El fin- Chapter 10

Assessment tools that organize data are an amazing resource for teachers, allowing them to keep track of the learning needs of the 20+ students they will have in their classrooms every year. I love the idea of an e-portfolio because it allows teachers to have something to reference when considering whether or not students have accomplished an intended learning outcome. Portfolios allow teachers to rely on something tangible (even if it is through the computer) as apposed to the "observations" that seem to be the new alternative to standardized or traditional testing. Observations are a fine way to monitor student progress, but it seems improbable that a single teacher in a classroom can accurately observe 20+ students at a time and do a thorough job. This is where technology gets to do something that it is great at: organizing large amounts of data. Teachers can look at this data to draw conclusions, and these conclusions will be valuable for teaching and learning.
The first time I saw clickers was in this EME class, and I was excited by the prospect. What a great potential solution for all the students who do not like to speak up in discussions, for insuring anonymity in pre-testing, and for generating large quanities of current data in a matter of seconds! The book said that there was no research suggesting that it improved learning, but from where I am sitting it certainly isn't going to hurt learning. I think clickers are a fabulous idea, especially in a college setting. As far as using them with youngest students, particularly kindergartners and first graders, I see no better way to familiarize them with the more intricate and fragile technologies they will be using in the future; clickers are simple and don't appear to be as fragile as something like a laptop or digital camera.
Rubrics are important, and I do not see the harm in using a pre-generated one as long as you are wise enough to make it fit with your desired outcomes. Making your own can also be more efficient than one would initially think if you consider that you will probably reuse the same rubric (or similar if you decide to adapt it) for many years, so long as your curriculum is not drastically changing.
CAT- Computerized adaptive testing- technologies seem too good to be true, and yet they exist. Why wouldn't we want a test than can use logic? Any test that can take previous answers and modify itself accordingly is a test that I would love to use with my inevitably diverse student population.
Overall, assessment is important whether or not you do it with technology or on paper. However, in keeping with the theme of the textbook, why not use the tools that will greatly enhance the way we teach and measure learning? It seems foolish, and backwards, not to.
I say, bring on the clickers and CAT technologies. Anything that could (and most likely will) help improve the education of students seems like a great idea to me.