April 2nd

Assessing Meaningful Learning with Technology
Textbook Questions
1- Is assessment really a separate activity from learning? What circumstances may impact whether it is or isn’t?
Assessment isn’t separate from learning because authentic type of assessment provides information required to improve performance. Students’ skills are assessed with activities that allows them perform those tasks; they are learning while being assessed. Contrarily to older types of assessment where students are assessed on answers they provide; authentic assessment would ask science students to construct something rather than answering questions. The assessment will be on the final product of this construction, instead of being on something separate than what they are working on.

2- How do you see assessment activities as a way to generate feedback that can improve learner performance? After reading this chapter, are there ways you can see how technology can contribute to this?
Because authentic assessment is based on activities that students need to perform in the future, feedback will be necessary. The students will be assessed on the product of this given activity; the feedback given will improve the students’ learning performance on future tasks. The example given in the textbook about social studies students polling the public is a perfect example; they will need to poll people in their future; by being assessed on this task, their learning performance will improve and they will know what they did that was right or wrong and they will improve it the next time. Technology can contribute to this; e-portfolios definitely help with learner performance. By gathering information, students can see their work in a coherent way and over a long period of time; also feedback from students and teachers can help the student learn and perform better.

3- How can you use technology to make assessment activities less threatening to learners or maybe even a positive experience?
A positive way is to use e-portfolios and make them with a group of students. This way individual students won’t feel anxious and the teacher can formally assess students without necessarily giving them a record grade. Also, portfolios can allow students to reflect on their work because they can see everything they have done over a long period of time. Also, using a rubric that both students and the teacher created together can relieve stress and make assessment a positive experience. The student will know exactly what is asked of him or her and therefore, will feel more at ease.

This chapter provided me with a lot of interesting ideas about interesting use of technology and assessment. I found that most of the activities provided were fun and positive for students. Assessment is usually a hard and painful for both students and teachers. I remember when I was on stage, the teachers were so stressed when the report card time came! Some teachers were organized and they had their grades all put on a computer spreadsheet from the beginning of the year; this relieved some of the stress!
I have already read and heard about e-portfolios; unfortunately, not many teachers use them yet; they are still stuck with the old fashion way of putting the portfolios in a binder. However, they’re a great way to see students’ work over time. It is an excellent way to see progress throughout the year and it’s much less stressful for students because it’s done over time and they don’t perceive it as stressful as an exam. Also, they can assess and give feedback of their own work.
Also, during this semester, when Ghada, and I designed our webquest, we used an online rubric generator. I never knew this tool existed. I was so impressed to see how simple it is to make a rubric. I think that designing a rubric with students is a great and positive experience for them because they will know exactly what the teacher expects from them. Also, they will want to perform because they put the rules down!
Clicker technology is interesting! I never knew this tool existed! I especially like it because it’s unanimous. It gives the teacher the overall impression of the students’ understanding without pinpointing who gets it and who doesn’t, beside the whole class. The teacher can automatically address the misconceptions and make sure that students understand. If the teacher still feels like one or two students don’t get it, then she can later go to their desk and give them a one on one explanation.

According to Hoffenberg & Handler, there are no more limitations to videotaping and video editing in the schools. Digital video and editing is a great way to motivate and produce higher level thinking. All you need is a computer and camera; most schools have this available to them (p.246). It’s true that making our own videos can be very motivating. Ghada and I were very excited to make a commercial and edit our final project during class today. We wanted to try and mimic commercials we see on television; but ad our own special touch. So if we were motivated, I can just imagine how much kids would enjoy this. Also, it’s interesting to see the different ways of using this type of technology. Students can become reporters; they can make documentaries, and infomercials. A project such as collecting monarch eggs was transformed into a computer based project. With a little of imagination and preparation, teachers can make great use of this technology (p.247). Nowadays, Teachers need to not only teach students how to read, write, and communicate, but they need to show them how to communicate with audiences that will be watching behind the television or computer (p.249). Also, video is being taken to a whole other level; education colleges are videotaping exemplary teachers in order to show future teachers good models of education (248). It’s another angle of the use of technology; I think that showing these in universities is great because Instead of only reading what goes on in textbooks, we will be exposed to what really goes on in the classrooms.

Technology is a great tool for students with learning disabilities; it can really make a different in their learning experience and learning outcomes. Examples of such programs are speech outcome, word predication, and speech recognition (p.252). These programs may help students who have difficulty writing what is on their mind get their thoughts out. This way, teachers will be able to see and recognize these students’ imagination and creativity; something they wouldn’t be able to do without these tools. Also, a group of tool from textHELP will help struggling readers and writers; these instruments feature talking toolbar, on screen text reading, a phonetic spelling checker, word predication, and thesaurus (p.254). It’s great to see that nothing is impossible anymore. My 12 year old brother has dyslexia and he has never been diagnosed until a month ago! He has always been perceived as a child who can’t write or properly read. It’s great to see that there is some help out there; he will be able to go through school because of the technology and he will hopefully be able to lead a regular adult life.