April 2013 Blog Posts (2)

Sometimes when you're learning a new skill or trying to figure out how to apply a new philosophy, it helps to watch that skill or philosophy being used or implemented in a totally different arena.  Thinking outside the box and adopting new ideas can be difficult when you're extremely familiar with your own domain.  Observing the skill or philosophy at work in someone else's domain is less threatening.  Once you are able to see the benefit of the skill or the power of the philosophy it might…

A natural outgrowth of the AFL philosophy is the idea that redos are essential to learning.  After all, if learning (rather than calculating a grade) is what's most important, and if for learning to occur students need lots of practice and opportunities to learn from their mistakes, then redoing an assignment just makes sense.  If students can't redo an assignment - either right away, at a later date, or by demonstrating mastery on a future assignment - then by definition the assignment was…