Assessment+(continued2)

**How do you use assessment activities as a way to generate feedback that can improve learner performance? Are there ways that technology can contribute to this?**

One way we can improve learners performance is to provide feedback to our students through the use of assessment. Using assessments as feedback is a great way to understand and learn what our students do and do not understand as a learner. Educators should assess students throughout teaching in order to help them learn better. It is important to do assessment during the learning process, as well as after because if you assess students while they are still learning, there is still time to improve performance. By providing students with feedback throughout their learning, they are able to use the feedback the teacher gives them in order to become active in their own learning and meet the goals and objectives.

There are many different methods that teachers can use to assess a learners performance and provide feedback to the students. This includes using a scoring grid called a rubric. A rubric takes the form of a set of scales and assesses the degree of a certain criteria that is demonstrated. Using a rubric identifies the important aspects of the performance as well as promotes information about the learners performance. There are a variety of technology tools to help create and support the use of rubrics. Online rubrics are created rubrics for a wide array of learning tasks. These rubrics are already made and designed for teachers convenience. Another category of technology based rubric tools are rubric generators. This helps the user create a rubric them self. Teachers are able to customize the rubric to their learning task. With a rubric, teachers are able to define the performance levels for each criterion and create a feedback report for a student.

Technologies can definitely contribute to assessment and feedback. Students can give feedback in the classroom to each other, but they may not be able to handle this responsibility. For elementary school students, technology can help students learn to give peer feedback. The teacher can monitor what feedback is being given to and from each student. This way feedback is always appropriate and helpful. The assessment is made possible by asking students to design different projects, research information, graph data, etc. Technology enables teachers to provide feedback beyond the classroom boundaries as well. For example, if a student is assigned a paper, he or she is able to post this paper to Google Docs. Over the weekend or after school hours, the teacher is still able to read what the student has written so far, assess their progress and provide specific feedback to help the student continue to progress even when they are not in school. Collaborating through technology also allows individuals to work on assignments with peers outside of the classroom.

Technology can contribute to assessment and feedback inside the classroom as well. If a student is completing a project, writing a paper or needs to collaborate with a group member or even the teacher, they are able to use technology such as “Google docs” to post their assignment. Later on, the teacher is able to read and provide feedback to the students which can help them expand and improve their thought process. By posting their work to Google docs, the teacher can also keep track of the progress the students are making. Providing feedback gives individuals the opportunity to improve upon their work.