Introduction:
Assessment is any method used to understand the current knowledge a student possesses (Gunter & Gunter, 2014). Assessments are important because they help the teacher understand if the students thoroughly grasp the material being taught. Teachers spend many hours grading papers and creating reports from grades. This leaves little time for them to work on developing a detailed lesson plan that could potentially make a significant impact on the class. Technology has made teacher assessment more efficient with software that can do the same things that teachers do in half the time. Provided are a few assessment tools that aid teachers in creating a technology integrated classroom. These tools should help students understand how assignments are going to be evaluated (Gunter & Gunter, 2014) and provides software that students can use to test their understanding level with both formative and summative assessments.
Technology to Facilitate Ongoing Efforts to Assess Student Learning
The advancements in technology have brought many great tools that teachers can use to help them facilitate student learning in a more efficient way than ever before. Teachers can use classroom response systems (CRS) to conduct formative assessments. Teachers can ask questions to the class and the students enter their answers in their devices. The software collects the responses and tallies them up. The collective answers are then displayed in bar charts or multiple choice percentages based on the software. CRS devices range from allowing students to make multiple choice selections to entering free text answers. Students remain anonymous to the class but the teacher has access to see each students answers (Beatty & Gerace, 2009). Software programs like Google forms and Socrative, can be customized to have assessments that are both formative and summative based on the types of questions created. Teachers can use this software to evaluate the students’ knowledge on the collective material they have learned so far.
Socrative An assessment based program that anyone can join for free online. Teachers can create customized assessments based on their class needs. The assessments can be either formative to check for content understanding or summative for overall knowledge on the lesson. The program allows the teacher to create questions and give an explanation for each answer. If a student answers a question wrong the explanation is provided for them to understand the correct answer. It is important for the students to understand how to answer correctly if they miss a question. This is the best way for them to learn.
Flubaroo This free online software is used in connection with Google forms, which can be installed as an add-on to certain programs to grade assessments. The teacher would be able to bring up the Excel program and select the prefilled answer key that they previously created. Flubaroo grades the assessments and provides a summary of the class and the individual students’ grades. Each student’s grades are broken down by points and percentages. This software program also has a unique feature that shows the teacher the percentage of students that got a question correct, so the teacher knows where the students are exceling and where they are falling behind. Students’ names are highlighted in red if they scored below seventy percent, letting the teacher know they need more help with the lesson comprehension.
Clickers Handheld devices that students can use to answer question that the teacher asks either vocally or by posting them to a board. The students use these devices to select their answer using multiple choice form. The student’s answers are added up and displayed as a bar graph to show the answers selected for each question. Each students answer remains anonymous to the class, but the teacher has access to the students’ information, which can be accessed later for grading purposes. Teachers can use this this software to give formative assessments on the lesson of the day to make sure that each student is following along.
Formative and Summative Assessments
A formative assessment evaluates the students based on small portions of a lesson by gathering various activities and assignments to make sure each students is following along with the material and mastering the content. Summative assessment evaluates the students learning at any given point (Gunter & Gunter, 2014). Basically, a formative assessment evaluates students on the understanding of the lesson as it is being taught and summative assessment evaluates the students collectively on the lesson or lessons taught. Most technology, such as Socrative, can be used in the same way for both assessments just by changing the question content. However some technology, such as Clickers or Mentimeter would be more appropriate for formative assessment which usually requires less time and are less structured. Pros and Cons of using Technology to Facilitate Assessment
The use of online and blended learning has developed drastically in the 21st century education learning and teaching environment (Baleni, 2015). Teachers use different software programs based on their needs to facilitate assessment within their classrooms. Technology based assessments provide students with immediate feedback. Teachers give feedback to students about what is right and wrong in their academic course work, about its strengths and weaknesses, and students use this information to make subsequent improvements (Vaughan, 2013). Students can use this feedback to develop self-improvement. Online assessments are learner centered and great for both group work and individually (Baleni, 2015). Students learn how to apply real world scenarios by working in teams. Assessments influence what material students spend time learning, as well as the type of learning taking place (Baleni, 2015). Online assessments reinforce the importance of certain information that is being taught in class, so the students know to focus on the understanding of that specific information more than others. Technology based assessments creates time flexibility and convenience where standard assessments would be more restrictive. However, this flexibility would be at the discretion of the teacher on whether the teacher would allow students to take the assessment outside of the classroom. One major downfall to online assessments is the occasional computer glitch or internet outage, which would prevent access to the assessment or any of the data online. Overall, the pros heavily outweigh the cons and when used in sync with teacher lecture the student benefits are vast.
