What Do You Need to Know About Item Analysis?

I've been following a great series of blog posts from Questionmark. Greg Pope, Analytics and Psychometrics Manager for Questionmark, has written an 8-part series on Item Analysis and Classical Test Theory (CTT). Item analysis is currently a hot-button topic for any discussion involving testing and Greg presents the information in an manner that is both interesting and easy to follow. I highly recommend that you read the following series of posts or download "Item Analysis Analytics: The White Paper." (You may need to create a free membership to the Questionmark community to download the white paper):

Item Analysis Analytics Part 1: What is Classical Test Theory?
Item Analysis Analytics Part 2: Conducting an Item Analysis
Item Analysis Analytics Part 3: What to Look for in an Item Analysis Report
Item Analysis Analytics Part 4: The Nitty-Gritty of Item Analysis
Item Analysis Analytics Part 5: Outcome Discrimination and Outcome Correlation
Item Analysis Analytics Part 6: Determining Whether a Question Makes the Grade
Item Analysis Analytics Part 7: The psychometric good, bad and ugly
Item Analysis Analytics Part 8: Some problematic questions

This is a great resource for item analysis and CTT and it should be required reading for anyone that interprets tests at any level! J.T.

Top Cultural & Educational Video Sites

Looking for great cultural and educational video? The Open Culture Blog has compiled a list of sites that feature intelligent videos. This list was produced with the help of their readers and it continues to grow over time. I think you will find some great resources...take a look!

ABC Documentaries: This site pulls together some of the best documentaries aired on ABC television in Australia.

Academic Earth: Some call this “the Hulu for education.” The idea is to take academic videos from top-notch universities and let users watch them with a very user-friendly interface. Though a young site, many users are giving it high marks.

Arkive.org: The site gathers together “the very best films and photographs of the world’s species into one centralised digital library, to create a unique audio-visual record of life on Earth.” A great site for naturalists and nature lovers.

Australian Screen Archive: The Australian National Film and Sound Archive provides free and worldwide access to over 1,000 film and television titles – a treasury of down-under video 100 years in the making.

Babelgum: Babelgum’s goal is to act as an international ‘glue’, bringing a huge range of professional and semi-professional content to a global audience – like a modern-day Tower of Babel. They’re also making an effort to get their content to smartphones. They have an iPhone app now, and apps for other phones on the horizon.

BestOnlineDocumentaries: As one reader describes it, “This site is a bit out of date and some of the links are broken, but it’s still a great compilation of online documentaries.” For more documentaries, you should also see Snagfilms mentioned below.

BigIdeas: This show, which comes out of Canada, ”offers a variety of thought-provoking topics which range across politics, culture, economics, art history, science…. The program has introduced Ontario viewers to the impressive brainpower of people like Niall Ferguson on American empire, Daniel Libeskind on architecture, Robert Fisk on the Middle East, George Steiner on the demise of literacy, Camille Paglia on aesthetic education, Tariq Ramadan on being a Western Muslim, Noam Chomsky on U.S. politics, Leon Kass on dying, Janice Stein on accountability and governance.” See the full list of videos here.

BigThink: “Offers high quality video interviews and insight from the world’s most influential experts in business, entertainment, education, religion and media.” BigThink was founded partly with the help of Larry Summers, formerly the president of Harvard, now Obama’s right hand economic man.

Bloggingheads.TV: We had several readers highly recommend bloggingheads.tv. Here is how bloggingheads has been described elsewhere: “a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast online to viewers.”

Channel N: Get brain & behavior videos with Sandra Kiume. Part of PsychCentral.

CultureCatch: CultureCatch.com has over 160 half-hour interviews with today’s seminal artists in film, theater, music and literature. Here you’ll find in-depth interviews with smart culture individuals dissecting art, comedy, fashion, film, music, politics, television, theater, even cooking.

Edge.org Video: Edge.org is run by John Brockman, literary agent to some of the most important science writers in the US and beyond. You’ll find videos featuring these thinkers on the Edge’s web site.

