This article at Kairos discusses the problem posed by the use of standardized testing to determine standards of learning. I agree with Joel English's articulation of this situation as one in which pedagogy and authentic assessment are taken out of the equation and are replaced with standardized testing. Large-scale testing cannot assure that all students have learned the same material in the same way; still, teachers who want to keep their jobs react by "teaching to the test" as best they can. In this environment, all the scholarship that suggests teachers should employ multiple learning styles, intelligences and authentic assessment is discarded in favor of preparing for a pencil-n-paper exam that no one, not even the teacher, sees before it is given. From his Diagram, English accurately points out: "When standardized tests become the tool for assessment and "accountability" is applied like a monkey wrench to teachers and students, that tool becomes the determiner of every lesson plan, every discussion, every subject of study in the classroom--every turn of the pipe."

I just found this new blog by a newbie PhD whose interest is electronic literature. Recently, she writes about a blog fiction, Roommate from Hell, that is being simultaneously published as a "blog" and as a book. My problem is that it's a fake blog not just a fictious one. Even though the story is, obviously, a fiction (and that's okay) the dates are also made up, so there isn't even the illusion that this is a "real" blog. It's not occuring "now." As Jill points out, the writing doesn't resemble most blogs: "Already the blog fiction Roommate From Hell, which I mentioned yesterday, is showing signs of being translated from book to blog." She's right -- the writing seems so . . . definite -- like the author already knows where this story is going. That's not the case in a real blog, and it's that sense of expectancy, in part, that makes blogs so interesting to read. In Roommate, there's too much use of past tense, too much reflection, not enough reaction. Blogs tend to be very reactive, I think. Even when you read some of the meatier blogs -- ones that you know are drafted and revised -- there's still an attempt to be brief, witty and even a little shocking. I'm not sure if the blog is the best medium for this kind of hyperfiction. Roommate from hell seems too contrived to really "work" as a blog. Maybe it's just a marketing ploy . . . .

Welcome to my first blog entry at Kairos. I've decided that my personal blog, http://patriciaspatio.blog-city.com, has become too loose in structure for my professional blogging needs, so I've decided to start blogging here. Of all the listservs and discussions I've joined, I enjoy those at Kairos the most.

Something about me: I have just finished my M.A. in English (Literature focus) at the University of South Florida. Now, I'm living, barely, in Massachusetts, looking for a job. I've had some offers, but nothing is definite yet. Looks like adjuncting will not be enough -- :-? I'll probably take a job at a high school and look to teach a Comp/Writing/Literature night class somewhere. I'm researching PhD programs.