“Should a teacher only use technology to assess student learning? Why or why not?”
How the teacher approaches assessment impacts on how the students identify the class, the content to study, and their own work (Brookhart, 1997). Technology creates a more diverse classroom for learning but face to face lecture and interaction plays a key role. Technology can assess a student’s understanding of the concept but it cannot assess the student themselves. The role of a teacher is to provide ongoing and meaningful assessment feedback in order for the students to grow and learn (Vaughn, 2013). Nothing can take the place the role of a teacher plays to success of a student’s comprehension. What is the importance of assessment technology in connection with the ISTE standards?
The use of technology as part of assessment aligns with the ISTE Standards for Teachers in section 2, design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments. These standards are set in place on a national level to ensure that all students and teachers are following the same guidelines academically. In accordance to these standards, teachers must provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards, and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching ISTE 2.d (ISTE, 2008).
Concluding Paragraph for Software to Support Assessment
References
Baleni, Z. G. (2015). Online formative assessment in higher education: Its pros and cons. Electronic Journal Of E-Learning, 13(4), 228-236.
Beatty, I. D., & Gerace, W. J. (2009). Technology-enhanced formative assessment: A research-based pedagogy for teaching science with classroom response technology. Journal of Science Education and Technology, (2). 146.
Brookhart, S. M. (1997). The Relationship of Classroom Assessment to Student Effort and Achievement in the College Classroom: Pilot Study Technical Report. American Educational Research Association Conference Proceedings, Chicago, IL
Gunter, G. A., Gunter, R. E. (Ed. 8). (2014). Teachers Discovering Computers: IntegratingTechnology in a Connected World. Retrieved from http://gcumedia.com/digital-resources/cengage/2014/teachers-discovering-computers_integrating-technology-in-a-changing-world_ebook_8e.php
ISTE. (2008). ISTE Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/ISTE-standards/standards-for-teachers
Assessment is any method used to understand the current knowledge a student possesses (Gunter & Gunter, 2014). Assessments are important because they help the teacher understand if the students thoroughly grasp the material being taught. Teachers spend many hours grading papers and creating reports from grades. This leaves little time for them to work on developing a detailed lesson plan that could potentially make a significant impact on the class. Technology has made teacher assessment more efficient with software that can do the same things that teachers do in half the time. Provided are a few assessment tools that aid teachers in creating a technology integrated classroom. These tools should help students understand how assignments are going to be evaluated (Gunter & Gunter, 2014) and provides software that students can use to test their understanding level with both formative and summative assessments.
Technology to Facilitate Ongoing Efforts to Assess Student Learning
The advancements in technology have brought many great tools that teachers can use to help them facilitate student learning in a more efficient way than ever before. Teachers can use classroom response systems (CRS) to conduct formative assessments. Teachers can ask questions to the class and the students enter their answers in their devices. The software collects the responses and tallies them up. The collective answers are then displayed in bar charts or multiple choice percentages based on the software. CRS devices range from allowing students to make multiple choice selections to entering free text answers. Students remain anonymous to the class but the teacher has access to see each students answers (Beatty & Gerace, 2009). Software programs like Google forms and Socrative, can be customized to have assessments that are both formative and summative based on the types of questions created. Teachers can use this software to evaluate the students’ knowledge on the collective material they have learned so far.
Socrative An assessment based program that anyone can join for free online. Teachers can create customized assessments based on their class needs. The assessments can be either formative to check for content understanding or summative for overall knowledge on the lesson. The program allows the teacher to create questions and give an explanation for each answer. If a student answers a question wrong the explanation is provided for them to understand the correct answer. It is important for the students to understand how to answer correctly if they miss a question. This is the best way for them to learn.
Flubaroo This free online software is used in connection with Google forms, which can be installed as an add-on to certain programs to grade assessments. The teacher would be able to bring up the Excel program and select the prefilled answer key that they previously created. Flubaroo grades the assessments and provides a summary of the class and the individual students’ grades. Each student’s grades are broken down by points and percentages. This software program also has a unique feature that shows the teacher the percentage of students that got a question correct, so the teacher knows where the students are exceling and where they are falling behind. Students’ names are highlighted in red if they scored below seventy percent, letting the teacher know they need more help with the lesson comprehension.
