Technology and Assessment

Two Parts

1. Using new technology to assess

2. Assessing new-technology driven projects

Quiz Apps

• Quiz Apps

• More assessment apps

Benefits of Quiz Apps• Great for measuring content knowledge

• Some of these apps allow online tracking of students

• Less time spent marking

• There are ready-made quizzes available

• Students can do these quizzes from anywhere

• Immediate feedback

• Saves paper/ink

• Efficiency

Limitations of Quiz Apps• somewhat limited to first level of Bloom’s

Taxonomy - knowledge

• Potential cheating opportunities

https://retechtraining.wordpress.com/2008/07/16/how-adults-learn-to-use-technology-effectively/ http://gradpost.ucsb.edu/tools/2012/4/30/assessing-with-e-portfolios.html

Grading Tools• Spreadsheets (Excel, Numbers, online

equivalents)

• Apps - Engrade, Sesame, Gradebook

Benefits of Online Grading Tools

• Automatically calculates final mark!

• Allows weighing of categories/assignments!

• Access from anywhere!

• Some have ability to link to parents/students!

• Easily plot performance graphs!

• Efficiency

Limitations of Online Grading Tools

• Emphasizes grades over anecdotal reporting

• How does the grade represent understanding of curricular concepts

• Reduces assessment to numbers and graphs

Current Trends• Province has introduced Report Cards which place more emphasis on

Outcome-based Anecdotal Reporting

• “Authentic Assessments” are more holistic in their measurement of learning

• More anecdotal reporting on report cards

• Different kinds of assessments like interviews to get into certain faculties like Medicine

• Greater consideration of other aspects like volunteering, extra-curricular.

• Digital tech emphasizes efficiency, quantification and statistical analysis. Is this at odds with “authentic assessment” which tends to be slow, thoughtful and qualitative?

Authentic Assessment• What is it?

• These include narratives (written comments), portfolios (carefully chosen collections of students’ writings and projects that demonstrate their interests, achievement, and improvement over time),  student-led parent-teacher conferences, exhibitions and other opportunities for students to show what they can do. - Alfie Kohn

• There are online resources for creating digital portfolios

Assessing Technology based Projects

• Challenges

• Considerations

Challenges with Assessing Technology-based Projects

• Potentially many different forms

• video, text, blogs, comic strips, etc.

• Expectations may be vague - Some students like to know exactly what they need to do to get the mark they want

Considerations when assessing Technology-based projects

• Be clear on what concept you are evaluating

• Base your assessments on curricular outcomes

• Be careful not to measure the quality of the medium over the content (unless that is your intent)

• Rubrics need to be general enough to work for all different formats (use Rubistar)

• Tech can help us organize our assessments and measure content!

• The danger of digital technology is that it risks quantifying and simplifying assessment into percentages, graphs, and statistics in the pursuit of efficiency and pretty packaging.!

• It still takes a human to probe for deeper understanding and connect with the student to plot a course for future learning.

Final Thoughts

Resources• http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/degrading-de-

grading/

• http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech111.shtml

• http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/documents/strategy/pdf/smart-newsletter.pdf

• http://www.teachthought.com/technology/8-educational-apps-to-create-digital-portfolios/