Technology to Facilitate Ongoing Efforts to Assess Student Learning
Assessing students, whether it is a formative or summative assessment, has become an
integral part of the learning process. As technology continues to improve and become the most
important tool in the learning process, there is no reason why these two key aspects of instruction
cannot come together to better the student’s learning process. There are many online tools that
currently help in assessing students by allowing teachers to create their assessments and share
them with their students for easy assessment taking abilities. A couple of teacher’s favorites
online assessment tools are: Socrative, Poll Everywhere, and Google Forms; all of these lend
themselves to making a formative or summative assessment.
Technology to Facilitate Ongoing Efforts to Assess Student Learning
The beautiful marriage between technology and the classroom is never more clearly
evident than when that technology is being used to assess students. Teachers can do more than
just create tests or quizzes, as the word assessment would suggest, with this technology.
Teachers can use multiple online tools to become more efficient in the classroom in a variety of
ways. Instructors can use these tools to create ways to analyze results from different assessments
and create a data to see in which ways students most need more help and further instruction.
Teachers can use this technology to share assessments online while being able to extend
themselves as a resource as well when students are away from school. This kind of technology is
not limited to teachers as it can also help administrators keep track of their teachers’ ability to
improve instruction over time. However, at the raw level of assessment, it is about improving
and advancing the skills of the students in the classroom. “The ultimate goal of assessment is the
informed, purposeful improvement of the quality of student learning. Although assessment is not
easy, the goal makes it well worth the effort” (Spurlin, J. (2006).
Socrative:
Teachers can use Socrative to create easy to use and easy to access assessments. The
website is easily logged into with a free account that teachers can share with their students that
allows the students to take the prepared assessments. Another important aspect is how the app is
a time saver. The app has over 75,000 members who all can share their assessments with other
teachers at the click of a button. Perhaps the coolest feature is the data tracking software on the
app. “Teachers [with Socrative] can see how well the class is doing in a very detailed way, and
see who’s struggling more, what the class doesn’t understand, and even which students can help
others” Mattheson, R. (2014).
Poll Everywhere:
This app allows teachers the chance to create a formative assessment immediately.
Creating a poll that is viewable via twitter or text messaging (can be set up for a classroom
account), teachers can receive messages from students and enjoy interactions while formulating
what students already know about their upcoming lesson. This is a great way for teachers and
students to stay connected to their classroom in a way that stimulates conversation that leads to
more interaction within the classroom and can create better teaching methods. Using this app can
also give teachers instant feedback on how well their students are grasping the lesson and can
lead to instructors finding what works best for each student. Students using this app can easily
view who needs help or who can help and learn to work together. Newtech, an online technology
reviewer, reviewed the app as a five out of five and had this to say in their review, “Advantages
are that it is free, easy to access, poll questions [are] easy to enter and automatic poll results are
given” (Miller, J. (2013).
Google Forms:
It is difficult to mention technology in the classroom without mentioning something that
Google has ties to. In this case it is Google Forms that does the creating of the assessment and
sets up incredible ease of use for teachers and students alike. Google Forms can create both
summative and formative assessments that will measure different areas of students’ learning.
Many people already use Google mail and thus are open to use all the applications that Google
offers. When discussing assessment tools, Google Forms is on the top of the list in regards to
creativity, effectiveness, and sharing capabilities. Google Forms also has rubric creation
capabilities for assessments as well as the ability to analyze data. Joyce Hsu of TechSoup Canada
had this to say in her review, “Google Forms also has a lot of features that are usually not
available on a free plan (e.g., branching, multiple survey pages, exporting data) and I can’t stress
enough how much I appreciate the “no limits” on questions, pages, surveys and responses.” Hsu,
J. (2014). Having the features that Google Forms does, at no cost, is not what makes it a great
app, but is what sets it apart from all other assessment app options.
