Introduction

Using software or web tools to assess student learning is very helpful for teachers to
better understand what the students have learned and held on to after instruction. According to
Using Handheld Computers to Support Improved Classroom Assessment in Science: Results
from a Field Trial, teachers where able to use different online tools to understand more of what
the students understanding on the material, and change their teachings to allow the students
more learning of the information (Yarnall, L., Shechtman, N., & Penuel, W., 2006). Teachers can
use the information gathered to change their instruction to better fit their students needs, many
tools are available for teachers such as: socrative.com, polleverywhere, and survey monkey,
teachers can use these tools as a formative or summative assessment. There are many pros to
teachers using this, teachers are able to know their students learning, have technology to analyze
the data, as well as change their instruction to better fit students needs, along with pros there are
some cons to using this, teachers become dependent on using the software to gather information,
and the teacher does not do their own digging to know what was learned, using these tools are
covered by the ISTE standards: 1 c, 2 c d, 3 b d, and 4 b.
Technology to Facilitate Ongoing Efforts to Assess Student Learning
Teachers can use technology to facilitate efforts to assess student learning by assigning
them various assignments to complete. Teachers can then use the information found and change
their teachings to better fit the students needs, they can better understand what the students
learned from the lesson, what needs to be recovered before testing, and which students need one
on one to better understand the information. Teachers can use tools such as socrative to ask a
question for the students to answer or a quiz for the teacher to see which student has learned
what. Also teachers can use this as a study tool before students take their unit test. According to

Technology-Based Classroom Assessments a teacher asked her students questions and they
answered via clickers for her to better understand which students were ready to move to the next
lesson (Salend, S. J., 2009). Being that this teacher used the clickers, she was aware of what
information the students knew and which students needed extra help.
Socrative.com
Socrative.com is a great tool to allow teachers to assess student learning. Teachers can
use socrative.com to create a quiz, or to ask the students a certain question. The student will log
into the classroom and answer the question or to complete the quiz. The teacher will receive the
results of their students answers and can use that information to know which students need extra
help and what information needs to be re taught. Teachers should use their finding to change the
instruction of the lesson. The teacher could also use this tool to take a grade of the quiz the
students completed.
Polleverywhere
Polleverywhere is another great tool for teachers to use to assess student learning, to
better understand their students learning. Teachers can use polleverywhere to ask students a
question and the students reply via text or by using the app. Teachers can use the information
gathered from students to know what information was taught well and what their students know
a lot of, as well as what needs to be taught again to the students. Teachers could also use
polleverywhere to not only find the weaknesses in the students but to find the strengths of the
students. According to Learning to Love Assessment a teacher found her students to do better
when she was not focusing on the negative but was focusing on the positive of their students
(Tomlinson, C. A., 2007). Students learn better with positive enforcement rather than negative so

by looking into the students strengths helps the students learn better, also the teacher could
assign for a student to help another student.
Survey Monkey
Survey monkey is a helpful tool to assess student learning, this is a survey tool where the
teacher creates the survey and the students respond to it. Again the teacher should take their
findings to change the type of instruction to better fit the students needs. The teachers could also
use this tool to test the students prior to teaching the lesson to find out what the students already
know about the lesson and what they should talk more about when teachings. The teacher could
use this to kind of allow their students to get an insight of what is to come in the coming lessons.
Formative and Summative Assessments (100-150 words)
Although formative and summative assessment has a lot in common there is a big
difference between the two. Formative assessment is a form of assessment that the teacher
assigns to determine what the students learning of the information is and find ways to change
their teaching to better fit the students needs. Summative assessment is a form of assessment to
test the students learning such as quizzes, test, midterms, finals, etc. this form of assessment is
usually something a student has a chance to study for and try to retain as much knowledge as
possible. Tools such as polleverywhere, and survey monkey are usually tools to be used in a
formative assessment manor. Socrative.com or Math XL could be used as a formative or
summative assessment. Some examples of summative assessment tools would include: End of
Course testing, Leap test, unit test, etc. Technology can be used to give the surveys or test,
polleverywhere can be used via text message or apps, survey monkey also requires internet
access to complete the survey also socrative.com and Math XL is an online tool. Many End of
course testing, leap test, and unit test has began to be an online tool.

