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Micah Murphy
EDU-225
11/22/15
Professor Yard

Technology to Support Assessment of the Comprehensive Classroom

Assessing students is one of the most important things a teacher can do to grasp the
growth of knowledge a student is having. There are many possibilities that can be used once the
teacher knows what growth the student is having in the classroom. The teacher can assess the
growth of content knowledge, social growth, and so forth. This is one of the fundamental ways
that a teacher can know how a student is doing in the classroom in addition to just content
knowledge. Technology can support a teachers assessment of students as it offers many different
scopes for the student to be assessed. Technology can open the opportunity forstudents to be
challenged in ways that they ordinarily would not.
Technology can facilitate new ways of assessing student learning by enabling students to
share work online, enabling instructors to give feedback online, and supporting real-time
feedback on student understanding of class concepts (Assess Student Learning, n.d., pg. 2). This
helps teachers and fellow peers to give immediate feedback on the student. A student will often
when taking a written test not receive feedback most of the time that goes beyond whether the
answer was right or wrong. But with an online assessment the teacher can easily give feedback
and the student can ask questions immediately. This is something that a student can work on
from home and the teacher can give feedback without being present for the student. It allows
them to have a different and more easily accessible assessment. There are two different types of

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assessments that can be used: formative assessment and summative assessment. A formative
assessment is one that focuses on immediate learning and is an up-to-date view of the learning of
the current lesson while a summative assessment is the sum of all the lessons for an entire
section or content. The summative assessment can be used for grades and align with the IEP that
is necessary for the student and curriculum learning standards. A summative assessment gives the
opportunity to see how well the student masters the content. Technology is creating opportunities
for the teacher to be innovative on the assessments which can allow the student to think deeper
and more critically without becoming too frustrated. Technology has opened numerous different
windows in teaching and the assessments are one of the best ways to see the growth of
knowledge for a student. A teacher can use many interactive games and questions to give a
formative assessment to students that go beyond the everyday ScanTron. The teacher can use
items such as Polleverywhere, Edmodo, IClickers, and so forth. It allows the teacher during a
lecture to check and see if the students are understanding the content and not going so far that
they cannot understand the knowledge necessary for the summative assessment. (Salend, 2009)
Technology can be either a pro or a con for assessing the students. Teachers who use
technology can easily get a read on their students while allowing the students to be comfortable.
It also allows those students who are shy and quiet to ask questions and not feel left out in the
classroom. This is something that would not be done without the use of technology. It also allows
the students that have a lower knowledge or have IEPs to ask questions and not feel like they are
as smart or as far behind as the other students. Technology can challenge the students to think
differently and to learn differently. Some of the cons that are presented is that fact that many
parents do not like this type of assessment because they are new to it so therefore they do not
trust it. It is new and many people do not like using technology to learn. Technology can also

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fail, which is one of the biggest problems. Technology is something that sometimes can be hard
to use and the teacher has to teach their students. It also can be problem because of the fact that
not all students have equal access to technology. (Salend, 2009)
There are many different types of assessments that should be used as this allows for the
student to be challenged in many different ways. The fact that not being mundane and doing
something that can help spark a child to enjoy learning and enjoy the challenge. Technology will
help advance student learning and open up the opportunities for the student to learn more than
they ever would before. Technology can allow student growth in more ways than one can
imagine but it also comes with its challenges. But, if it is used correctly, assessing the students
with technology will open the best possible learning environment.

Website link:
http://murphsclass.weebly.com/

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References
Landauer, T. K., Lochbaum, K. E., & Dooley, S. (2009). A New Formative Assessment
Technology for Reading and Writing. Theory Into Practice, 48(1), 44-52.
doi:10.1080/00405840802577593
Salend, S. J. (2009). Technology-Based Classroom Assessments. Teaching Exceptional
Children, 41(6), 48-58.
Tomlinson, C. A. (2008). Learning to Love Assessment. Educational Leadership, 65(4), 8-13.
Standards for Teachers. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2015, from
http://www.iste.org/standards/ISTE-standards/standards-for-teachers
Assess student learning Hunter College. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2015, from
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/ttlg/teaching-strategies/assess