"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.”