Technology and Assessment
I am working on some reading about technology and assessment. The source is A Distributed Evaluation Model, and I quote:
“Technology is changing rapidly and changing the ways and possibilities for conducting education and training. Traditional designs do not do the job because they cannot capture the outcomes we most want to achieve with new technological interventions.”
Those outcomes would be things like active learning, collaboration, problem solving and critical thinking. Our problem to solve is this: How do you effectively measure the impact of technology in the classroom? Are we asking the right questions? It’s also difficult because the outcome is dependent on much more than the technology. Remember, it’s not about the technology, but about the learning. So the environment that the teacher establishes is of prime importance.
There are also some other factors that play into the success or failure of a technology innovation: access to equipment, support of administration, understanding of the technology by teachers, student skills and appropriate use in the curriculum. If any of these are missing, the intervention will not be successful.
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