Meagan Alvarez

EDU 225
June 3, 2016
Brian Clark

Part 1: Assessment Technology

https://b.socrative.com/student/#quiz

Answer Key:
1. A- Him
2. C- On
3. B- Myself
4. D- Nor
5. B- Gigantic
This assessment would be used as a formative assessment. For my benefit I will be able to see
what my students have been learning without bestowing upon them the pressure that comes
along with a summative assessment. This will be able to tell me as a teacher what I need to focus
on with my students and areas in which they still need improvement. My students are going to
know that this is just to show me what I need to work on as their teacher to help them succeed in
their educational journeys. The last thing that I would want as a teacher is to stress my students
out with more and more testing. This is why this assessment is very short and easy for the
students to operate.
Part 2: Blog Post
(Your audience for this blog is myself or your future administrators. This is a scholarly academic paper, so
it is NOT appropriate to use first person (I, me, my, we, us, our), slang, or contractions.)

Introduction:
Using software to facilitate learning is a great idea and there are so many different tools
and devices that will keep students engaged. Socrative, Polleverywhere, and iThoughts are all
different softwares that will help teachers gain insight on what the students are grasping from

the lessons that are being taught. Although there are pros and cons to using these softwares for
educating students, as long as the students are learning then there should be no issue. Getting
students to grasp what is being taught is the main goal, and there are so many different softwares
to support that in this day and age that all teachers and students can benefit from. These are also
difference ways to make sure the students are meeting the standards that are being taught.
Technology to Facilitate Ongoing Efforts to Assess Student Learning
In contrast to many recent handheld development projects aimed at developing
curricular materials, Project WHIRL (Wireless Handhelds in Reflection on Learning) focused on
the development of assessment materials (Penuell, W, Yarnall, L., 2005). Having students use
technology is something that is different and will keep them engaged for a longer period of time.
Having a hands-on activity for students to be involved in is a magnificent idea. It is too often that
students get bored and are not feeling involved in the lesson that is being taught. Students would
never feel this way and there should always be something that can keep the focus of the students.
Technology is the way to do so, and the following softwares are great ways for students to stay
engaged and interested in the assessment at hand. This is also beneficial for the teachers because
it will become obvious what is being grasped and what kind of topics need more focus.
Socrative
Socrative is a piece of software that will allow teachers to create quizzes online. The
students just have to long in with the classroom number and take the quiz. The teacher is able to
see each students answers and see where the students may need a little bit more improvement.
This would be a great formative assessment for teachers to give students so they can see progress
the students are making or see the areas that the students are lacking knowledge in. This may

also be fun for the students because it is getting away from all of the boring paper and pencil
assessments.
Poll Everywhere
PollEverywhere is a software that students can answer questions that are given to them
and the teacher can see the percentage of the responses all at once. This can sort of be used as a
survey to see where the students are at as a whole. This is not as organized as Socrative would
be, but it is still another way to get students involved in what is being taught. This will also give
the teacher a chance to see what the students are grasping from the teaching and things that the
teacher may need to improve on. There are many different things that teachers can use this
software for that the students will love and enjoy.
iThoughts
iThoughts would be a great software tool for teachers to use if the students have access to
an iPad. This piece of software is used for brainstorming ideas as a class. The students can get
together on this software and come up with ideas about a project that is being assigned. The
teacher has to ability to see what kind of ideas are going around the room and can jump in if
there are any false facts that seem to be occurring. This is a way to let students have a little bit of
freedom while also gaining input from the teacher whenever it is needed.
Formative and Summative Assessments
This results in teacher educators focusing more on administrative demands for
accountability and standards through summative assessment (also known as assessment of
learning') rather than on the learning process through formative assessment (also known as
'assessment for learning') (Chetcuti, Deborah. A., 2014). The above softwares are great
examples of how teachers can perform formative assessments. Formative assessments are given

when a teacher wants to see where the students are at academically without have to rely on an
organized test that is given by the state or by the district. A summative assessment could be a
state test or a test that has been organized for a long time. Summative assessments come along
with a lot of stress that is being put on the student to do well. Formative assessments are a less
stressful and easy way for students to show the teacher how much they know and also different
subject areas that may need a little bit more focus.
Pros and Cons of using Technology to Facilitate Assessment
Although surveys and quizzes are not used extensively by most instructors (because
they can be very laborious to develop and might not be very secure) these tools can act as
diagnostics to help students identify their own areas for growth as well as help instructors modify
their course to address needed areas of learning (Farmer, Lesley S. 2005). Some pros that come
along with technology being used to facilitate assessment would be that the student is learning
how to do thing without a teacher and will learn to be a little bit more independent. A con that
could come along is the student becoming fully dependent on technology and will not know what
it is like to actually use pencil and paper. Students need to realize that there may come a time
when technology and softwares may have a crash in the middle of a really big assignment and
going back to pencil and paper is not going to be an option. Students in this day and age do not
realize how much technology is depended upon and it needs to be taken into consideration how
things could be without it. This should be the teachers responsibility, to show the students that it
is okay to not use technology all of the time.
Should a teacher only use technology to assess student learning? Why or why not?
Technology should not always be used by teachers because it would be showing the
students how to take the easy way out. Teachers should still use white boards and paper and

pencil to show students that not every aspect of education has to be done on an iPad of tablet.
Students should also know that it is okay to use technology when it is necessary. It should be a
priority to show students how to properly format an essay without having the help from
Microsoft Word and other devices as such. Technology will also show students to idea of
learning how to figure things out by themselves.
What is the importance of assessment technology in connection with the ISTE standards?
Having technology at the root of education is going to teach students responsibility and
how to figure things out. Students will not how to understand and troubleshoot problems when
they occur and they will be able to learn from that. Students will also know how to navigate their
way through the different technology devices and know what to do for the next time a problem
occurs. Students will be able to take what they have learned and apply it to their everyday lives.
Practice makes perfect, and if students are getting the opportunity to try out new things they are
going to excel all throughout their educational journeys.
Concluding Paragraph for Software to Support Assessment
Technology is a great way to show students the idea of independence and how to figure
things out without the help of the teacher. Students need to know that not everything is going to
be easy all throughout life. The different softwares that were presented this week are all great
ways for teachers to assess students without the added pressure of scoring really high and getting
scolded for it. Formative and summative assessment both have pros and cons, but at the end of
the day if the student is learning, nothing else should matter. It should be every teachers goal to
make sure that students are learning to the highest standard, and all of these softwares will do
just that.

References
Buhagiar, Michael A; Chetcuti, Deborah A. Problems of Education in the 21st Century. 2014, Vol.
58, pg. 39-52. 14p.
Farmer, Lesley S. February 2005, Teacher Librarian Vol. 32 Issue 3, p 12-15. 4p.
Penuell William R, Yarnall, Louise. February 2005, Journal of Technology, Learning, and
Assessment.