1) encouraging writers to improve their drafts over a cycle of several revisions with the aid of formative feedback
2) encouraging writers to improve their ability to be good reviewers
Both of these things were difficult and time-consuming for me as a teacher, and quick response times were important if the feedback is to be most helpful in encouraging students to improve their drafts. Intervening in review processes to give feedback to reviewers is, in most cases, all but impossible if you are also trying to give timely feedback to writers. There are simply to many texts to examine.
Eli is a tool that addresses the logistical problems of intervening meaningfully in review cycles by offering some help to coordinate and evaluate reviews. You can see more about how it works on the Eli Development Blog. But at the moment I'd like to focus on how it reflects a learning theory I posted about earlier: peer scaffolding.
Oh...wait...I've already done that. Watch this:
Video by the awesome Dave Johnson
In case you are wondering, we will be using Eli during our in residence week. I think you'll see how some of the learning theories we've read about so far influenced its design. And I hope you'll ask questions about how we made it. I think teachers should make technologies and not just use them. We'll close our in residence session on Friday with a discussion about that, and in the process we might dream up the next important teaching tool!
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ReplyDeleteSounds like an exciting tool. I'm looking forward to both using it and learning more about it this week.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I have to admit I was a little relieved by this post. I was starting to second guess after the teachnology post and think that I needed to find an Eli building (which could easily have been avoided if I'd just remembered your introduction post). ;)
Hi Cait...ha! Glad you didn't end up wandering around the new art museum under construction: http://broadmuseum.msu.edu/releases/index.php?releases
ReplyDeleteEli seems to fill a pretty big void for teachers of writing. It places real value on the writing that students are doing about their peers writing, which I think is immensely powerful. I've found in my own practice that there's nothing quite like writing about writing. Getting meta, if you will, affords you a view of your own practices (and other people's practices -- successful and otherwise) that can be really helpful.
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