Random Quote
A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats.
---- anonymous
I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
---- Terry Pratchett
Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
---- Author Unknown
Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.
---- Kin Hubbard
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells
The least of learning is done in the classrooms
---- Thomas Merton
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes
Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.
---- Fred Allen
To have another language is to possess a second soul.
---- Charlemagne
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
Technology will not replace teachers...teachers who use technology will
probably replace teachers who do not.
---- Ray Clifford
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
---- Robert Frost
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
---- Galileo Galilei
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
---- Albert Einstein
This may be the most interesting blog theme I've ever seen. http://eflgeek.com/index.php Definitely in my top 5 at least.
---- Steve Dembo
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
---- Isaac Newton
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
---- Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519)
Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs.
---- Jack Lynch
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
---- Edward Abbey
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
---- Sheik Abd-al-Kadir
It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
---- Franklin D. Roosevelt
If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
---- Doug Larson
"It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.'"
---- Sam Levenson
Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.
---- Edward R. Murrow
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
---- Isaac Asimov
Rater Training
Yesterday, I cut Korean class in order to do some level testing for the IGSE. Actually it was more for a Ph.D student doing work there. The pay was reasonable and I can always use a little extra cash so I agreed to do it. Additionally I was interested in how rater training was done as I’ve read about it in my Assessment unit doing my M.A. but hadn’t actually experienced it.
We were scheduled to be there from 9:30 to 5:00 with the first hour and a half discussing what was expected and looking at the rubric. The rater training consisted of the 4 raters listening to 6 samples and rating them based on the rubric. After we finished the rating we then compared scores to see how consistent we were with each other. For the most part everyone was consistent and where there were differences it was easy to come to an understanding. The researcher in charge also let us know that if there was inconsistencies across raters that was fine as long as each rater was internally consistent as he had software that would somehow account for the differences. Interesting, but it would seem to me to add another variable affecting the reliability of the study.
Then from 11-5 except for about 30 minutes for lunch we listened to blocks of 10 students at a time and rated their recorded speech samples. We had short breaks between sets and lots of coffee, but even so around 3:00 I could feel rater fatigue starting to set in.
The only real complaint that I have is the quality of the recordings. Several students were quite difficult to hear due to popping sounds, loud static and background noise. The background noise was not due to our facilities but rather on the recordings. During several recordings the voices were competing with traffic sounds. I’m not sure how much control over this the researcher had but it was a definite interference in ratings. He did bring in what appeared to be a set of good quality speakers to listen to the recordings, but your sound can only be as good as the source.
Overall for me it was an interesting experience that helps me better to understand research, assessment, and rater training.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Feb 15, 2007 at 08:25 PM
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