When you do a job for someone who's going to pay you money for doing that job; they're going to look at how you're doing that job (assessment) and record how you're doing (data). The most common type of assessment if you're selling anything is the amount of money you are acquiring for yourself or who you're working for.
This is an important point if you're preparing students for the work world; no matter what career area or areas they choose.
The icing on the cake for Educational Assessments and Data is 21st Century is Technology. For the first time in the history of mankind we can give students almost instant feedback for anything we assess.
You might ask, how can you assess something like a painting or hand drawn illustration?
You simply have the student take a picture of it on their phone and submit it to you.
You might say, what if it's not they're work?
Well, then you check the work itself, and maybe they're trying to cheat.
Don't automatically assume the worst; if you expect low expectations of your students that's what you'll get.
The Technology's not perfect yet, but it's still better than a 50 question multiple choice test on Art History to determine a student's mastery in creating art.
Almost gone are the days of bubble sheet multiple choice tests that had to be sent off to be scanned or evaluated before the students got their scores which in many cases was months later. If setup correctly a student, at any level should be able to get continuous feedback and then use that feedback to improve their learning.
Students will actually be able to take ownership of their grades with no surprises at Report Card and Progress Report time. Students should now know they're doing all along so they can make changes to improve with the teachers guidance not waiting until it's too late.
I've seen so many times teachers and parents discuss a child's grades without the child having any input what so ever; my theory is that many were worried about their own accountability as a teacher or parent rather than making sure their child understood how to be accountable and take ownership of their grades.
I've noticed a couple of things about the people who hate using technology for assessments: One is that their are people (teachers, parents, administrators, even students) who've learned over the years to manipulate the slow way, no data until report card or maybe progress report time, for their own needs and not for the improvement of learning. The second thing I've noticed is that people hate the extra work, and it's not just the teachers, it's much easier as a parent to look at a report sign it and send it back to school than login (and have to learn how to do that), look at all their child's assignments and scores, and then say "hey, let's sit down and see how we can make these grades better" (and people complain about families not eating all together at the table anymore instead of helping to Educate each other)
Yes, it does create more work for all of us. I think many people assume Technology is supposed to make our lives easier instead of thinking of it helping to make our lives better.
Instant assessments and data do make for more work, but I for one believe it's going to pay off for us all in the future.
Feel free to make comments and let me know what you think and share your ideas. Also, I'm a busy man so if I make any grammar errors please let me know so I can edit the post and fix them. I won't be offended in the least.
-Mike
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