Assessment Technology

Introduction

                Assessments are the key to help students achieve the necessary skills and gain the required knowledge to succeed in life. As it is an essential tool to help teachers guide their students to achieve all the areas of learning successfully. It provides teacher with the specific spots each student needs improvement and gives teachers feedback on how they can aid students master their weak areas. At the same time teachers should always have a backup assignment or strategy to help those students that learn in different ways gain the required knowledge to succeed in life. That is why teachers are incorporating technology into their curriculum, as there are many software's available to assist teachers in tracking students skills and it also helps them engage students and aid those students that need intensive help succeed. "Recognizing that technology is transforming many aspects of teaching and learning, and offering innovative and motivating ways to document student learning that are adaptable to range of students." (Salend, Spencer J.)

Technology to Facilitate Ongoing Efforts to Assess Student Learning

                Technology is becoming an essential tool to facilitate ongoing efforts to assess students learning in and out of class. As teachers are implementing different tools into their curriculum to help engage students in becoming more involved in different lessons and assignments. It's also becoming very helpful and useful for teachers as they can assess students and keep track of their progress without having to do much. These software's keep every students data, as how often they log in, what they have mastered and what areas they are needing assistance.  Students are enjoying the way they are learning because many software's look more life fun educational games that teach students different  techniques and skills. As technology will always be of great motivation for students because its different and interesting to them and it's a great tool that will help students to be guided in the right direction to help them accomplish and gain the necessary knowledge to succeed in life. "Advances in assessment technologies are affording teachers and students new ways to efficiently assess and track achievement while also better promoting learning."(Dooley, Scott, Landauer, Thomas K., Lochbaum, Karen E.)

 WritingToLearn is a software that helps teachers assess students while teaching them different skills that are required to successfully write a well creative paper and comprehend what is being learned. Teachers can use this software when trying to expand the learning of a topic or lesson, as they can let students express their knowledge of what they have learned in class by letting them write a well productive paper. As students use this software it will expand their vocabulary and summative writing skills. WritingToLearn will help students master the state testing because it provides them with two components that are Summary Street "widely used and best proven tools for literacy learning"(Shanahan, 2005), are short articles, book sections or excerpts and students write topic prompted essays. Intelligent Essay Assessor is used for integrating comprehension and writing practice environment or can be used as a second opinion on essay exams administered online. 

 Camtasia Studio is a software that allows teachers to teach students how to do electronic presentations, simulations and software demonstrations that can include text, graphics, video, audio, animation and screen captures. Being creative is what makes learning fun as students gain knowledge while enjoy using many different technology tools to enhance their learning. Teachers can use this software into their curriculum as they can teach students different topics and students can expand their knowledge into researching more about the topic or lesson and create a presentation where they can teach others more about what they learned. It's also a great resource to use when it come to grading students in the understanding of any lesson because it will show how much they know as they producing a good detailed presentation.

Google Graph  is a software that helps teachers assess students learning by teaching them how it can be used into different lessons or topics. This software can be very useful in class, as to showing evidence of any information gathered from research. Teachers can use this tool when trying to create a math problem as they can first do research on any topic, such as how many people have iphone than android phones. After gathering the information, students can graph their results and create a presentation in class. Teachers can also use the information gathered from their students and create a different tests. It's always important to make it fun and interesting because students become involved and motivated to participate in exciting subjects that brings students into wanting to learn more.

Formative and Summative Assessments

            Formative assessments are used by teacher to help them evaluate each student's academic progress in class throughout the year, as to see how well they are understanding any lesson or unit. It provides teachers with evidence into what area the student is lacking on and helps them adjust their teaching to assist the student master the required skills. As for summative assessments students are tested at the end of each lesson or unit to show an understanding of what is being taught in class. Technology is a great tool that allows teachers to assess their students in a much more easier way of analyzing the level of understanding of each student. There are many tools that allows teacher to create any formative of summative assessment, such as WritingToLearn, Camtasia Studio and Google Graphs. These software's will better facilitate teachers way of assessing students because it will let students express themselves without realizing they are being tested or evaluated as they are gaining new knowledge and are engaged into what is being taught in class. 

