Bring on the CSS! And Assessment

 Bring on the CSS! Okay, that’s much more confident than I feel, though I am not impressed with my basic and boring webpage so far, so I’m excited to add some color and style, though I still can’t “see” how this will pan out in the end. I’m looking forward to exploring templates because that will surely help me to see the final project a bit more clearly.  

On another note, assessment is hard. Bloom and I spent some time together today, discussing his taxonomy. Well, really I did the talking (and griping and complaining about how my great ideas were NOT higher order) and he just kept sending me the same pyramid that’s been around for years. That guy is consistent if nothing else.  

I know WHAT I want people to get from my course, but having them prove it is hard – it's been a minute since I’ve worked on the alignment piece and it’s SO important, but also doesn’t always end where I think it will. Great activities mean nothing if learners don’t do more than regurgitate information.  

I also had a moment of insecurity. Who would want to learn this stuff from me? Will my site REALLY be something I’m able to share with others? And will I want to? Then, I took my own advice and went back to the basics, and remembered what the purpose of the assignment was – to learn the HTML/CSS, and the alignment piece. I made a point to focus on the CREATE and APPLY elements, including a self assessment for the learner to demonstrate how he or she can use the information in practice.  

I’m concerned with the level of “fill in the blank” that my assessments require, but I can adjust that as I work through the design of the actual modules. Just like I had to modify my assessments to really hit the objectives, I’m concerned I’ll need to modify them again to adjust to my limitations due to coding knowledge or lack there of. I did speak to a family member who assured me that any code can be found and borrowed, so If I have an idea, it can work, though I’m skeptical with my poorly aligned table and my plain black and white text at the moment. It’s interesting how challenging this is to me – I feel like an old dog learning a new trick, but this is a good thing to keep in mind as I move forward with building my module as many people that it might apply to may have been in the field for a long while and may just need a refresher or some renewed motivation - I will need to remember this to ensure that it isn’t condescending and properly respects those with experience in the field of customer service vs. Those starting out. I can do this with encouraging access of prior knowledge, as well as allowing learners space to create and analyze vs. Remember and respond based on content alone.