Technology tools for Assessment and Evaluation

This article talked a lot about ways to use assessment and evaluation in technology and what teachers need to be aware of when doing the assessment and evaluation. the article mentions that it is important to make sure that teachers first know how to use assessment and what assessment really is. This is a really key point to me because I am taking Dr. Ken Howell's assessment class right now and we are learning that if teachers don't know how to use assessment correctly the data can be pointless because it could be completely wrong.I think that this article does a great job giving that information on assessment and the procedures we should use. After reading this article I feel a lot better that I don't have to come up with my own assessments and that I could find ones already made and not waste energy.

I-Generation-From Toddlers to Teenagers

The article was an interesting read about computers in the classroom. I remember in elementary school I was briefly introduced to computers, but not until around 4Th grade. On the other hand I did know before hand a tiny bit about computers from the Boys and Girls club because they had a computer lab were students were able to play educational games on the computer and how they set it up was were students could only play that game on the computer, the game would already be up and the student couldn't exit the game, they could stop playing the game by going to another computer that had a different game. The Boys and Girls Club even used the computer to do reading tests, were you pick a book to read, read it, then tell a person that worked there you wanted to take the test and then they would get everything set up and all the student would do was take an multiple choice test dealing with the book. I found it fun and some of the games were educational, but like Healy mentioned it is hard to decipher if I was actually learning something or just having fun. In summary, I agree with Healy, when she says we should wait for technology until students are older, but I don't think it is a bad idea to introduce computers to students when they are young, so when they get older they won't just get thrown into using them, the students will just be advancing the previous knowledge they already have.

Oregon Trail

I remember playing Oregon Trail before when I was a kid and I have to agree with Bill Bigelow says in his article, the CD-ROM is culturally bias. The game doesn’t teach all the facts about the journey and you are only allowed to see from a Caucasian male’s perspective while playing the game. I vaguely remember playing the game when I was younger mainly because I was disinterested in it and at my elementary school we didn’t play the game because I went to a elementary school were Native Americans were the majority, because I lived on a reservation, and so the teachers are more aware of the culture of Native Americans and found the Oregon Trail game not an effective way to teach I actually found out about the game through the Boys and Girls Club. What I liked about this article was the method you can use the Oregon Trail game at the end of the article after talking about it first and then looking at the game to see things that are hidden or incorrectly told about the Oregon Trail.