Assessing with Technology

This week in EDUC7726- Teaching, learning, and Assessing in the Digital Era, I worked with 3 colleagues to collaboratively develop a Prezi on Assessing with Technology.  My collaborative group, known as B-Team, met on Google Hangouts to discuss the assignment and develop a plan. Three research focus questions were provided to guide our research. The team discussed each and determined how they applied to the topic of assessment. We then decided to create a Google Doc document to share our notes and resources of our research. The document was created and divided into three sections, one for each focus question.  We then created a Prezi and shared it for editing by the team. We selected a date and time when to reconvene to discuss our research and develop the Prezi.  During the week, as we found information and resources we added them to the appropriate section of the notes document. When we reconvened, we had notes on each of the guided questions and a bibliography of the resources. We proceeded to build the Prezi together. We were each  responsible for creating and building a part of the presentation from the data in our notes. Once all the data was entered, the Prezi was organized and aesthetic touches were made. This is our Prezi on Assessing with Technology.

Assessing is important for learning. Assessment measures student achievement, and provides teachers with information on how to improve instruction.  Policy makers use assessment information to measure how well schools and districts are preparing their students.  Assessing with technology can improve learning in many ways, such as:

• it is engaging and relevant to students
• provides quick feedback to students and teachers
• promotes self and peer evaluation
• can be integrated into the learning process
• creates personalized learning experiences
• allows for archiving student learning

There are several tools for assessing with technology. Each technology tools meets a specific assessment type. For instance, student response systems are great for getting a snapshot of what a students knows. It is important when creating assessment that the objectives being assessed are done with an appropriate method and technology.  For example, you would not use a blog post to assess whether a student knows the location of the states of the United States. The assessment must match the task. When using technology, you must also consider whether the technology will measure the student’s progress based on the objectives of the task. In my example, using an online map quiz game such as the one found on Ilike2learn to test a student’s ability to locate the states is a better method of assessing a student’s knowledge of locating the 50 states.

Issues that are important to consider when using technology in assessment includes student’s privacy and the issue of equity. The ability to use online tools may be restricted by the age of the student. Student privacy should be a concern to educators, especially when working with minors. Equity is important to consider because not all students have access to devices at home. Teachers should be sensitive to this reality because students may be unable to complete assignments.

Assessing with technology is beneficial to both students and teachers. Here is a list of 36 Formative Digital Assessments. Enjoy!