Pros and Cons of using Technology to Facilitate Assessment

There are many pros and cons of using technology to facilitate assessment. Some pros of
using technology would be: teachers are able to find their strengths and weaknesses of the
students, use technology to analyze the data, and teachers can change their instruction. Using
these tools teachers are able to find their students strengths and weaknesses in the learning of the
lesson, they are able to know what was taught well and what needs to be reviewed. By doing this
the teacher is working hard to have their students learn as much information as possible.
Teachers can use technology to analyze the data, the teacher does not have to grade the quizzes,
technology does that for them and they are able to look directly and the questions that was
missed by a lot of students. Lastly, teachers are able to use their findings to alter the instruction
to fit the students learning styles; by doing this the students are attaining as much information as
possible. Some cons of using technology would be: teachers become dependent of the
technology, and teachers do not dig out the information as much. Teachers become reliant of the
technology to analyze the data for them and they do not look at the learnings themselves. Along
with the technology the teachers should dig into their students learning as well so they can better
understand what the students know.
Should a teacher only use technology to assess student learning? Why or why not?
Teachers should not rely on technology to assess student learning, teachers should watch
their students to make their own decision of what the students know and do not know.
Technology is great in many ways, but the teacher should make their own call because so many
glitches happen with technology, the student could have possibly hit the wrong answer or did not
see the right answer at first. If this happens to the student the teacher believes the student did not

know the correct answer when they may have knew it. Also if teachers allow the technology to
take over then they are not really helping the students to their full potential.
What is the importance of assessment technology in connection with the ISTE standards?
Using these tools as an assessment tool in the classroom is connected to many of ISTE
standards for teachers. First standard according to the ISTE standards website would be: 1 c:
promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students conceptual
understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes. Second ISTE standard would be 2
c: customize and personalize learning activities to address students diverse learning styles,
working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. Next ISTE standard is 2 d:
provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with
content and technology standards, and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching. Also 3
b: collaborating with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and
resources to support student success and innovation. As well as 3 d: model and facilitate
effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use
information resources to support research and learning. Lastly 4 b: address the diverse needs of
all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital
tools and resources. (ISTE standards for teachers, 2016). These are three ISTE standards met by
using tools to assess student learning.
Concluding Paragraph for Software to Support Assessment
All and all teachers that use technology to assess students learning have a better outcome
of the students learning. There are many tools available for this such as: socrative.com,
polleverywhere, and survey monkey. These tools are easy to use and the teachers are able to have
a better understanding of what their students know and what they need more help with. These

tools can be used in a formative or summative assessment manner, and there is many pros to
using this, students know what the students know, technology analyzes the data, and teachers
change their instruction for the students to better understand the information. Along with pros
there are a couple of cons, teachers may become dependent on technology, and teachers do not
watch and see what they know themselves. Teachers should not use technology only for
assessing students learning they should look themselves and make their own assumptions of the
students learning. Lastly, there are many ISTE standards met by using technology for assessing
student learning. The technology is available for teachers to use, they should use this and help
their students learn as much as possible!

References
Salend, S. J. (2009). Technology-Based Classroom Assessments. Teaching Exceptional Children,
41(6), 48-58.
Standards for Teachers. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2016, from
http://www.iste.org/standards/ISTE-standards/standards-for-teachers
Tomlinson, C. A. (2007). Learning to Love Assessment. Educational Leadership, 65(4), 8-13.
Yarnall, L., Shechtman, N., & Penuel, W. (2006). Using Handheld Computers to Support
Improved Classroom Assessment in Science: Results from a Field Trial. Journal Of
Science Education & Technology, 15(2), 142-158. doi:10.1007/s10956-006-9008-4