Assessment+(continued3)

**How can you use technology to make assessment activities less threatening to learners or maybe even a positive experience?**

Technology can be used to make assessment activities less threatening for the learners. When teachers introduce technology into the classroom, students become more engaged and eager to learn. Some methods teachers can use to assess learning using technology include online games, working portfolios, E- portfolios and standard-based portfolios. When teachers use one of these four technologies, the students are able to receive feedback from the assessment in time for it to impact their learning process. By using one of these four technologies teachers can make the learning environment more relaxed and allow students to have a positive experience with assessment.

E-portfolios offer a way to encourage meaningful learning outcomes. Students can be actively involved in the evaluation/assessment process by allows them to choose what they want to go into their portfolio. They can update their portfolios showing their progress, self-evaluate and receive teacher feedback, make modifications and create an improved product and demonstrate student growth on learning outcomes. The teacher is able to assess their students work and progress but can do this in a way which is positive for the student and the learning process. Giving students the opportunity to correct their work and receive feedback about their progress, students and teachers are acting as a team throughout this assessment process. This is important in making the assessment a positive experience because students are proud of their work.

Clickers also called “student response” or “audience response” are another way to use technology to assess students. Clickers can make assessment a positive experience for students because it enables everyone to participate without singling anyone out. Often students do not want to answer questions aloud because they are afraid of being made fun of by their peers for wrong answers. Clickers allow the student to answer a question while remaining anonymous to other students. However, the teacher is able to see each students’ response so they know which students may need extra help. Clickers also make for a positive experience because if a student sees that others have gotten questions incorrect, they don’t feel so bad about making mistakes themselves. Furthermore, clickers enable collaboration because the teacher can have the students discuss with a peer who has a different answer why they chose that answer and how they came to their conclusions. Clickers are also looked upon as a motivating tool for students. They are increasing student interaction among themselves and teachers and actively engaging students in the classroom. Using Clickers as a form of assessment allows students to partake in a positive experience.

Technology makes it possible to assess students by asking the students to design products or experiments, manipulate parameters, run tests, record data, and graph and describe their results. Students can be assessed even without the teacher present. Teachers can assign take home assignments to students and assess them over the Internet. This way the student has a sense of being on their own. This also helps the teacher assess whether or not a student is focused on their work at home. Assessment technologies  such as tutoring websites, sites that teach a lesson and allow students to then practice the material, collaboration environments (such as Google docs), or even games can be used to help students become engaged in their learning. These technologies can also help assess skills that the student needs to know to meet goals and objectives. For example, computer games give quick feedback on how they are doing so the child can make adjustments towards the objective. Using games allows the child to think creatively. By using games in education, children are able to collaborate and have fun while learning. They can use games to learn new information and to study. Games are a good way to engage student and create a positive classroom atmosphere.

Technology can be used to make assessment less threatening or even fun, by using engaging activities to assess students knowledge. For example, Webquests are a tool that are often used to learn but can also be used for assessment. Webquests should consist of open-ended questions that allow the students to use exploration and inferencing. Students should be assessed based on the content that they have learned from the Webquest, and how they demonstrate the knowledge of that content.

Teachers can design fun projects for students to demonstrate content knowledge, rather than give them cumulative exams at the end of each unit or lesson. Projects are often less threatening than tests, and help engage students in their own assessment. When teachers implement projects, students are able to expand their thinking and creativity.

Technology can be make assessment less threatening by incorporating fun activities that are engaging for the students. Having activities that involve games/ drawing/ collaboration and projects are less stressful to students then a test. You can still test and grade students on these activities. You can test how they are able to go through each activity and how they are able to work with other people/ write/ and follow directions. These are important skills that need to be learned because this will help each student further in the future and cannot be assessed with a written test.