Readings for "Education Technology and Assessment/Rubrics"

       Of course, the largest problem facing a teacher in the digital age was pointed out time and again in these articles--namely, how does a teacher fairly grade such a wide range of options? The idea of a digital portfolio becomes appealing in such a situation, because it allows for many modes of educational expression, and also has the benefit of providing the teacher with a record of progress that student makes in a subject.
       What I found most interesting was the description of a "blueprint" as an assessment tool, which was detailed in the article titled "Evaluating Student Projects". Especially in the case of film or other multimedia projects, this method of evaluation avoids much of the confusion that stems from individuals or groups designing their own presentation. The only drawback is that a blueprint may lack a very solid rating or grading scale. This is where, I believe, rubrics would make their appearance.
        I am still getting used to the difference between holistic and analytic rubrics, and I know they are separated by important distinctions. For holisitc rubrics (as was said in "Designing Scoring Rubrics for Your Classroom"), it seems that there is often no definitive answer to a proposed question. Also, some mistakes in the process can be tolerated as long as the final product is of high quality. Analytic rubrics, on the other hand, are best used when there is a concise and quantifiable answer to the proposed question. I never considered the difference between rubrics before, and I now see how important this is. I am planning on being an english teacher, so I believe I will be relying on holisitc rubrics more often than analytic rubrics. I say this because literature and literary criticism are constantly subject to revaluation; as we learn more about particular authors, novels and their development, our understanding of the great works of literature also alters. If I were to assign a project--perhaps one that concerns the book The Giver and the morality of euthanasia--it would be unfair of me to say one answer is correct and one is wrong. An holistic rubric gives me the opportunity to entertain all viewpoints as long as they are presented clearly and with purpose.
       As far as rubrics are conerned, the most helpful piece of advice came from Reeves and Stanford in "Rubrics in the Classroom: Assessments for Students and Teachers". In this article they write that "before beginning development of a rubric, the teacher should clearly visualize what is expected from the written project, product or process" (2). By working backwards in this way, it is easier for both the teacher and the students to get a grasp of how each component of the product is evaluated, how the final product will be graded, and how one can see that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I think group projects in particualr can benefit from this style of evaluation/grading. It would quite an academic experience for students to see how all their individual labors coalesce into a coherent, and possibly novel, approach to a subject.