From discussions yesterday i feel it imperative to test the 4 key strands of #digitaltudes on an initial baseline assessment. My favoured approach would be a project over the first half-term. What and how this project will work is still open to discussion. From my point of view, at the moment, i want to try and link assessment/badges etc to the excellent Blooms Digital Taxonomy. The idea behind this is to define the different taxonomic levels, provide the Digital Taxonomy Verbs along with with some possibilities for classroom use. (http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/file/view/Bloom%27s+quicksheets.pdf)

Along with this the following two documents could help to see the proportion of lower/higher order thinking skills being used inthe assessment.
http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+and+Assessment
http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+Analysis+Tools

As stated at present this is still very much a WIP however please feel free to comment and take this further.

@mrcursontweets has made some valid points in his post. It is hard to begin to think about a baseline assessment without the badges/assessment criteria being finalised.

I've always been a little sceptical about the way that Blooms Digital Taxonomy is implemented in schools or other assessment criteria I have see. Many people just read it as a list of verbs to use when writing the assessment criteria, this results in simple Nationalsesque assessment criteria which act as a series of hoops students have to jump through.

I would like to see some kind of literacy element introduced in to the assessment criteria and the baseline assessment. Primary schools and English departments quickly and accurately identify students literacy levels and with the use of blogging as a tool for assessment we have the perfect opportunity to introduce literacy in to the assessment scheme (http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/file/view/blogging+rubric.pdf).

As @mrcursontweets points out it needs to be an integrated task covering the key strands of #digitalstudies. Depending on the schools individual circumstances it could be done at the start of Y7 or as a transition project in the last half term of Y6.

I was watching a program on Sky Atlantic last night where competing marketing companies had to design a marketing campaign (web/print/tv) for a charity and was thinking a challenge such as this to create a digital asset would be a nice starting point, allowing students to choose the asset they want to create - letting us differentiate by app as well as taking in to account students experiences at primary school. Th

Great stuff posted so far

quick simple question: This baseline assessment would probably have to take a semi-structured format of some sorts and at this point I could list the following options regardless of their merits

1. A multiple choice test covering the competencies
2. A written exam
3. An interview
4. A hack day series of exercises
5. combination of above

thoughts?

addendum - we are trying to obviously shy away from tests and exams but perhaps we need to bite the bullet for a baseline?

I think we should shun the testing especially multiple choice tests, poorly thought through multiple choice tests only end up recalling facts and not promoting higher order thinking skills as well as not giving students the chance to demonstrate the skills they have. One of the purposes of the baseline should be to see what software skills the students are coming in with and to do that effectively we need a practical element to the baseline. Testing/exams also make it harder for students to collaborate with each other, which is a key skill students need to develop for #digitalstudies. I can see the need for a written exam to test some elements of the students knowledge, however I think these could be incorporated in to a larger project.

I like the idea of hack days, although I know in my school there are reservations from SLT about giving a whole day or two off timetable for them, as a result I am trying to develop a collaborative project as my baseline, using groups of students in set groups where they work with students who went to other primary schools, who are given a project which allows us to address all four strands of #digitalstudies. These are my (initial) thoughts so far

Context: Community group wants to increase its profile and have asked you to develop a digital asset to promote it in local schools

For Digital Literacy - groups decide an asset to design/produce - interactive presentation, podcast, app, video - justify choices with reference to current technology, existing skills within the group and access to resources/hardware, copyright issues (this also covers Digital Society)

For Digital Authoring - creation of the asset the students decide to produce

The only strand I am struggling with is Digital Technology, maybe asking them to design/test/improve the asset

Assessment: Blogs/End of Baseline "Pitch"/Self Evaluation

This is by no means a definitive project, just ideas I have been mulling over since we started this conversation.

Agree with Kishtiaq to some extent, does the baseline have to be a test/exam, can we not create something that we can use as a baseline that is based on skills and competencies. I think in the first term of school the idea of a collaborative project would be good however we need to make sure that each students contribution can be easily measured. My idea would be something similar to:

Initial stages - group work to discuss the problem, research possible solutions, brainstorm etc
Development stage - each child is responsible for their own end product however they then need to "pitch" their product to other members of the group at the end.

Assessment via: Blogs of learning/tasks undertaken through the project, Self-evaluation of the end-product/pitch. Students create an ePortfolio/bPortfolio of their work via Mahara view etc. This view can include their blogs and all files produced.

Once again just musings and ideas based on discussions so far.

When practical assessment was mentioned my first thoughts was P.E - how do they do it. I haven't been able to speak to our PE department yet I had a quick look on the internet to see if anyone had shared what they are doing and this is what I found - http://harrisfederation.org.uk/uploads/document/2.%20accurate%20assessment%20as%20a%20tool%20for%20success%20in%20PE.D.Buss.pdf

@mrcursontweets I like the peer review aspect of what you are suggesting via the "pitch" to the rest of the group. I think you are right to move it to a group based task where students work in a small group for the baseline project and don't pitch to the whole class. I was exploring using the Weavers Triangle (v active community scheme in Burnley, not sure if it goes as far as Pendle) to put me in touch with local design/construction companies in the Burnley/Pendle area to judge pitches.

matafawali - The PE document you refer to is very detailed and gives us a good idea of what kind of materials we need to produce - I spoke to the CL PE at our school this afternoon and they do something very similar, but they seem to be discrete activities and we need to move away from that. The most important thing I took away from that document is the need for a clear rubric to assess the "level" students are working at.

There's a 3 week group to individual project (by the marvelous @andyfield) looks pretty good. It would test research and presentation skills. I've also got an aging paper exam that could work in combination if it was updated.

Project: http://www.nwvle.net/course/view.php?id=413
Written test: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7j6m9101rnem4oq/IPlAeQqaGv

Hi Andrew, the project you mentioned looks quite detailed, a good starting point from which to develop a project.

I think the research element is important, but on first glance the project seems not to really look at planning and evaluation of the work, which I think are important skills to test.

The research element needs to be more focussed on students selecting the information appropriately rather than giving up to a quarter of the marks for the whole project for using high quality images.

Th project is pushing students towards using MS Word/Publisher by giving them a magazine cover, I think the overall project should allow the students to choose and justify which piece of software they are going to use.

I think the theoretical aspect is good and will give us a good understanding of which software the students are familiar with