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
00:06:17 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