Europa Film Treasures: Thanks to Europa Film Treasures, you can spend hours looking back through an archive of European film. Theses films range from “comedy to science fiction, from westerns to animation, from erotic to ethnological movies.” Highly recommended by our readers.

Explore.org: A non-profit that showcases the good works of non-profits internationally. Lots of great educational topics from Tiananmen Square to Jerusalem to Orcas. The site itself hosts tons of film and photographs.

Folkstreams: A collection of short films and mini-documentaries on American roots culture, including music, folkart and traditional customs.

Fora.TV: A large site that gathers video from live events, lectures, and debates taking place at the world’s top universities, think tanks and conferences.

Forum Network: PBS and NPR have jointly launched the Forum Network where you will find free lectures online. I expect this to be a rich resource as time goes by.

Free Documentaries Online: The name says it all.

Global Oneness Project: Global Oneness produces documentary films and interviews that are exploring our modern day struggles within the ecological, economical, and social systems and how these battles aren’t isolated but part of a interdependent whole. Features over 200 short films and interviews.

Intelligent Life on YouTube: The Open Culture Blog created a handy list of the intelligent video collections available on YouTube. Have a look and also see the list of their favorite individual YouTube videos.

Internet Archive – Feature Films: This archive of feature films contains some important classics from the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s. We’ve featured ten good ones in a previous post.

Learner.org: Annenberg Media presents an impressive video collection that will appeal to lifelong learners and teachers. It includes a lot of high quality programming on American history, world literature and music, science and much more. Thanks Julie for the tip.

LinkTV: “Global and national news, uncompromising documentaries, diverse cultural programs, connecting you to the world.”

Living Room Candidate: Television ads have changed our political system, and this site maintains more than 300 commercials from every presidential election since 1952.

Long Now Seminars: Stewart Brand’s Long Now Foundation presents monthly talks that provide a counterpoint to today’s “faster/cheaper” mind set and promote “slower/better” thinking. Theses talks given by prominent thinkers are hosted by FORA.TV.

MeaningofLife.TV: Sponsored by Slate, this site brings you “cosmic thinkers” on camera. Here, you’ll find talks by Karen Armstrong, Freeman Dyson, Stephen Pinker and others.

MITWorld: MIT World “hosts lots of inspiring talks by some of the most innovative thinkers and doers in town.” – Tony

Moving Image Collections: A window to the world’s moving images.

NFB.ca: NFB.ca is a web site where you can watch films produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Offers access to 100s of documentaries, animated films and trailers. You can also access this collection via a free iPhone app.

PBS Video: Everyone knows that PBS regularly produces intelligent video. You can watch a good number of their original programs here.

PeoplesArchive: “Dedicated to collecting for posterity the stories of the great thinkers, creators, and achievers of our time.”

Pop!Tech Pop!Casts Videos: Kind of like TED, Pop!Tech features “a community of remarkable people, and an ongoing conversation about science, technology and the future of ideas.” Scroll down to the find their videos.

Psychlectures.com: Reader says: “Although this website doesn’t host video, it brings together all sorts of media (including courses) on the topic of psychology, neuroscience, and psychiatry, for those interested.”

Research Channel: Based out of the University of Washington, the ResearchChannel brings together content from leading research and academic institutions (see member list here), and distributes it to consumers mostly through satellite and cable, but also via the web.

ScholarSpot: A new web site that promises a “free university.” Site is live in beta. Stay tuned for more.

Science Network: As the title suggests, lots of good science here.

SnagFilms: SnagFilms “finds the world’s most compelling documentaries, whether from established heavyweights or first-time filmmakers, and makes them available to a wide audience.” You can watch full-length documentary films for free. Currently includes over 550 films. And, as one reader notes, “The best part … is you can give back to the charitable foundations behind each one of the documentaries.”

Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive: This online catalog “provides access to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive. The Archive serves as a comprehensive informational and archival resource worldwide for moving image materials pertaining to the Holocaust and related aspects of World War II. ”

TED Talks: Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world. The talks largely come from the big annual TED conference. And, hands down, this site is the most frequently recommended by our readers.
UbuWeb: “A completely independent resource dedicated to all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts.”