 Pros and Cons of using Technology to Facilitate Assessment

            Technology is being implemented into teachers curriculum and the way they assess students. There are many tools that provide teachers to gain students attention as they make it interesting for students to become more involved. Technology provides teachers with the capacity of,  "Immediate access to large amounts of data could promote more accurate assessment results and facilitate the development of more sophisticated expert systems to assist teachers with instructional planning." (Bahr, Michael W., and Christine M. Bahr) Technology is not always a good tool to use when wanting to observe students integration with others and it can also limit what can be evaluated.

“Should a teacher only use technology to assess student learning? Why or why not?”

            When it comes to assessing students in class, technology can be of great use in involving students in participating more into any topic or lesson, but it can also limit the amount of information or evidence gathered from assessments. When teachers have the opportunity to evaluate students throughout the day in class, as they can create student portfolios and have sample work for each students progress it becomes a great tool to share with parents when it comes to parent teacher conferences.

What is the importance of assessment technology in connection with the ISTE standards?

            Using assessment technology is becoming a great tool for teacher to implement into their classrooms. Students are attracted and are more engaged into different topics and lessons taught in class because teacher are implementing different tools that help enhance the way they teach. As ISTE Standards states that, " Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments."

Concluding Paragraph for Software to Support Assessment      

            The key to a successful class is implementing different tools and learning ways to gain students attention thought teaching them in a fun and engaging way. Technology is known to have many educational tools that have helped teachers teach different lessons and topics while assessing students in different areas. As teachers gather data from students participation into different software or educational sites, they become aware of the different areas they are needing help. It also provides teachers with feedback into improving their teaching and how to help each student succeed because every student learns in many different ways.

References

Bahr, Michael W., and Christina M. Bahr. "Educational Assessment In The Next Millennium: Contributions Of Thechnology." Preventing School Failure 41. (1997): 90-94 OmniFile Text Select (H.W. Wilson). Web. 8 Mar. 2015.

Dooley, Scott, Landauer, Thomas K., Lohbaum, Daren E. "A New Formative Assessment Technology for Reading and Writing." Theory Intro Practice 48:1 (2009): 44-52. Education Research Complete. Web. 3 Mar. 2015.

"ISTE Standards Teachers." International Society for Technology in Education. ISTE Standards, 2008. March 5, 20015. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf

Salend, Spencer J. "Technology-Based Classroom Assessments." Teaching Exceptional Children 41.6 (2009): 48-58. Education Research Complete. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.

Student Centered Technology

Section Four: Differentiating Instruction through Technology

Introduction

            As an educator it's very important to help students achieve and get the necessary skills required to succeed in life. For students to accomplish and gain the knowledge needed to become successful, teachers are incorporating technology to assist them in differentiate instruction. That is why teachers are using differentiate instruction through technology to better aid them in the process of making sure students are understanding the way teachers teach and how they receive any instructional information or lecture provided in class. To better assist my students in understanding and obtaining the required information in class, I have found many technology tools that are of great help in teaching students to attain  the skills in which they are lacking on.

Technology to Differentiate Instruction 

Gummii: Is a modern way of helping teachers differentiate instruction in class and to better help students understand and adapt to their individual needs. This is why I will incorporate Gummii into my lessons to enhanced the way my students receive information without struggling understanding of any lecture or lesson. This tool will assist students to comprehend and maintain motivated as they will enjoy playing a game while learning the material they are struggling in class. As we all know students learn in so many different ways that it becomes complicated for students to understand the lesson. The ISTE standards for students indicates that students use creative thinking, while applying existing knowledge to generate new ideas when using technology. That is why teachers are helping students again the necessary information to better understand the material and assist those needs by using different tools that will help them master the understanding of the lecture. ISTE states that teachers plan their curriculum to fulfill the needs of the students by designing an effective learning environment and supporting their lessons by including different technology tools to better aid students way of learning. It is also important to have hands on activities in class because some of us learn by having concrete and manipulatives. (Hand 2 mine) When teaching students different math problems such as the multiplication tables "Task Cards," are a great tool to help students learn all their multiplications.      

