Sanford debrief

Had a great conversation with Diana, Dana, Misty, and Heather following the marathon test in Sanford. Highlights:

• Vital Signs tasks transcend technology. We were thrilled to hear Diana say that the data entry and visualization tasks were more interesting to her students than the technology. She was pleased to see students focused on VS rather than on using their new iBooks, and that they only asked for help a few times.
  

• A dangerous assumption. Diana & Dana talked about the assumption adults often make that students some innate technology savvy. Diana has found that its not so with the iBooks. While students aren't intimidated by technology like many adults are (great!), their tolerance for frustration is very very low (not so great!).

• Photo shoot. Going forward, Diana would like to see her students work on the quality of their photos and data. She wants her students to be able to take the photos that will be most helpful to scientists.

• I feel like I'm there. Time was well-spent coaching her students to write rich, detailed site descriptions. They are quite nice!

• Young and ruthless critics. Students were quick to critique data in the database. They were holding others to higher standards than they did themselves! A nice glimpse of the potential motivating power of a peer review process.