Testing with Tech: The Role of Technology in Supporting and Enhancing Assessment
Barbara Means | Grant Wiggins | Bruce Alberts
Barbara Means
Vice President, Policy Division, SRI International
If you imagine each of the students in a class with some kind of a handheld computing device, which is not farfetched today -- maybe it was five years ago but it's not today -- and you imagine a teacher is, for example, teaching a principle in physics and asks the students to predict what would happen to the trajectory of a ball if you're rotating around in a circle and let loose the ball at a certain position. You have each of the students actually draw what that trajectory might look like.
We could take almost any other example, that in a moment in time, could give the teacher a picture of what the kids do and do not understand about the principles that are going to be studied. Having that picture can identify common kinds of misconceptions and, certainly after a piece of instruction, it can identify that which we know often happens in physics classes, which is: the beautiful lecture is given, the students listen attentively, they take notes, and they still don't really understand the concepts underneath it.
And so if we start thinking about having unobtrusive ways within classrooms to capture student performances in the course of learning, that's something I think technology can really help support, as well as being able to support the maintenance of an organized archive or record of these student performances over time. The idea is to have a system that keeps a record but that is very unobtrusive on the surface -- one that just blends into the course of activity.
You can see that in some of the prototype technology-supported assessments being developed today -- they're presented in terms of puzzles or projects with things kids explore on the Web. It doesn't feel like a test. It doesn't feel like an assessment. It feels like an interesting activity that you're doing on the computer that presents opportunities for students to express their understanding or their skill in a certain way. Then underneath the surface, where the student doesn't have to worry about that, all those can be accumulated over time to give a profile of student's strengths and weaknesses.
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Grant Wiggins
President, Grant Wiggins & Associates
Technology, I think, has a vital role to play in project-based work and in more robust assessment. Once we get beyond the idea that assessment is more than just quizzes and tests -- and that it's the documentation of whereby you make this case that the student has done something significant -- this body of evidence, if we want to stick with that judicial metaphor, proves the student actually learned something.
Technology is an obvious partner because whether it's on a CD-ROM, floppies, or an old-fashioned technology like video cameras or even overheads, the student is bringing together visual, three-dimensional, and paper-and-pencil work. We want to be able to document and have a trace of what the student has accomplished and how the student got there.
Having said that, I think sometimes technology is overused and we don't think carefully enough about the evidence we need to give the grade, put something on the transcript, and track that information over time. Many well-intentioned people say, "Let's have student portfolios of the student's work K-12." Well, that's fine for the student, but there's hardly another human being other than the kid's family that wants to wade through all that.
And that's actually another role of technology: It's a good database system -- information management, storage, and retrieval whereby we say, "I don't want to look through the whole portfolio. I want to just see some samples, some rubrics to get a sense of the student's current level of performance." Tracking information over time through technology is actually an important part of it as well.
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Bruce Alberts
President, National Academy of Sciences
The academy spent a major three-year effort bringing some of the best experts in testing and assessment together to try to envision the future around testing and the two elements necessary to make a high-quality test, which are essential for really driving education in the right direction.
One of the elements is the promise of modern technologies -- computer technologies -- that in principle could allow you to do sophisticated testing on a large, inexpensive scale. The other component, of course, is our understanding of how students learn and our understanding of what's important to learn. So, we need to bring those two communities together to work on creating tests, and this committee had that kind of a mixture.
The report, Knowing What Students Know, just came out and it emphasizes the optimistic feeling that we can do it. That is, there are few cases where enough effort's been put in to create tests using the best information we have about learning, and combining that with sophisticated computer techniques.
There are enough examples of those to give people the feeling that we can, in principle and if we put enough research and effort into it, develop relatively low-cost tests that students could take even over the Web so that we could get to scale with these tests and that these kinds of tests would drive the right kind of teaching and learning.
The role of technology in supporting and enhancing assessment
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on May 15, 2008 - 18:43.
In response to Grant Wiggins I agree that technology is overused. But I am always concerned about students who have no access to the rest of the world. There are many teachers and students who rely on computers/internet to explore their surroundings. I don’t think that computers should just be used for assessments. Technology is the future and in addition to traditional reading, writing and arithmetic we also have to jump on the technology band wagon.
Technology in classrooms
Submitted by Bobbie (not verified) on April 9, 2008 - 17:39.
I strongly believe that students should have access to computers in their schools. There are certainly lessons that can be reinforced with the use of the new softwares, websites, and eductional resources that are now readily available I remember when there was a time when Commodore 64's were considered to be highly advanced and weighed more than I did when I had one. Now, computers come as small as the palm of your hand. I'm still amazed.
As a Language Arts teacher, I am able to use computers for my lessons and have even developed the use of iMovie for a publications course that used to be primarily paper and pen work. I can see how other teachers might be unwilling to let go of the amount of control they have with paper and pen exercises , but they have to see the bigger pictures they are creating. Computer literacy is a necessity in todays job market, and it's something that we need to prepare our kids for. Additionally, by giving some control to their students, teachers are giving more responsibility to their students with their education. Responsibility is what matters. Some kids will use it well and others won't. The point is that our kids are going to leave school with the skills they are going to need for their futures.
Technology in Assessments
Submitted by Michelle Johnson (not verified) on March 20, 2008 - 19:41.
