Joshua Plymale

EDU 225
3-5-16
Katy Sell

Part 1: Assessment Technology

PollEv.com/joshuaplymal109 is the link to take a quick poll on how you feel about
writing. For some students it may come easy or naturally. While others may find it hard and
struggle to write. Still there are those that find writing easy, but choose not to do it or to try

because of their disinterest in it. This assessment tool sole purpose is to create online polls. These
polls allow you to gather information for a specific detail without ever meeting anyone in person.
In this case it is a formative assessment of students to find out how they feel about writing. Since
writing is necessary in all educational purposes it is best to improve this skill whenever possible,
especially when someone is struggling. As a teacher, this information will tell them how to begin
their lesson plans. For example, if there is a high disinterest rate and/or hard rate than some
simple writing lessons or exercises might be a good idea. This could be done through the idea of
a bell ringer or lesson of the day activity. Just like anything else humans do, practice makes
perfect and it does not hurt to have a good teacher as well.
Part 2: Blog Post
Introduction:
Assessment of students is essential to help teachers and to give students the chance to
grow as learners. Luckily, teachers do not have to do this assessment based on their own opinions
or ideas. Due to technology, teachers now have countless tools for assessment at their disposal.
Teachers can use technology to make their own work more productive -- teachers can use
spreadsheets to track student work and also track their teaching plans. If a group of students is
performing poorly in a particular area, this kind of record keeping can highlight areas that the
teacher needs to focus on in their own teaching. These tools can also help administrators assess
and improve teacher performance.(Anthony Prestino, 2004). Through technology, teachers can
assess students fairly, easily, and thoroughly.
Technology to Facilitate Ongoing Efforts to Assess Student Learning

Teachers can facilitate efforts towards students learning in the classroom by assessing
them with technology. Originally, teachers had to assess students based on what they could do
with their learning. This was done through assignments, tests, quizzes, and discussion. Learning
takes place in students heads where it is invisible to others. This means that learning must be
assessed through performance: what students can do with their learning. (Elberly, 2016). Now
with technology teachers can assess through students through polls, rubrics, preapproved
assignments and assessments, as well as online media and etc. These rigorous, multiple forms
of assessment require students to apply what they're learning to real world tasks. These include
standards-based projects and assignments that require students to apply their knowledge and
skills, such as designing a building or investigating the water quality of a nearby pond; clearly
defined rubrics (or criteria) to facilitate a fair and consistent evaluation of student work; and
opportunities for students to benefit from the feedback of teachers, peers, and outside experts.
(George Lucas, 2016). There are several online assessment tools and some examples are
rubistar.com, polleverywhere.com, and coursmos.com
Rcampus.com
Teachers can use Rcampus.com to find, create, and edit rubrics online. After the rubric
meets the teachers needs, the teacher can print off the rubric or send out a link for students to
visit the rubric. By utilizing a rubric a teacher can clearly state what is expected of a students
work and how the teacher will grade that assignment. This way the teacher can grade all the
students work fairly among all students. This will also allow the teacher to assess what the
student is learning through the classroom. An example of this, is if a teacher was needing a rubric
for an argument essay. The teacher could use Rcampus.com to find one, and if that rubric did not
meet the exact needs, the teacher could edit the rubric as needed. This way the teacher did not

have to start from scratch and has an idea of how the rubric should look overall. This will also
make it possible for students to view the rubric online while they are at their house. After all,
being able to relate to your students in a way they are comfortable is half the fight of teaching.
Polleverywhere.com
Teachers can use Polleverywhere.com to create online polls for their classroom. These
polls could be something simple as what the class would prefer to do for their free day or
something complexed as a discussion question for the class. In which, the teacher would assess
what the students believe to be the correct answer and discuss these assumptions as a class. An
example of this is: Who is the better author, Edgar Alan Poe or Pittacus Lore? After assessing the
results, the teacher could make a group discussion about this question. A few preset guidelines,
statements, or questions about this topic may help keep discussion going. Such as taking the time
out before the discussion to jot down a few ideas, like what makes Edgar Alan Poes writing so
different from Pittacus Lores? What makes them similar? Is the time frame in which they were
born a reason for the difference in their writing? And etc., until the teacher feels the point of the
discussion has been met.
Coursmos.com
A teacher can use coursmos.com to watch about anything. Coursmos.com is a web tool
with access to a lot of different categories and information. First, a teacher could use this web
tool to show already created webinars or to create their own. They could also use this to watch
videos about language arts or math. In some cases, it may be a good idea to assign a video from
this site to students to see how they do with learning from a video. This would be a good
assessment to find out how those students learn. An example of this would be to assign students
the link: https://coursmos.com/manhattan-institute/courses/kNhigCW9/0/0#autostart and ask

