Technology Tools for Assessment and Evaluation

This article was interesting to read because alot of the information coneccted to ideas I've learned in other special education classes. For example, this artciel defines the difference between assessment, analysis, and evaluation. Assessment is the process of gathering infomation, analysis is the process of organizing that information, and evlauation is the judgement that is made about the student's performance. Even more confusing, these three stages are all part of the assessment-decision making process. Whew! This information directly connects to the content of assessment block. I have always thought of assessment and evaluation as the same thing. However, these two words represent completely different ideas. Another example of information in this article that directly connects to what I learned during assessment block is the difference between summative and formative evaluation. Formative evaluation is using student performance data to make on-going decisions to improve learning. Summative evaluation is used to make definate decisions about individuals. I wish I could have had this article to read while I was in assessment block. It's interesting how the article ties assessment to technology.

Carol Tell

I think the person being interviewed makes a really good point about constructivist applications. As assessment to see if our applications of technology are useful in the classroom or not, we should ask ourselfs whether or not the students are asking questions or answering them. I also really agree with the point that technology can't replace education from a great teacher and difficult curriculum. Technology is amazing, futuristic and exciting. It's easy for us to get sucked into and begin believing that it's the best thing that ever happened in education. However, technology is something that makes task easier. In my expirience, easier almost never leads to me learning more.

The Oregon Trail

I found this article to be very interesting. I'd never analyzed the game before because it's such a classic and so nastalgic for me. Also, I don't know a whole lot about what life was like for people who made this treck on the Oregon Trail. It's interesting to think about the different roles men and women had during their journey, and how that could be repersented in the game. Maybe if they come out with a third edition of the game there will be more women's roles. For example, you could boost moral by sewing a flag for the wagon or maybe one night you freeze to death because nobody went out and collected fire wood! :) The author uses the term "superficial multiculturalism" in the article. I really like this term because it's something that exsits. I feel as though sometimes people are trying so hard to not be predjiduce that they stop percieving things for what they really are. Racism and sexism exsit both today and in the past, if we don't at least acknowledge this, it will continue or get worse.