I agree with Ms. Means that using technology as a way to assess students is less threatening than the old system of tests and quizzes. Technology is something that students are familiar and comfortable with and find infinitely more interesting. In today’s world, students use technology in almost everything that they do. This could be why students have become increasingly disinterested in school. It’s a far cry from what life outside of school is like for them. Outside of school they have their cell phones and texting, they have their play stations and computer games. In school they have books and worksheets. It is easy to see why they find school uninteresting and exams frightening. It is nothing like what their world is like.
The problem is the cold, harsh world of reality. I would love to use more technology in my classroom. The problem is the lack of resources and money. Let’s face it, textbooks and worksheets are cheaper and easier to buy. This is why they are more common in the classroom than other modes of learning. It’s expensive to equip every classroom with computers and projectors. In our school it was hard enough to get one computer per classroom and several computer labs set up much less have cool gadgets that every student would be able to use simultaneously. School districts have done extensive studies on how best to instruct students, but unfortunately the budgets have not caught up.
Using technology to assess learning
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on March 19, 2008 - 23:05.
in response to Barbara Means using technology to assess:
We are so lucky that now there is so much offered in the way of technology! With just a little encouragement and guidance students can create a Podcast, use digital cameras, garage band, audacity, imovie, moviemaker, or one of the multitude of other technology resources available to make learning fun. Will they feel like they are being assessed? Probably not, but there will definitely be enough to make some sound assessments on how the student is progressing.
Technology in assessment
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on March 19, 2008 - 13:41.
The use of technology in assessment should be implemented at all levels of education. These days, kids are learning to use modern technology at a faster pace than we ever did. We as teachers need to keep up with them. We need to enhance their learning by using any available pieces of technology. We cannot keep their motivation about learning up if all we use to teach is the boring old textbook. In my opinion, I think that when teachers use more technology in their classrooms, students seem to forget that they are being assessed because they are more intrigued with using a piece of technology to show their own personal creative side. All in all, technology makes things more interesting in the classroom not only for the students but for the teacher as well. As for the comment about electronic portfolios, go for it. This would make things much easier to read and more organized. I think that the days of copying papers and collecting papers in a binder should be done with. Electronic portfolios are much more professional looking and the students get to design them the way they want too.
The importance of incorporating technology
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on March 15, 2008 - 17:44.
I think that we need to incorporate technology into all levels of education. If our true goal is to give our students tools and knowledge that they need to be productive citizens then technology is a must. It also makes learning real to them and fun. Students enjoy using a smart board whether to do a algebra problem or drawing a triangle. By using technology we can put students in real life situations and have them use resources to solve problems. In the old school it was memorize everything, which I do believe there are things that need to be memorize, but we also must teach our students how to use resources and find out information. As a teacher the resources are unlimited when you get on the world wide web. Someone would be crazy not to tap into the unlimited information on the web. Yes technology has change education, from the way we assess, to the way we report grades to parents, to the way instruction is give, and to the way students respond. It is all very exciting I think.
Question.....
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 1, 2007 - 20:17.
Referring to the comments made by Grant Wiggins:
If a school district were to implement a database system to track student performance, would the teacher be responsible for imputing all of the information or would the district have to hire additional staff? If additional personnel were required, would the benefit of such a system outweigh the cost?
Our school system actually
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 18, 2007 - 15:02.
Our school system actually has experienced this scenario. We had lots of benchmark data ( testing data collected 3 x a year) collected per grade and per subject area. The data then had to be crunched and analyzed to see the trends for all the AYP data kids and to gather data to report for NCLB to the federal govt. The classroom teacher did not have the time to complete. The tech. data person set up the grid for the on line data to be entered. The analysis report then had to be copied to the Director of Instrution in the School baord office and used for predicting success on the future tests on all grade levels. After the testing took place in the spring the analysis continued to see if the pre-incdicators were valid. The lead Teachers or Dept. heads in each school had too much to do with too little compesensation vs paid coaching positions. The school system had only one tech person to assist 4 schools covering over 2200 students.
Frustration set in and those core subject areas with a failing score were once again challenged to re-tool and redirect instruction to ensure success for all. As an educator it seems the emphasis is all on the teacher. Not enough emphasis is put on the middle or high school student or parents.
I think real analysis does not go far enough to aid teachers to help them re-tool & redirect their teaching habits.
Technology in the Classroom
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 1, 2007 - 11:04.
I agree with the comments above. Technology is vital in schools. I believe that technology can make assessments easier and cheaper cost as Grant’s comment explains. Technology is also only going to get better. As it improves, the improvements will slowly take place in the school systems as well as the world. However, I do believe that technology and the computer will not replace the teacher. I know that I learn better, if I have a teacher face-to-face with me. There is a relationship that grows in a face-to-face classroom, that computers can not bring into educating.
Grant Wiggins and Barbara
Submitted by Beth Hathaway (not verified) on November 1, 2007 - 08:26.
Grant Wiggins and Barbara Means bring up helpful points about technology providing an important tool in terms of organizing and analyzing test data and providing new and exciting ways for the students to experience assessment and for the teacher to examine it. My question within the realm of assessment technology is, is there any danger in making so many aspects of school entertaining? I know we are only talking about assessment here but it seems like there is a general push toward making school and learning fun, no matter what the context. Are there important skills being lost in the process? I wonder sometimes if the experience of quietly reading a physical book and journaling or essay-writing without any animated, interactive, colorful technology is becoming a lost art. But, maybe it never was an art. I worry that some of the entertaining factors of assessment or instruction that are entering the field lack needed preparation for the mundane parts of the real world.
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