"Technology Tools for Assessment and Evaluation"

Summary:
In their article, “Technology Tools for Assessment and Evaluation”, the authors, LeAnne Robinsons, Joanne Carney, and Tim Keiper, explain the different uses technology has played in assessment and evaluation. They first show the differences between “assessment”, “analysis”, and “evaluation” in the Assessment Decision-Making Process and then describe the different ways technology tools have been used to support each step of the process. They explain that their taxonomy has seven different tool categories: Producing and Creating Measures (like using a word processor), Graphing, Grading and Reporting (using Excel to show students’ scores), Measuring Specific Skills and Competencies-Criterion Referenced Assessment (like the Start to Finish Books), Determining Grade Level Performance and Making Normative Comparisons (like the Woodcock Johnson III), Ongoing Progress Monitoring (like DIBELS), Situated Performance Assessments (like using an Electronic Portfolio), and Data Warehousing and Aggregation (which is when all of the assessments and databases are combined to give a grouping of achievement scores). The authors conclude by stating that through the knowledge of such technology tools and the knowledge of how to use them can help “to make targeted and timely instructional decisions.”

Reflection:
There was a lot of really useful information in that article about how to use technology as a tool for assessment and evaluation. Some of the categories and suggestions of tools I have heard about before being used in the classroom. For example, one of the first things I learned in the education department was how to write an assessment in a word processor. There were a few things I had not heard about, however, like the Electronic Portfolio. I found this option for a performance assessment quite intriguing. In high school, I was required to put together a large portfolio to be able to graduate that included past school work, letters of recommendation, and details about my senior project. I think that to have taken a portfolio like that and to have converted it to electronics would have been awesome. It would have make taking it back and forth from school a lot more easy since I would have just be carrying a flash drive as opposed to 2 very large and very heavy 3-ring 3-inch binders. As future educators, I feel that it is important for us to learn about the tools that are out there for us. And as always with technology, I think it is also important to be open to new technologies that become available and to be vigilant about searching out new technologies that will help “to make targeted and timely instructional decisions.”

The I-Generation

Summary: In the article "The I-Generation - From Toddlers to Teenagers: A Conversation with Jane M. Healy" Carol Tell holds an interview with Jane M. Healy about her views on technology and computers and how they have affected students today. Healy asserts that technology and computer use in the classroom can be a good thing - when used educationally only and when the right questions are asked by the teacher. Mostly, Healy is not an advocate for computers in the classroom. She believes the computers may actually be worse for young children than TV. She states that "when they are on the computer, they are glued to very seductive software. This is especially dangerous for youngsters who have a propensity toward social and emotional disorders". Healy believes that you can have all the high-tech newest expensive technology but none of it is worth anything unless you have the skilled teachers and good materials.

Reflection: I wasn't too sure what to think when reading this article. At first I got the impression it was going to be a technology bash (which I'm not entirely opposed to because I greatly dislike electrical things that decide to randomly shut down), but Healy seemed to get at the root of the technology issue. You can have all of the high-tech gadgets in the world, but unless you have a good teacher in the front of the class asking the higher thinking level questions to the students to go with the technology, you have nothing. The other thing I must say that got to me in this article is when Healy touched on the issue of needing to have students distinguish between what a human can/can't do and what a computer can/can't do. The thought that our children and our grandchildren will most likely see the age of artificial intelligence is kind of bizarre to me in a real-life sort of way. We don't have these issues now, but for us to be teachers in the future, its an issue and a distinction we need to think about now.

Oregon Trail Game

Summary: Bill Bigelow writes in his article, "On the Road to Cultural Bias: A Critique of the Oregon Trail CD Rom" that the game is culturally bias and insensitive. He explains that there is much historical fiction regarding what happened with women, African Americans, and Native Americans. The game begins by not allowing the player to choose whether they would like to be a women or African American. Therefore, the only option is to be a white male. (The choice you do get is more so about economic status you wish to be a part of - a whole different issue entirely.) You encounter women about half the time in the game to speak with, but the only role the game shows women taking on is tending to the ill. This is historically inacturate because women played a huge role in the wagon train making decisions about food and fire. The game makers also hint at African Americans in the game being enslaved, but it never explicitly says so. The game is also historically inaccurate about the roles and attitudes of Native Americans. The game does have some good points for teaching that Bigelow points out. It will give students an accurate idea of the terrain and map from Missouri to Oregon. Bigelow suggests at the end of his article, to find ways to fill in the gaps and inconsistancies in the game. Finding journals, diaries, and speechs are great ways to supplement the game. Then, once all has been said and learned, have the students role play the roles of the people on the Oregon Trail. In the end, Bigelow expresses that computer literacy is vital for students to be able to decipher between what is fact and fiction because in todays society, computers and computer programs do take sides.

Reflection: Wow, that was a long summary. That was a long article. I must say as a kid I never noticed all of the things that Bigelow had pointed out as historically inaccurate, but now that I think back on when I played the game, I realize that he was correct. I also can't say that it has had an effect on me by manipulating me to think like a white male. I think that Bigelow does make a great point at the end. Use the game, but supplement it with researching the truth. Find out what the missing role were and have the stuents research and learn for themselves. Plus, a role play at the end of the unit would be fun. We had something like that in middle school with the civil war times and we came dressed up in costume with a background story to act out. It was a blast and I can still remember the information I learned for my character. It could be one giant Oregon Trail Expedition Day, or something crazy like that.

The Digital Edge Project

This project seems like an awesome idea! Way to go for those teachers to incorperate technology into their classroom in a productive way. The student's parents must be really proud of them to learn how to use computers to create presentations. I don't know if I would ever be able to use technology like these nationally certified teachers have used. I don't even feel comfortable using a computer myself, let alone teaching my students how to use programs to create presentations. The Digital Edge Project is a great idea, just not the best one for me.

Reflections on Mitchel Resnick

Summary: In Mitchel Resnick's article, "Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age" he talks about how computers need to be viewed more as a learning tool and a creative media and less as an information technology. He explains the importance of becoming digitally fluent and how there is a difference between being able to word-process or send an e-mail and being able to "construct things of significance with those tools". An example he brings forth of using computers to construct things are the Computer Clubhouses that were started up in Boston. People are able to come to these clubhouses and create their own projects. They are able to express themselves in the computer world while learning to become digitally fluent. Resnick states that we need to rethink how and what people learn, and we need to change from focusing on information and how much we know to how we can "think and act creatively".

Reflection: I am the first person to say that I dislike using computers and technology. It always breaks around me and then there is no way for me to use it, let alone understand it. Computers for me have always been for looking up information, typing up information, and printing out information. Sure, I would get on to Microsoft Paint and play around for a while when I was bored, but who hasn't? That is the extent to my being creative on the computer. I even ended up deleting my Myspace because making it all colorful, creative, and awesome took way too much time and frustration to figure out (which is why I prefer Facebook, there are no layouts). In all reality, I am a very creative person and an avid scrapbooker, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to be digitally/creatively fluent on a computer! Resnick brings up the thought that we should start teaching the ways to be fluent in school, and I agree. I don't think I would have near as much trouble as I do now if all through elementary school all my computer classes I spent with my fingers on home row typing of pages of script. We were only able to use the creative programs after we had finished all of the researched, typed up, printed out work. I was taught to think of computers as an information technology. I don't know if I will ever see it differently now.