More Thoughts on Assessment

A big topic in our EMTH classes has been focused on assessment.  Something that I have noticed before but never really reflected on was the type of assessment I was exposed to in my schooling career.

Assessment is going to happen in numerous places but generally in the three main areas: beginning, middle, and end.  Generally all of the assessment I have encountered has been something that happened at the end of the learning.  Originally when thinking about it I could only think of a few examples of assessment at the beginning, for instance an exam to start math in grade nine to see if I was placed in the right class.  I thought of cases where we had quizzes and assignments do throughout a course and that was the limit what I thought about for assessment during the middle of the learning.  It is easy to remember the end assessment with testing and finals.

Then I thought, well really what counts as assessment?

I didn’t think about the beginning discussions we would have before a topic, or numerous activities that went on throughout the learning, or many other different assessment tools.  I thought only about what I was marked and given a grade on.  There’s more to assessment than a grade.

The question is, were my teachers using these activities to assess my knowledge?  Did my teachers ever really do anything with that assessment for me?

I think about assessment a lot.  The only way that assessment is going to be beneficial is if I can apply it to actually help the students.  Feedback.  That’s a word I got very little of in my schooling.  Of course there was many instances where I did get feedback, but it was really ever given to me in a way that I was actually expected to apply it to my learning.  How can assessment be affective if you don’t fix the areas that are week?

Focusing assessment on the end result also has a lot of ramifications for the learning of a student.  Since that was where most of my assessment was evident I went through school knowing that I didn’t really have to learn anything as long as I could do it on the test.  Focusing on the end result puts emphasis on the final product and disregards the process to get there.  I find that the process of learning is actually where you find the learning, not the product, so the assessment should be found in the same places.

Mobile Education

One of my classes has required us to do a very open ended assignment about integrating technology in the classroom.  It is a math education class so we are trying to integrate the technology into math but not specifically.  The group that I am in is looking into using cell phones in our classrooms.

The big question is: Distraction or Tool?  Cell phones are becoming more and more a part of daily life and is something we have to think about.  While it is important to think about the negative aspects of them the question really should be how we use it.  Cell phones could be a dangerous tool if they aren’t used properly but also an incredible asset if incorporated properly.

I found a website about Thinking Mobile Phones For Learning and there seems to be a lot of good things on there.  I’m pretty overwhelmed with the amount of resources there are and really don’t know where to start.

I really want to not only research how the cell phones can be used but also how teachers right now are using them.  I want to know about their reactions to these things and ask questions.  I want to know if it works, what works good, what works bad and go from there.

This is just a starting point for me, I’m just going to have to dig in and start learning.  If anyone has any feedback, resources, stories… anything, it would be greatly appreciated!

All of the information we are collecting is going onto our wiki 2011emth351.