Power My Learning: Is a tool to help educators differentiate instruction by delivering information to students in ways they understand. "Power My Learning" provides many tools of instruction to better support learning in and out of class. Students have access to Common Core Standard academic games, videos to meet students educational needs. The ISTE established that students tend to have an understanding of technology concepts, systems and operations. As they will use their current knowledge to learn of new technologies. To assist my students to develop the necessary skills I will incorporate this tool to implement blended learning as every student is different and learn differently. What makes this tool awesome is that teachers don't have to worry about not meeting students educational needs because it ass learning activities, can also include formative assessments that every student can have access to any time of the day and monitor students learning by tracking activity uses and assessments. “Technology improves performance when the application adjusts for student ability and prior experience, and provides feedback to the student and teacher about student performance or progress with the application.” (Smith, Grace E. and Throne, Stephanie)  Maintaining communicated is the key to success and that is why I recommend this tool because teacher can stay communicated with students regarding any feedback on any activity or assessment they have completed. ISTE specified  that the use of technology resources can improve student's learning as it can collect and analyze data, interpret result and communicate with one another on their progress and what needs improvement.

No Red Ink: Is a learning tool that assist teachers differentiate instruction as how well students are understanding what is taught in class, to avoid any misconceptions by providing students with interesting topics they enjoy reading and writing about. This tool will help improve in the areas of grammar and writing skills. As ISTE Standards for students states that creative thinking constructs knowledge and develop innovative products and processes by using technology. No Red Ink is a great tool for teachers by assisting them on creating assignments and quizzes without having to do any grading, students also have unlimited access to help whenever they need it and best of all it helps students target all Common Core skills and teachers can track the growth potentials of students progress. That is why I will integrate this tool into my curriculum to be of huge assistance to students when working on writing a well productive paper, as it is indicated in the ISTE that teachers implement the use of technology to develop students skills and creativity.

Pros and Cons

            "Differentiated instruction is the principle of adjusting your lesson plans to target the individual learning styles of all students in classroom." (Hamilton, Samuel) The pros of using technology to differentiate instruction is that you can target every student at once, have more time to plan other lessons while students are doing their activities or assessments and it can maintain teachers more organized as students achievements or needing progress can be kept in the computer. "Technology has made it easier for teachers to impart knowledge to the students and for students to acquire it." (Sahakov, Roman) The cons of using technology to differentiate instruction its more overwhelming to teachers, as students learn at different paces and styles it brings teachers to have a load of work. Also having to spend more time with each student it limits teachers from getting stuff done in class and hard time keeping up with the schedule. 

Concluding Paragraph  
     Teachers are becoming aware of how important it is to help students gain the necessary skills to become successful through the way they take in information and understand instructions. That is why teachers are implementing technology into their curriculum to differentiate instruction in ways that students can comprehend. It's important for teachers to understand that everyone is different and learn in so many unique ways. There are a lot of resources available to aid teachers on helping students master the areas that they are lacking on and gain the knowledge that is needed to succeed.

References:

Bhaskar K, Santosh. "5 Online Tools for Differentiated Instruction and Assessment." EdTechReview, 2015. August 10, 2015. Retrieved from http://edtechreview.in/news/498-5-online-tools-for-differentiated-instruction-and-assessment

"Hands-On Learning." Hand 2 mind. ETA hands2mind, 2015. February 28, 2015. Retrieved from http://www.hand2mind.com/programs/hands-onlearning

Hamilton, Samuel. "Pros & Cons of Differentiated Instruction." eHow. Demond Media, 1999-2015. February 28, 2015. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/info_7974427_pros-cons-differentiated-instruction.html

"Pros and Cons of Differentiated Instruction." Asia-Pacific Economics Blog. Feb. 27, 2015. February 28, 2015. Retrieved from http://apecsec.org/pros-and-cons-of-differentiated-instruction/

Robb, Laura. "Differentiating Reading Instruction." Scholastic, 2015. February 28, 2015. Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/what-differentiated-instruction

Sahakov, Roman. "2 Pros and 2 Cons to Education Technology" Edudemic Connecting Education & Technology. January 15, 2014. February 22, 2015. Retrieved from http://www.edudemic.com/education-technology-pros-cons/

Smith, Grace E. and Throne, Stephanie. "Differentiating Instruction with Technology in K-5th Classrooms." ISTE, 2007. February 28, 2015. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/docs/excerpts/DIFFK5-excerpt.pdf