Retrospective: the ungrading webinar

Wow. Thank you to Aaron Blackwelder, Laura Gibbs, and Jesse Stommel, extraordinary educators and contributing authors of Ungrading, for taking time to think out loud about learning. 115 people registered for the event, and most – including learners who work with me – showed up, representing 28 states as well as Canada, Ireland, and South Africa. Over two hours of conversation and presentation, we explored many topics, and attendees enriched the experience by contributing to the chat.  Special thanks to David Buck for his contributions and ongoing advocacy for #ungrading! Together, everyone created a wonderful dialogue and a library of resources.

Here is the recording, followed by a timeline with links and notes. If you’d like to contribute an idea or a resource, or if you’d like more examples and links to the coursework I do with learners on the public internet, please Contact me – I look forward to continuing the conversation.

00:00:25          ACADEMY OF ONE: THE POWER & PROMISE OF OPEN-SOURCE LEARNING (2021).

 

00:00:34          Credibility bookcases

 

00:01:34          Panelists Aaron Blackwelder, Laura Gibbs, & Jesse Stommel

 

00:01:39         In addition to their many other accomplishments, panelists are all contributing authors to the recently published book UNGRADING, edited by Susan D. Blum, West Virginia University Press (2020)

 

00:04:17         This work is about a personal commitment to learning, not to be confused with jargon such as “personalized learning

 

00:04:31         Autism spectrum

 

00:05:01         Fast Times at Ridgemont High and The Breakfast Club

 

00:05:54         The conversation where Richard Vernon is talking with the janitor about losing his connection with the students

 

00:06:17         Mr. Keating of Dead Poets Society

 

00:06:30         Mr. Hand – he set standards and held every kid accountable, but he also wasn’t going to let a kid go, and when Jeff Spiccoli was in danger of failing, he showed up at Jeff’s house and walked him through American history and made sure that he was able to not just regurgitate information, but was able to synthesize and communicate his own personal ideas about American history.

 

00:08:51         “Tiny Tales” series of folklore and mythology books 100Words.LauraGibbs.net

 

00:09:15         Laura on Twitter: @OnlineCrsLady and @OnlineMythIndia

 

00:11:11         Stockholm syndrome

 

00:12:04         Students in attendance

 

00:12:42         Marshall McLuhan

 

00:12:59         Critical theory

 

00:13:05         Peter McLaren & Schooling As a Ritual Performance

 

00:15:11         The fourth wall

 

00:17:42         Scientific management & behavioral psychology

 

00:18:04         Democratic Education at Cal

[in chat]          How David Buck uses @kwiens62‘s graphic about Growth Mindset Self-talk — https://www.sutori.com/item/before-you-begin-as-you-progress-through-the-labor-of-this-course-i

00:18:14         Paolo Freire

 

00:19:08        John Hurst

 

00:20:15         Pink Floyd: The Wall (album and movie)

 

00:21:07        John Shoup

 

00:21:20         Madonna

 

00:21:35         bell hooks

 

00:21:46         Martin Bickman & R L Widmann

00:22:17         Asao B. Inouye

 

[in chat]         Labor Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity & Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom

 

00:22:25         Cathy Davidson

 

00:22:32         Sean Michael Morris

 

00:22:24         An Urgency of Teachers

 

00:24:33         David Buck on Twitter

 

00:25:07         Lewis Terman

 

[in chat]          Cathy Davidson has a great chapter on Crowdsourcing Ungrading open Pressbook

 

00:25:10         Alfred Binet

 

00:25:15         History of standardized testing in the U.S. military & higher education

 

00:25:24         Biological determinism

 

00:25:47         David Graeber & Bullshit Jobs

 

00:26:55         Capitalist system

 

[in chat]          Spencer Bagley’s presentation on assessment and learning / talk on ungrading

 

00:32:25         anthology.lauragibbs.net

 

00:32:36         Pressbooks

 

00:34:48         Primacy and recency

 

00:35:13         Engaging with traumatic responses to the word “essay”

 

00:36:52         Orbiting the Giant Hairball

 

00:37:47         “Why most schools won’t ‘reinvent’ themselves after the pandemic” by Scott McLeod

 

00:38:54         Jessie: “You can’t kick ass by yourself.” [NOTE: There is no link for this. It’s just true.]

 

00:39:59         Jessie: “I don’t want to use the learning management system because the learning management system is all roads lead to the grade book.” [Ibid.]

 

00:41:06         Aaron: “The kids who were disengaged and disenfranchised during online learning were just as disengaged and disenfranchised before online learning.” [Ibid.]

 

00:43:02         Laura: The use of grades instead of Pass/ No Pass favored by students and professors, but admin feared the bureaucratic load and the impact on GPA. [Ibid.]

 

00:46:12         Textual analysis of student Google Doc

 

00:48:14         AARON’S SLIDES

 

00:48:42         Spectrum Life Magazine

 

[in chat]          Colin Madland’s dissertation overview on the impact of online assessment practices and lit review

 

[in chat]          David Buck’s crowdsourced #ungrading presentations chapter

 

[in chat]          The single-point rubric

 

[in chat]          Structured observed learning outcomes

 

[in chat]          Unilateral grading contract to improve learning and teaching

 

[in chat]          Specifications grading

 

01:14:54         teaching.lauragibbs.net has the content from Laura’s “unpresentation” and features randomized student comments

 

01:17:24         University of Mary Washington course evaluations

 

01:19:53         JESSE’S SLIDES

 

01:21:16         #fourwordpedagogy

 

01:22:47         Washington Post article about online education and cheating

 

01:23:29         “Cheating in Academic Institutions: A Decade of Research” (McCabe, 2001); CHEATING IN COLLEGE (2012)

 

01:27:24         Cortisol

 

01:35:35         LoJack

 

[in chat]         Ghost 

 

01:41:14         getting students to give feedback to one another and helping model what that looks like for them

 

01:41:59         Peter Elbow on ranking, evaluating, and liking

 

[in chat]         On peer feedback

 

[in chat]         Students learn more from giving feedback than receiving feedback

 

[in chat]         The meaningful writing project

 

01:47:53         Banksy

 

01:48:04         Graffiti

 

01:54:52         Can you help me understand why you’re not using capitalization?

 

01:58:20         TEACHING TO TRANSGRESS

 

01:58:41         Meeting needs for fun and joy – and even play – through teaching

 

For more about ungrading and teaching, Contact me, or our panelists – here, via their websites, or on Twitter:

 

David: @prestonlearning

Aaron: @AaronSBlackwel1

Laura: @OnlineCrsLady

Jesse: @jessifer