Some of the opportunities I see in using technology to support student assessment is described by Bates’ (2008): Project work or group work, along with e-portfolios. I remember back in 2010 when I graduated from the education program, our final assessment was to create an e-portfolio linking our journey in the program to the 8 standards for teachers. BC Standards for Teachers
Most teachers do use a physical portfolio for their student’s progress, but once I completed my own e-portfolio, I knew that this would be perfect for students. Bates’ (2014) describes them as self-assessment through reflection, recording, knowledge management and evaluation of learning activities. Students could keep them online indefinitely and be able to see how they improved over the years to come. I certainly enjoyed it, and look forward to completing another e-portfolio at the end of this program.
Another great opportunity that technology can bring to student assessment is through online project work. There are so many apps and learning software available for students to use nowadays that the opportunities are endless. The new BC curriculum is headed this way through self exploration, problem-solving, collaborative learning and creativity. I teach my grade 7 class using the MYP International Baccalaureate curriculum, and I feel that the new BC curriculum is using the same idea.
Another opportunity I find using online assessment is feedback. According to Hattie (1987), the most powerful influence in student achievement is feedback (as cited in Gibbs and Simpson, 2005). Students want to know how they are doing, not necessarily by a mark, but by words. Are they doing in correctly? Is there something they should change? Are they really understanding it? Feedback is not my strong point as it requires individualized comments for each student and I am used to just grading a quiz or a paper using a rubric. With online feedback, I can pre-program feedback so that each student will receive a comment that is in the database according to their response. I can see that this would be a great tool to use.
Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in a digital age http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/