Chapter 10 - Assessing Meaningful Learning with technology

The first section of this chapter talks a lot about e-portfolios. I really like the idea of e-portfolios and would like t to incorporate them into my class. I think it will be especially useful if the resources are available for students to use different kinds of technology (do a booktalk or an "about me" or something through digital video, recording ideas through photography, doing a podcast, writing something in a Word document, etc...) I think this would be a great way for students to organize their products for me to see. I also liked how the book mentioned that this offers a good opportunity for students to self-reflect on their projects and ask themselves how they did, what the purpose of a project was, etc... I think that is a great way to learn and grow. I think one of the most important parts of an e-portfolio, as the book metnioned, is the sense of pride a child gets from seeing how much s/he has done in a semester/year. For example, last semester when I had to create a "multi-genre project" in my Language arts class, I felt a sense of pride in my finished project at the end of the semester. Throughout the semester we were working on writing poems, narratives, non-fiction, fiction, etc... and by the end of the semester we had a portfolio type thing - our multi-genre project.

The second part of the chapter discussed rubrics. I personally like when teachers use rubrics because it really helps me see what is expected. I think I will use rubrics some in my classroom, although i feel like they aren't as common at the elementary level. They would be useful for presentations or for projects. But I think that appropriate rubrics would be useful. I had never really thought about how detailed and precise rubrics need to be. I liked how the chapter discussed the requirements for a good rubric. It was very explicit and clear.

Clickers are an interesting tool to use in assessment. I would love to use these in my classroom, although I think it is not likely that I will have access to them because they are expensive. I like the ideas for using it such as a pretest to see what misconceptions students have, or a quick post test to see if your lesson got the point across, etc... I thoink those are valuable ways of learning (for teachers and students). Yes, these can be done in ways other than using clickers, but as mentioned in the book, clickers can be motivating and promote student involvement. It is important to note that clickers require the use of well written questions, as the text book says.

I feel like computer based tests and surveys is what I usually think of when thinking about assessment with technology. I have done both of these before and as for tests, it could've been done on paper just as easily. I guess the advantage was that the computer graded the tests (that I took on the computer. Not all electronic tests are graded by the computer) so it eliminated some work for the teacher. I have also done surveys in many classes. I think that is a tool I will use in my class because it is a good way to survey they class, get a feel for how they are doing, etc... It could be used for fun, or it could be used for something like a math lesson and you could graph the class, etc...there are many different ways you could use it in a classroom!


Overall, I think this chapter presented information to me in a way I had not thought of it before. I like a lot of the information and hope to use it in my classroom at some point. I think it will initially take a lot of planning and set up, but i think once things are in working order, it will be worth it!