UChannel: Spearheaded by Princeton University, this video service presents talks on international/political affairs from academic institutions all over the world.

UCTV: Launched in January 2000, University of California Television (UCTV) is a non-commercial channel featuring 24/7 programming from throughout the University of California, the nation’s premier research university made up of ten campuses, three national labs and affiliated institutions.

UWTV: UWTV is an award-winning television channel brought to you by the University of Washington. Offers original, non-commercial educational programming — 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A unique educational resource, UWTV provides its audience with direct access to world-renowned scientists and researchers whose insights and discoveries are changing our world.

VideoActive: Video Active presents a vast collection of television programmes and stills from audiovisual archives across Europe. It also provides articles and comparative analysis on European TV history.

VideoLectures.Net: Based in Eastern Europe, this site provides free access to high quality video lectures presented by distinguished scholars from many fields of science.

WGBH Video Lectures: “The WGBH video collections brings together talks from the world’s leading scientists, educators, policymakers, artists, and authors. Some pieces come from PBS, NPR, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and The Lowell Institute.”

YouTube hosts a number of intelligent properties worth giving your time to. Some key properties are:

YouTube Edu: Finally, YouTube gave us an easy way to separate the wheat from the chaff. Now you can easily watch videos from hundreds of universities worldwide. Includes a large number of free courses. More info here.

YouTube Screening Room: The Screening Room presents high quality, independent films to YouTube users and promises to roll out four new films every two weeks.

@Google Talks: Some of the world’s leading thinkers and political players make a point of speaking at Google. You can catch them all here.

21st Century Instruction: Do You Have the Skills You Need?

Are you keeping up with technology? Are you intimidated by technology? Who can help you understand the technology needed to "reach" your current students and those you will teach in the future?

My kids may laugh at how little I know about their world of technology, but like I tell them..."I grew up without a microwave oven and cable tv, but I've got a blog, don't I???"  At least I'm trying. My learning curve may seem as steep as Mt. Everest at times, but I'm getting there! In other words, there is a lot of information on the web about social media, web 2.0 (or 3.0) or whatever, but I just had to forget about my pride or my unwillingness to admit that I didn't know very much and ask the kids for help. The kids (students) are a terrific source of 2.0 knowledge. This is their life and we better figure out how to be a part of their life and that includes instruction! Technology will continue to rapidly change the way we teach and I personally think that change brings on a state of excitement. As Coach John Wooden stated in his 12 Lessons in Leadership, "Seek Significant Change."

I posted a video, A Brave New World-Wide-Web, by David Truss about a year ago that does an incredible job showing the transformation and tools required of 21st Century instructor. The video is extremely well done and I hope all of you will take a couple of minutes to watch it (even if you have seen it before).



I hope we will continue to evolve our instructional methods and be not only "where the students are," but also "where industry is." We must bridge that gap between aspiring students and industry and build our workforce for the future. We must continue to challenge ourselves and our students. That whole learning process is what excites me about the future!

Race to the Top Assessment Program

The U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has set aside up to $350 million of Race to the Top funds for the potential purpose of supporting States in the development of a next generation of assessments. As an important next step in contemplating and designing a competition for these funds, and as a means of providing technical assistance to States, the Department of Education is pleased to release a notice for public meetings announcing a series of expert and public input meetings. (Please click here to view the executive summary of the notice.)

The goals are two-fold: first to gather technical input to inform the development of a Race to the Top Assessment Competition; and second to enable states, who will be the competition applicants, and the public to participate in and learn from these events. Given the highly technical nature of this work, the vast body of knowledge that exists around how to best develop assessments, and the many promising practices currently employed across the country and world, we will solicit a wide range of input from assessment practitioners and researchers as we prepare to take important next steps.

