Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Assessment Technology

This quiz was created using the Socrative website.
 Please access the quiz using the following link:

Answer Key:
1. A
2. B
3. A
4. C
5. B
6. A

This is a quiz about money.  This quiz correlates with Arizona State Standards (Common Core) AZ 2.MD.8 - Solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ and ¢ symbols appropriately.
This quiz is meant to be a summative assessment.  It is a quick quiz to assess student understanding of a concept after a lesson has been completed.  A teacher may analyze the student results in order to measure the student understanding.  With the results a teacher may make an informed decision to either move on to other material, or to go over these concepts again and in greater detail in order to enhance student understanding of the concepts.

Part 2: Blog Post
Introduction (4-6 Sentences):
            The use of technology to facilitate assessment has great potential to assist teachers in the education process.  Assessment technology gives teachers the ability to analyze and respond to the learning needs of every student with greater speed and flexibility (Landauer, Lochbaum, and Dooley, 2009).  Many assessment technologies give students useful feedback on their comprehension of a subject.  This paper will analyze different types of technology that can be used to assess student learning, the differences between formative and summative assessment, and weigh the pros and cons of using technology to facilitate assessment.
Technology to Facilitate Ongoing Efforts to Assess Student Learning
            Technology enhances a teacher’s ability to facilitate the ongoing efforts to assess student learning in the classroom.  Technology can give a teacher immediate feedback on a student’s level of comprehension.  A teacher can use the information gathered to decide whether to reteach, when to move on to a new topic, and when to explain or demonstrate something in a different way (Tomlinson, 2007).  Technology gives students a variety of options to use in order to demonstrate mastery of a subject or material.  Many students do not perform well on tests even if they know the material well.  A variety of technological tools can be used to demonstrate a student’s knowledge. 
 (Wireless active responding clickers)  A technology such as clickers has many benefits when it comes to student assessment.  A teacher can use this tool to gather real time responses and data from the students.  The teacher can tailor a lesson according to the responses.  A teacher can either slow-down and explain a concept in greater detail or move ahead according to the responses of the students.  A teacher might post questions on an interactive whiteboard and ask the students to respond to different questions throughout the lesson.  
 (Digital Presentations) A digital presentation can be used in place of a formal test.  A student can demonstrate comprehension of a specific topic or material by creating a digital presentation about the subject. At the end of a unit, a teacher may give the student’s a variety of options in the form of digital presentations to choose from and ask them to demonstrate what they have learned through the use of a digital presentation.
 (Digital quiz) A digital quiz is a convenient way for a teacher to assess a student’s comprehension.  There are a number of web based quiz services to choose from.  A teacher can create a quick quiz for students to complete from their home computer, smart phone or tablet.   Websites that offer a digital quiz have the ability to correlate and analyze the data.  The website will even email the results of the quiz directly to a teacher.  A teacher may create a short quiz at the end of a lesson in order to assess the student’s level of knowledge.

(Formative and Summative Assessments)
            According to Gunter and Gunter, formative assessment is the measuring of a student’s understanding according to a certain amount of time at many different points. A teacher should gather a variety of assignments and activities to make sure the student is developing the comprehension and skills in order to master the content (Gunter & Gunter, 2014).  Formative assessment is assessment for learning.  Wireless clickers are a good example of formative assessment.  Wireless clickers can be used to gather data throughout a lesson.  A teacher can use the information to steer the course of the lesson presented based on the needs of the students.  According to Gunter and Gunter, summative assessment is the evaluation of student understanding at any specific time (Gunter & Gunter, 2014, p. 320).  Summative assessment usually takes place at the end of a unit, class or course.  A digital presentation is a good example of summative assessment.  A teacher could assign students to create a digital presentation that displays their knowledge or understanding of a particular topic covered in a course. 
(Pros and Cons of using Technology to Facilitate Assessment)
 The use of technology to facilitate assessment has many benefits.  The use of technology can be motivating and engaging for students.  The use of technology for assessment can give teachers and students immediate feedback and results that will improve the learning process.  The use of technology for assessment can also create a variety of ways in which a student can demonstrate knowledge gained over a course or unit.  As always with the use of any technology in the classroom, teachers must safeguard students from the dangers of technology and the Internet.  Teachers should also carefully evaluate the various technologies to identify those that are most effective, and appropriate for use by students (Salend, 2009).
(“Should a teacher only use technology to assess student learning? Why or why not?”)
 Teachers should absolutely take advantage of the wide variety of technological assessment tools available today.  A teacher must carefully choose the tools that best fit the needs of the classroom.  Technology can be a great benefit in facilitating student assessment and achievement.
What is the importance of assessment technology in connection with the ISTE standards?
            According to ISTE standards for teachers, teachers should provide students with a variety of formative and summative assessments, which are aligned with content standards. Teachers should use the resulting data to adjust the teaching and learning process (ISTE.org).  A teacher has the responsibility to use assessment technology in order to address the individual learning needs of the students. 

Concluding Paragraph for Software to Support Assessment
            Advances in technology have positively impacted the way in which teachers assess student learning and comprehension.  A teacher can use a variety of tools in order to generate feedback about a student’s performance and aptitude.  A student can use a variety of tools to demonstrate the knowledge gained over the course of a class or unit.  Technology assessments are very helpful in providing information for teachers about the learning process of the students.  Most importantly, with the information gained through assessment, teachers can improve teaching.


References

Gunter, G.A. & Gunter R.E. (Ed.). (2014). Teachers Discovering Computers: Integrating
            Technology in a Changing World. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning

Landauer, Lochbaum, and Dooley, (2009). A new formative assessment technology for reading and writing, Theory Into Practice.

Salend, S. J. (2009). Technology-based classroom assessments. Teaching Exceptional Children41(6), 48-58.


Tomlinson, C. A. (2007). Learning to love assessment. Educational Leadership65(4), 8-13.

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