-Assessment

Assessment
====Technology itself is being integrated into the assessment field in current classrooms. Many schools and districts have started to use testing services like NWEA testing and Scantron testing that gives standardized district tests online. The data can then be instantaneously accessed and analyzed by teachers in order to help them direct and organize their lessons and teaching. In the future this will continue, but the tests to be given on technology will measure “performance-based tasks, designed to designed to mirror complex, real-world situations,” according to Matt Richtel of the New York Times (Barseghian, 2011). So not only will the tests be integrated into technology, but they will evolve past the "fill-in-the-bubble" tests we have come to expect from standardized tests. In fact the Obama administration is offering more than $360 million dollars in federal grants to help states redesign their assessment, with technology being part of these new exams. The bulk of the money will help states make the assessments aligned with "Race to the Top" ideals, including the common core standards in math and reading. The stares are also supposed to use the money in order to make tests more accessible to students with disabilities and to create the tests so that they use multiple measures to tell student achievement (Stansbury, 2010).====

====Not only will formal state and national testing be changing in the future, but assessment in the classroom will be changing as well. Not only will teachers be using technology to create formal assessment, but will also be using technology in informal assessment as well. Since 22 percent of young children own a cell phone (ages 6-9), 60 percent of tweens (ages 10-14) have phones, and 84 percent of teens (ages 15-18), it would make sense to integrate this technology into the classroom ("Cell Phones"). One service that is taking advantage of students using cells phones is Poll Everywhere. Poll Everywhere allows a user to create a poll question that people can text in their answers to. The benefits of using Poll Everywhere in the classroom "include but are not limited to:====
 * ====increasing classroom participation and attentiveness;====


 * ====encouraging risk-taking with anonymous student responses;====


 * ====eliciting diverse opinions when there isn’t a correct answer;====


 * ====gauging student comprehension of material immediately;====


 * ====grabbing students with thought-provoking opening questions; and====


 * ====assessing last night’s reading with a quick quiz" ("Real-time Assessment...").====

====Another similar device that can be used with electronic white boards are responders. Most white boards, including Promethean Board and Smart Board, have the option to purchase responders to go with their devices. The responders allow teachers to create questions, post them on the board to the class, and let students pick a letter to go with the correct answer. Teachers can track the answers of the entire class, or individual students using the responders.====

====Barseghain, T., "In the Classroom of the Future, Outdated Testing Can't Keep Up", MindShift, September 6, 2011, [] ====