they haven't had any experience working.
But still, I find these things fascinating. In my case, my top work values were, in order:
Achievement--The Achievement work value involves the need to use your individual abilities and have a feeling of accomplishment.
Relationships--The Relationships work value includes the need for friendly co-workers, to be able to help others, and not be forced to go against your sense of right and wrong.
Independence--The Independence work value refers to the need to do tasks on your own and use creativity in the workplace. It also involves the need to get a job where you can make your own decisions.
My less important values, in order, were:
Recognition--The Recognition work value involves the need to have the opportunity for advancement, obtain prestige, and have the potential for leadership.
Support--The Support work value involves the need for a supportive company, be comfortable with management's style of supervision, and a competent, considerate, and fair management.
Working Conditions--The Working Conditions work value refers to the need to have your pay comparable to others, and have job security and good working conditions. You also need to be busy all the time and have many different types of tasks on the job.
Again, I would say that assessment is pretty spot on. After all, no one who highly values Recognition, Support, and Working Conditions would ever end up homeschooling!
You can download the CIP and the WIP from O*NET to run on your own computer, but I also found two state employment agencies where you could just do it online. The information links to job or educational opportunities in that state, but I think the overall suggestions for matching occupations are the same, and I didn't want to bother with downloading and installing the software. So I took the CIP at the Washington State Employment Security Department site and the WIP at Career Zone California.
It is a fun exercise to do, just to see what they suggest. For example, according to my WIP results, I should be working in music theater....which is funny, because it is a love of mine, but I lack the talent to work in that field. Being a middle school teacher, while not incompatible with my values, was way down on the list, but being a postsecondary teacher was fairly high up. And one of the top suggestions for both my CIP and WIP was Meeting and Convention Planner, which is a job I think I would enjoy--and, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, would make from 50-100% MORE than being a school teacher.
Anyway, I think such tools are a good way to diversify students' viewpoints about the careers they might consider.
The O*NET Online website, developed by the US Department of Labor, bills itself as "the nation's primary source of occupational information." It has a wealth of information about different occupations, skills required in different fields, and such topics as apprenticeships and education. The information and assessment tests on the site are linked to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' comprehensive database entitled the Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-2011. The Handbook projects the job outlook for a plethora of different occupations up to 2018, as well as containing such valuable information as average salary, educational or experiential requirements, etc.
My favorite part of O*NET are the online career assessment tools they have. One, the Computerized Interest Profiler (CIP), asks questions about what you would or would not like to do for work, and then suggests occupations that fit with your interests. It categorizes your specific interests into six different themes that suggest what aspects of jobs are most important to you personally. So, for example, when I took the test, I scored VERY high on Social, fairly high on Artistic and Investigative---and got ZERO (0) points in both Realistic and Conventional (scores that I'm sure will shock those who know me).
The other assessment is the Work Importance Profiler (WIP), which is more an assessment of the values that are important to you....that is, such factors as job security, on-the-job training, recognition, or advancement, the ability to work alone and/or independently, those sorts of things. I think this one might be trickier for students to answer, because you have to rank things in relative importance, which is harder than just saying whether or not you like to do something. I think it may also be hard for them to consider some of these factors if they haven't had any experience working.
But still, I find these things fascinating. In my case, my top work values were, in order:
Achievement--The Achievement work value involves the need to use your individual abilities and have a feeling of accomplishment.
Relationships--The Relationships work value includes the need for friendly co-workers, to be able to help others, and not be forced to go against your sense of right and wrong.
Independence--The Independence work value refers to the need to do tasks on your own and use creativity in the workplace. It also involves the need to get a job where you can make your own decisions.
My less important values, in order, were:
Recognition--The Recognition work value involves the need to have the opportunity for advancement, obtain prestige, and have the potential for leadership.
Support--The Support work value involves the need for a supportive company, be comfortable with management's style of supervision, and a competent, considerate, and fair management.
Working Conditions--The Working Conditions work value refers to the need to have your pay comparable to others, and have job security and good working conditions. You also need to be busy all the time and have many different types of tasks on the job.
Again, I would say that assessment is pretty spot on. After all, no one who highly values Recognition, Support, and Working Conditions would ever end up homeschooling!
You can download the CIP and the WIP from O*NET to run on your own computer, but I also found two state employment agencies where you could just do it online. The information links to job or educational opportunities in that state, but I think the overall suggestions for matching occupations are the same, and I didn't want to bother with downloading and installing the software. So I took the CIP at the Washington State Employment Security Department site and the WIP at Career Zone California.
It is a fun exercise to do, just to see what they suggest. For example, according to my WIP results, I should be working in music theater....which is funny, because it is a love of mine, but I lack the talent to work in that field. Being a middle school teacher, while not incompatible with my values, was way down on the list, but being a postsecondary teacher was fairly high up. And one of the top suggestions for both my CIP and WIP was Meeting and Convention Planner, which is a job I think I would enjoy--and, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, would make from 50-100% MORE than being a school teacher.
Anyway, I think such tools are a good way to diversify students' viewpoints about the careers they might consider.
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