Professional Learning about Assessment and BYOD

I am preparing to facilitate two professional learning sessions for my new colleagues. Each will last 90 minutes. The first will focus on assessment in a BYOD environment. The other will focus on student discussions (small group and whole class) also with a focus on how technology can support and improve these student interactions.

Here are my non-negotiables as I develop these session plans:

1. Pedagogy is the focus, technology plays a vital supporting role.
2. As facilitator I will walk the walk, i.e. I will model, not just describe, the pedagogy.
3. The instructional strategies and technology applications will have cross-disciplinary relevance and utility.
4. Everyone will leave prepared to implement new pedagogy AND tools in their next lessons or units in ways that help students connect intellectually and experientially with the learning.

I have just about completed my outlines of each session. I still have a couple of choices to make, but need time now to let everything percolate. And it was during this time that my daughter, also a high school student, took the PSATs. The evening after she sat for that test (a phrase that speaks volumes about the testing experience) she was describing to me a growing #PSAT response being spread through social media. So I captured her on video describing what was happening. Then I paired that video with pictures of student assessments that I took while students were working around me in the library and snapshots of the social media posts. Add a little music and this is what emerged:

I am planning to use it as the ignite for my assessment session. I like it because it doesn't point fingers at any current assessment practices by my colleagues who are all incredibly dedicated, hyper-intelligent educators. It shows how students react to standardized (non-personalized) experiences. It also shows how students' networks are national or global, they default to digital modes of communication when they care about what they are discussing -- even when they have been told not to discuss it. Wow. They are responding to a standardized experience with personal insights that are shared with a global community in ways that are entirely digital. Doesn't that invite us to rethink how we assess the students in our classes?!

I'm curious if you see these ideas in my video... I still have time to improve it. Thanks!