eLASTIC: Electronic Learning and Assessment Tool for Interdisciplinary Connections
In 2009, I and my co-investigators Ms. Jan Johnston, Dr. Elnour Hamad, Dr. Joan Rhodes and Dr. Frances Smith were awarded a National Priorities Research Program grant from the Qatar National Research Foundation for developing eLASTIC: Electronic Learning and Assessment Tool for Interdisciplinary Connections.
This project is an extension of my graduate research a number of years ago that involved high school art students in basing all of their study in computer hypertextual webs using the software Storyspace to push students to think in more interconnective ways.
In this research we ask: What if there was a way to assess teaching and learning while at the same time contribute to the process? What if that way was flexible, individual, and provided a space for feedback, change and growth? What if we could change the entire education system to be accountable for relevant teaching, learning and knowing? The kind of knowing that provokes inventive thought, ideas, and yes, the next Google!
One of the basic premises for eLASTIC is that students’ knowledge evolves and grows as they make connections. Therefore, assessment of this learning should chart that progress as well as contribute to it, exactly as eLASTIC does.