them to watch this link and write a brief summary of the main points of what it was about. The
teacher could then assess the students on the information that they comprehended.
Formative and Summative Assessments
The difference between formative and summative is that formative is more geared
towards the learning process while summative is geared towards finalizing that learning and
grading the student upon what they should already know. Technology can be used for both of
these assessments. More so with formative then summative, because most teachers will use
formative then summative assessment due to the fact that they are teaching students new
information. It will be better for all parties if the assessment used occasionally is formative and
then summative. This way the information has been taught, assessed, and taught again, before
finalizing the information through summative assessment. With Rcampus.com teachers could use
the example given for both formative and summative assessment. Of course, the use of which is
situational and depends on fi the students are just now being introduced to an argument essay. If
thats the case most teachers would lean towards a formative assessment, however if they have
been taught about argument essay leading up to the assignment then a summative assessment
could be useful. With Polleverywhere.com a teacher could use the example gave for a formative
assessment. For a summative assessment a different technique would be to post several possible
answers with only one right answer. An example would be: What is Percy Jacksons (in the
Olympians series) name sake famous for? This would have several answers, but only one correct
answer. The teacher could then assess the whole class by their answers to find out where the
entire class reading comprehension level is. With the coursmos.com example a teacher could sue
it as a formative or summative depending on the situation of the class. If this is the first
assignment with online videos, then most teachers would be more inclined to make it a formative

assessment, while if it would be the last video learning session of the class it would most likely
be a summative assessment.
Pros and Cons of using Technology to Facilitate Assessment
There are pros and cons with everything a person does and using technology to facilitate
assessment of student learning is no different. The pros are that teachers can easily assess
students in all areas anywhere and anytime. The potential of mobile devices for learning and
assessment is of increasing interest to the H&SC professions (Sandars & Pellow, 2006) and the
wider higher education community (Anderson & Blackwood, 2004). The personal nature of mlearning and the interactivity of this mode have been found to encourage learner engagement
(Savill-Smith, Attewell, & Stead, 2006). Key features of m-learning are that it provides just
enough, just for me, just in time learning (Nycz & Dragon, 2005) often typically situated (in the
workplace or field) and contextualized through interaction with tutor, mentor, or peers. (J.D.
Taylora*, C.A. Dearnleyb, J.C. Laxtonc, C.A. Coatesd, T. Treasure-Jonese, R. Campbellf, and I.
Hallg, 2010). By utilizing technology to make work and assessment public or out there you
can improve students willingness to learn. As Mike McCarthy, principal of King Middle
School in Portland, Maine, puts it in chapter 6, Anytime you make the work public, set the bar
high, and are transparent about the steps to make a high-quality product, kids will
deliver.(KFVAVH, 2014). The cons are that it is possible to overwhelm students with new
technology or distract them from the learning process. Also teachers may be unaware or
unfamiliar with the technology and uncomfortable that results with them using it wrong or
making critical mistakes that could hurt the students grades.
Should a teacher only use technology to assess student learning? Why or why not?

No, teachers should not rely on technology only to assess student learning. A teacher
should always rely on their own personal ability to assess students. However, using technology
to help them assess students is a good hobby to have. There are countless web tools to help
teachers assess students, but all of these web tools depend on the teachers ability to do so. There
are also ways that help teachers access students that do not deal with technology such as paper
rubrics or classroom discussions. All of these are important for teachers to successful access
students effectively.
What is the importance of assessment technology in connection with the ISTE standards?
With the ISTE standards 1. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity states
that c. Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students
conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative process. This is important when
using assessment for students, a teacher will need to give students information based upon their
work that will help them learn and grow from the results. According to the ISTE standards 2.
Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments states d. Provide students
with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and
technology standards, and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching. Teachers need to
assess students with these principles in mind to encourage learning and motivation for the
student. These are some reasons as to how the importance of assessment is connected with the
ISTE standards.
Concluding Paragraph for Software to Support Assessment
In conclusion, technology helps teachers assess students fairly, easily, and thoroughly.
Teachers now have a variety of ways to assess students and they include but are not limited to
group discussions, rubrics, polls, and graphs. Technology has greatly improved these resources

and can be done from anywhere at any time. Rcampus.com is a useful website that gives teachers
the opportunity to find already created rubrics online and print them, edit them, or use a link to
visit them. Polleverywhere.com is a website based around polls that gives teachers a chance to
assess students through the use of polls that the students can take during class, before, or as
homework. Coursmos.com is a web tool with a lot of variety that can be used for several
assessments, from webinars to video lessons. Formative and summative assessments are both
necessary assessments for students, while formative is guided towards teaching the summative
assessment is guided towards judging what a student should know. The pros and cons of
technology assessments are not a game changer for using technology for assessment. The pros
are very helpful towards teachers that assess students, and with the right preparation and
presentation the cons can become non-existent. When assessment is considered a teacher should
always rely on their personal ability. As well as their knowledge of how to connect the idea of
assessment towards the ISTE standards. In the end, student assessment comes down to the
teachers ability to be a great teacher that puts students education as the number priority in the
classroom.

References
Anthony Prestino, 2004. How can technology be used with assessment, evaluation, and
curriculum redesign? Retrieved from
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/assessment/explor_sub4.html
Elberly, 2016. How to Assess Students Learning and Performance. Retrieved from
http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/assesslearning/
George Lucas, 2016. How Should We Measure Student Learning? 5 Keys to Comprehensive
Assessment. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/comprehensive-assessmentintroduction
J.D. Taylora*, C.A. Dearnleyb, J.C. Laxtonc, C.A. Coatesd, T. Treasure-Jonese,
R. Campbellf, and I. Hallg, 2010. Developing a mobile learning solution for health and
social care practice. Distance Education, 31(2), 175-192.
doi:10.1080/01587919.2010.503343
KFVAVH, 2014. PROS AND CONS OF ASSESSMENT Con: The Devil is in the Data. Tech &

Learning, 35(4), 42-43.

ISTE, 2016. ISTE Standards Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/ISTEstandards/standards-for-teachers