While on my practicum I have been intrigued with how to use technology for formative assessment with primary students.

My class has been using Freshgrade as a portfolio for assessment. The classroom teacher is able to upload examples of student work, criteria for assessment, comments, photos and videos, and descriptions of students activities and assignments. Parents and students can then go online and view their child’s progress and comment on the content.  It gives parents the opportunity to see assignments and criteria that they may not otherwise see – work that could be left at school, only used for assessment, or that never makes it home.  It is an interactive tool that can be utilized by students, parents, and students. It offers a collaborative approach to assessment.

While it is an effective collaborative tool, in the primary grades it is more teacher than student lead. It is difficult for the students to upload their own work and comment it on it from the classroom.  Because of this, the posts are more teacher lead than a way for students to showcase their own learning.  Students in the intermediate grades are able to post their own work and comment.  To enable students to post examples of their work it requires a lot of practice and time committed to ‘teaching’ how to effectively comment and reflect.

As Fabrikant, York,  and Morris suggest, it is important to know what we, as teachers, are doing before we can expect our students to know.  It is not necessarily about the integration of technology but knowing what content you need to cover and then using technology to enhance learning. To be better equipped to teach our students how to properly utilize technology. As teachers we ourselves must understand how to effectively incorporate technology into our lessons.

Fabrikant, K., York, S., Morris, M. Integrating technology into pedagogical content knowledge in K-12 and university professional development. Building Sustainable Futures for Adult Learners, 541-558. Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/21070374/Integrating_technology_into_pedagogical_content_knowledge_in_K-12_and_university_professional_development