Innovation in Evaluation

On April 4th and 5th, 2011 the workshop "Innovation in Evaluation" took place in the OLPC Cambridge office.

Workshop Organizers: Claudia Urrea, Walter Bender and Bakhtiar Mikhak

Nearly two million XO laptops have been distributed to children in over 40 countries. In 5 countries, in particular, XO laptops are an embodiment of a deep commitment by a group of politicians, community leaders, and educators to implement disruptive large scale education reform initiatives that will advance their countries into the twenty first century and prepare their children for interconnected global creative knowledge economies. The stakes for the success of these initiatives are high, and local stakeholders as well as numerous international organizations look to these bold experiments with cautious optimism. These programs hold the promise to radically expand and realize the learning and creative potentials of entire nations at all societal levels. As such, arguably, the greatest challenges and opportunities facing these initiatives are in designing and implementing evaluation programs that help make the outcomes visible, understandable and actionable by as broad an audience as possible.

Objective

The goal of this workshop is to bring together some of the leading practitioners and researchers in learning, education and technology to share and reflect on methodologies and data from active OLPC implementations and to critically review promising approaches to data collection, assessment and decision making in one-to-one computing and learning projects. The facilitators and invited presenters are selected for their expertise in new media and computational literacies and curricula, data visualization and alternative forms of assessment, and educational leadership. Workshop participants include researchers and experts from OLPC laptop initiatives in Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Nicaragua and Colombia.

Participants

• María De La Paz Peña

Educational Manager of Paraguay Educa, Paraguay.

• Félix Garrido Ching

Educational Coordinator of Zamora Teran Foundation, Nicaragua.

• Andrés Peri Hada

Director Research, Evaluation, Statistics Department of ANEP, Uruguay.

• Heddy Beatriz Becerra Tresierra

Volunteer program Coordinator, Perú.

• Sandra Barragan

Country Manager OLPC Colombia, Colombia.

Guest Speakers

• Ann Koufman-Frederick

Superintendent of Watertown Public Schools School Leadership, Professional Development, Program Evaluation, Testing and Assessment, Curriculum

• Joan DiMicco

Design of Studies in Social Media Research Scientist, Manager, Visual Communication Lab IBM Research, Cambridge, MA

• Evangeline Stefanakis

Associate Professor and Faculty Fellow with Provost Educational Foundations, Leadership and Counseling program School of Education Boston University

• Margaret Weigel

New digital media, design and research work

• Andres Monroy

PhD candidate at the MIT Media Lab, leader of the Scratch online community

Agenda Day 1

Topic	Info	Presenter
Opening Session	Welcome and Overview. Introductions and Goals	Claudia Urrea. Director of Learning of OLPC LA
Thematic Session 1: Professional development, New Media and Curriculum, and Assessment. How all the elements fit together	?	Ann Koufman-Frederick http://users.rcn.com/koufman/resume/index.html
Breakout Sessions 1	What does our current professional development and educational curricula promote? What can be improved and How?	All
Thematic Session 2: Data Visualization: Design of Studies in Social Media	Reading: Motivations for Social Networking at Work	Joan DiMicco https://researcher.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=us-joan.dimicco
Breakout Sessions 2: Bring Your Own Data	What data are we collecting? How are we sharing the data with stakeholders and reflecting on them?	All
Day 1 Closing	Reports from Breakout Sessions and Reflections	Claudia Urrea

Agenda Day 2

• Final Session Framework for new media literacy Margaret Weigel

Readings: Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century http://newmedialiteracies.org/files/working/NMLWhitePaper.pdf

• Actions to be taken: What is important to measure? Why and how? What data should Sugar collect? How? How do communicate the impact? and to whom?

• Workshop Closing: Reflection about the workshop and future actions

Topic	Info	Presenter
Overview of the day	Goals and future actions	Claudia Urrea. Director of Learning of OLPC LA
Thematic Session 3: Alternative ways of assessment and understanding impact	Readings: Failing Our Students, NYTimes Article (attached), Multiple Intelligences and Portfolios: A Window into the Learners Mind (book, available on arrival)	Evangeline Stefanakis http://www.bu.edu/sed/about-us/faculty/evangeline-harris-stefanakis/
Breakout Sessions 1	How do we make sense of the whole, by understanding a few?	All
Thematic Session 4: Data Visualization: Design of Studies in Social Media	Reading: Motivations for Social Networking at Work	Joan DiMicco https://researcher.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=us-joan.dimicco
Breakout Sessions 2: Bring Your Own Data	What data are we collecting? How are we sharing the data with stakeholders and reflecting on them?	All
Day 1 Closing	Reports from Breakout Sessions and Reflections	Claudia Urrea