Over six days of meetings in November and December in three cities, department officials will solicit a wide range of input from expert assessment practitioners and researchers about how innovative and effective approaches to the development of the next generation of assessments. The department is inviting states, in particular, to attend the meetings and will share on its website both the transcripts of the meetings as well as all written input received.

The meetings will be held on the following dates and locations:

BOSTON, MA
Thursday, November 12 – Friday, November 13
Full-day panel (Thursday, Nov. 12, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.): General assessment
Half-day panel (Friday, Nov. 13, 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.): Technology & innovation
Half-day panel (Friday, Nov. 13, 1:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.): High school assessment

ATLANTA, GA
Tuesday, November 17 – Wednesday, November 18
Full-day panel (Tuesday, Nov. 17, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.): General assessment
Half-day panel (Wednesday, Nov. 18, 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.): Assessment of students with disabilities

DENVER, CO
Tuesday, December 1 – Wednesday, December 2
Full-day panel (Tuesday, Dec. 1, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.): General assessment
Half-day panel (Wednesday, Dec. 2, 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.): Assessment of English language learners

The meetings are open to the public. The official notice, along with information on how to RSVP for the meetings, can be found on our web site at www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment. The Department encourages the submission of written input (see details of submission process on our web site), and plans to post transcripts of every meeting session and all written input submitted to the agency at www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment.

Make sure your voice is heard and participate in the public discussion! J.T.

The 10 Best Educational Websites

The following is from the Sunday, October 23rd edition of the Times Online in London. We have discussed some of these sites in the past, but one really interesting resource that I haven't mentioned is TED. TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader with conferences located across the globe.

From The Sunday Times October 23, 2009
Mike Peake

The 10 Best Educational Websites

Online information has come on leaps and bounds since the days of the CD-ROM encyclopedia.

We bring you the top education sites

If you bought a computer a few years ago, it would invariably come with a free CD-Rom encyclopedia. At the time it seemed like a life-changer, but after an hour or two spent looking at ancient wildlife clips and a timeline about the Romans, the excitement wore off. Today’s internet equivalents are bigger, faster and more interactive, whether you’re helping youngsters with their homework or cramming for the pub quiz.

1.  nationalgeographic.com

The American magazine covers a huge range of subjects, from space and the environment to animals and even world music (where you can listen to thousands of artists). What’s shared is a passion for the living world. Inspiring stuff, brilliantly presented.

2.  http://www.nasa.gov/

Videos, podcasts, a vast photo archive, 3-D image files and pages for missions where you can view raw data as they stream in, make this a must for anyone with even a fleeting interest in space.

3.  howstuffworks.com

Expertly written articles explaining everything under the sun, from how a Taser is put together to the history of the jeep. Hundreds of videos add to the experience.

4.  discovery.com

It might be a giant plug for the Discovery Channel’s roster of shows, but the dozens of microsites here are uniformly excellent. Links to the websites of sister channels (Military, Science and more) drive an even bigger wedge between you and any work you might have been thinking of doing.

5.  smithsonianmag.com

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington is the world’s largest museum complex, and its magazine is a rival to National Geographic. The associated website is a rich source of eye-opening good reads.

6.  bbc.co.uk/nature

Possibly the best BBC microsite — a simple collection of video clips. Choose from 370 animals to see related footage, and scare your friends when they walk in by playing the “what they sound like” widget. (Works better with tigers than rabbits.)

7.  ted.com

TED is an organisation that invites inspirational people to an annual conference to share their thoughts on the world, technology, design and more. It videos the results and archives them here. Will keep you hooked for days.

8.  arkive.org

Videos and photos that live up to the simple tagline “images of life on earth”. Endangered species are a speciality; the promise is they will live on here if nowhere else.

9.  historytoday.com

Once registered for free, you can browse through hundreds of articles culled from the popular magazine. They are sorted into categories and, despite the lofty academic credentials of the authors, are easily readable.

10.  pbs.org

PBS is a publicly funded American TV channel with an emphasis on science, the arts and history. Watch entire shows or browse their excellent, richly detailed sites.