RECESSOtation

I am often asked if there are a few vowels left out of the company name (Evirx). Absolutely not!  It’s prounounced …uh-vair-ix… and I came up with the name thinking about the topic of interest (evidence) and developing technological solutions (borrowing from Pharmacy prescriptive solutions as in Rx). Maybe that helps with the dilemma of few vowels.

I enjoy telling the story of my first computer. It was a TI994A from Jamesway. Others from the deep frozen tundra of upstate NY will recognize that marvel of shopping experience. How my parents had the foresight to get the computer for me, I have no idea. I connected it to a black and white TV for a monitor. I had a tape recorder and literally hundreds of magnetic tapes to store data and piles of books about programming. BASIC programming was all the rage. Here I am almost 30 years later posting my first blog. Yeah, I know, it seems ridiculous it took this long for me to get on this bandwagon, but I’ve been busy with other things.

Several years ago I was introduced to the concept of evidence, what it is, how people interpret it, and how people use it. There are some incredibly smart and interesting people who have established the groundwork for understanding what evidence is and how to use. Among those people are David Schum, a scholar and friend at George Mason University; John Wigmore whose work evolved into what we know as rules for using evidence in law (among other achievements); William Twinings on the use of evidence; Kane who discussed evidence and it uses in certification; Bob Mislevy at the University of Maryland who in the early nineties introduced the idea of using evidence to understand student learning and achievement; Russell Almond at ETS has done some interesting work with technology and assessment — all people whose work I admire and followed quite closely. But it has to be David’s Schum’s work that has been the most inspirational. I will most likely expand on that later. On several occasions I’ve been able to sit and talk with David, kick around ideas, hear the history of evidence use in intelligence and I am always amazed.

For now, I expect this blog will provide an opportunity to discuss work ideas related to using evidence for assessment — especially the assessment of those who teach/instruct others. There are so many powerful ways to collect and interpret evidence, many of which have been developing for hundreds if not thousands of years, and we have barely begun to scratch the surface. My time here will most likely focus on how evidence can be used in assessment of teaching (or instructors depending on your perspective) so that we may improve how we prepare, assessment, certify, and reward those that teach/instruct.