Clickers Handheld devices that students can use to answer question that the teacher asks either vocally or by posting them to a board. The students use these devices to select their answer using multiple choice form. The student’s answers are added up and displayed as a bar graph to show the answers selected for each question. Each students answer remains anonymous to the class, but the teacher has access to the students’ information, which can be accessed later for grading purposes. Teachers can use this this software to give formative assessments on the lesson of the day to make sure that each student is following along.
Formative and Summative Assessments
A formative assessment evaluates the students based on small portions of a lesson by gathering various activities and assignments to make sure each students is following along with the material and mastering the content. Summative assessment evaluates the students learning at any given point (Gunter & Gunter, 2014). Basically, a formative assessment evaluates students on the understanding of the lesson as it is being taught and summative assessment evaluates the students collectively on the lesson or lessons taught. Most technology, such as Socrative, can be used in the same way for both assessments just by changing the question content. However some technology, such as Clickers or Mentimeter would be more appropriate for formative assessment which usually requires less time and are less structured. Pros and Cons of using Technology to Facilitate Assessment
The use of online and blended learning has developed drastically in the 21st century education learning and teaching environment (Baleni, 2015). Teachers use different software programs based on their needs to facilitate assessment within their classrooms. Technology based assessments provide students with immediate feedback. Teachers give feedback to students about what is right and wrong in their academic course work, about its strengths and weaknesses, and students use this information to make subsequent improvements (Vaughan, 2013). Students can use this feedback to develop self-improvement. Online assessments are learner centered and great for both group work and individually (Baleni, 2015). Students learn how to apply real world scenarios by working in teams. Assessments influence what material students spend time learning, as well as the type of learning taking place (Baleni, 2015). Online assessments reinforce the importance of certain information that is being taught in class, so the students know to focus on the understanding of that specific information more than others. Technology based assessments creates time flexibility and convenience where standard assessments would be more restrictive. However, this flexibility would be at the discretion of the teacher on whether the teacher would allow students to take the assessment outside of the classroom. One major downfall to online assessments is the occasional computer glitch or internet outage, which would prevent access to the assessment or any of the data online. Overall, the pros heavily outweigh the cons and when used in sync with teacher lecture the student benefits are vast.
“Should a teacher only use technology to assess student learning? Why or why not?”
How the teacher approaches assessment impacts on how the students identify the class, the content to study, and their own work (Brookhart, 1997). Technology creates a more diverse classroom for learning but face to face lecture and interaction plays a key role. Technology can assess a student’s understanding of the concept but it cannot assess the student themselves. The role of a teacher is to provide ongoing and meaningful assessment feedback in order for the students to grow and learn (Vaughn, 2013). Nothing can take the place the role of a teacher plays to success of a student’s comprehension. What is the importance of assessment technology in connection with the ISTE standards?
The use of technology as part of assessment aligns with the ISTE Standards for Teachers in section 2, design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments. These standards are set in place on a national level to ensure that all students and teachers are following the same guidelines academically. In accordance to these standards, teachers must provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards, and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching ISTE 2.d (ISTE, 2008).
Concluding Paragraph for Software to Support Assessment
References
Baleni, Z. G. (2015). Online formative assessment in higher education: Its pros and cons. Electronic Journal Of E-Learning, 13(4), 228-236.
Beatty, I. D., & Gerace, W. J. (2009). Technology-enhanced formative assessment: A research-based pedagogy for teaching science with classroom response technology. Journal of Science Education and Technology, (2). 146.
Brookhart, S. M. (1997). The Relationship of Classroom Assessment to Student Effort and Achievement in the College Classroom: Pilot Study Technical Report. American Educational Research Association Conference Proceedings, Chicago, IL
Gunter, G. A., Gunter, R. E. (Ed. 8). (2014). Teachers Discovering Computers: IntegratingTechnology in a Connected World. Retrieved from http://gcumedia.com/digital-resources/cengage/2014/teachers-discovering-computers_integrating-technology-in-a-changing-world_ebook_8e.php
ISTE. (2008). ISTE Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/ISTE-standards/standards-for-teachers