“You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.”
Why do teachers assess students? Is it just to put a number in the gradebook? Is it to make the parents happy, because they see a letter grade and can say, “Okay, my child must have learned something because he made an A”? Is it because, hey, it’s Friday, and that’s a Friday thing to do? Or is it to see what our students have absorbed and find out what I need to reteach? Any teacher can tell you the necessity of assessing core subject skills. I need to learn what skills they’re weak in so I can build those up and move onto bigger and better things, right? I also use assessments to find out where my weak areas are so I can improve them. Why is it any different to assess my students’ technology skills than it is to assess their reading or math skills? Why is it any different to assess my technology skills?
On the first day of school in our grade level we give our parents a brochure with “First Grade Expectations.” It’s our vision of where our students should be at the end of a successful first grade year. School systems must have a vision of their technology plan. “The foundation for successful technology implementation requires educators and policy makers to possess a viable vision for technology use, enact the vision, and link the vision to other important organizational endeavors.” (ISTE’s Technology Facilitation and Leadership Standards, 2009, p.179). The vision tells the stakeholders where they should be at a given point in the future; technology assessments of educators and students tell them where they are now and how far they need to go. Using baseline data from assessments, an action plan can be developed to achieve the vision. As a result of assessment, professional development can be targeted to specific weaknesses, instead of wasting time and money on skills that either already mastered or skills that are too advanced for the learner without interim instruction. Such assessments need to be ongoing, as technology changes so quickly.
Of course, there are naysayers to all these assessments. First of all, don’t do the assessments if you’re not going to put your money where your mouth is. If you’re not going to take the data and use it to formulate a technology plan, and then fund the plan, then you’ve just wasted a lot of time and resources. All you have created is paperwork. Unfortunately, just like in any profession, there are teachers out there who just don’t want to learn “new tricks.” Hopefully, the right kind of support can inspire them to change their attitudes and propel them into the 21st century with their students.
Marianne Wallace EDLD 5306/ET8038 September 3, 2011
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