Formative and Summative Assessments
As mentioned as part of the different tools available, they are all great at creating
formative and/or summative assessments. What separates the two assessments though, and how
can each be used effectively in the classroom? A formative assessment is done before a teacher’s
lesson to find out what students already know and to form how a teacher may instruct future
lessons. A formative assessment’s goal according to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is “to
monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve
their teaching and by students to improve their learning” (Formative vs Summative Assessment,
(2015). A summative assessment differs in that it comes after a lesson and is used to gauge what
students have learned as well as how well a teacher has instructed the source material. Teachers
can use summative assessments and the data that follows to tweak their teaching style to better
benefit students. The goal of a summative assessment according to CMU is “to evaluate student
learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark”
(Formative vs Summative Assessment, (2015). Knowing the difference and how the data from
each can be interpreted can assist teachers in becoming more knowledgeable in how to best reach
students.
Pros and Cons of using Technology to Facilitate Assessment
With all use of technology in the classroom, teachers have to weigh the pros and cons of
the use of each technology. When using these technological apps for bettering formative and
summative assessment, it is easy to see the pros outweigh the cons quite substantially. The cons
of using technology to facilitate assessment lie within small problems that can be averted. One of
the two major cons against this use of technology is availability. If students do not have access to
these particular technologies it makes the process hard to complete. The other major drawback of
using this technology is cost. Some of these apps can cost a school district a lot of money which
would force many school boards to steer away from using such technologies. The pros however
outweigh both the cons. Many students now have cell phones or tablets or other online devices
that allow them to reach these apps. If they do not have such a device, it is easy to go to a local
library and access these many technologies. As for cost, it is easy to find free alternatives to the
apps that cost money. For example, the three technologies above are all free and rank among the
best and most proficient technologies in offering services for facilitating assessments. Perhaps
the greatest benefit of using this technology is the ability to archive data. “[Data] can be used by
other instructors to assess quality of learning and instruction” (Spurlin, J. (2006). Using data this
way and having the ability to interpret it allows teachers to assure the quality they in which they
instructed and the quality of their students’ learning. The University of Connecticut summed up
the pros by saying this, “[technology] to enhance assessment and instruction to serve program
quality improvement and accountability goals should be considered by all academic programs”
(Reid, J., & Reid, J. (2014).
Should a teacher only use technology to assess student learning?
Assessments of men have been done since God walked with Adam. Whether it has been
formally or informally, assessments have always been a part of society. Although using
technology to enhance assessment has many pros there is still a place for having a face to face
assessment with students. Being able to read body language and what students are going through
on a day to day basis can also assist an instructor in assessing students as much as any
technology can. There is a balance that can be created to use the most of technological and in
person assessments to cultivate the best style of learning for students.
What is the importance of assessment technology in connection with the ISTE standards?
Using these technologies to facilitate assessments in the classroom adheres to many ISTE
standards for teachers. The standards that are met include: design and develop digital age
learning experiences and assessments, model digital age work and learning, and engage in
professional growth and leadership. Ensuring these standards are kept and followed closely
allows for optimal instruction by teachers and learning by students.
Teachers must give assessments as a way to learn how to instruct and a way to gauge
how their instruction was taken and learned by students. Using technology to facilitate
assessments makes it easier to create formative and summative assessments as well as archiving
the data. Doing this ushers in a new way to best assist students. Balancing the model of in person
assessments with the model of using technologies like Socrative, Poll Everywhere, and Google
Forms can cultivate the best way to assess students for the current and future of learning.
References:
Carnegie Mellon University. (n.d.). Retrieved August 25, 2015.
Formative vs Summative Assessment - Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation -
Hsu, J. (2014, May 20). Jane vs. Tierney: Team Jane Reviews Google Forms | TechSoup
Canada. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
Mattheson, R. (2014, December 11). Tracking what students grasp. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
Miller, J. (2013, March 13). New Technologies and 21st Century Skills. Retrieved August 25,
2015.
Reid, J., & Reid, J. (2014). Pros and Cons of Tools for Doing Assessment. Retrieved August 26,
2015.
Spurlin, J. (2006, July 1). Educause Learning Initiative. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
Spurlin, J. (2006). Pros and Cons of Assessment Methods On Student Learning. Retrieved
August 26, 2015.