Assessment Technologies

    For several decades, technological assessments have changed how we administer content and gather information. The use and evolution of assessment technologies in education have resulted in dynamic growth, innovation, and adaptations. As with any type of assessment, the choice of and the implementation of the assessment technology should always have purpose and should support the relevant learning outcome and pedagogical approach in an accurate way. It is also important to include a variety of formative and summative assessment to obtain a broad picture of student's learning and understanding.

                                                                

     As discussed in the presentation, there are specific steps to follow for that planning and delivery of an assessment technology. Dr. Erik Voss stresses the importance of being aware of technological knowledge of yourself as a teacher and your students when planning assessment. Pedagogy and assessment should be viewed as a combined entity and it is important that pedagogy should always drive technology and the decisions that we are making with technology.  The integration and usage of technology assessment should always have purpose. As long as we are teaching from a well-rounded pedagogical approach and considering the different learning styles and needs of our students in our assessment practices, we should still be able to gather and provide a variety of assessments through the use of assessment technologies.

                                        It is true that many assessment technologies are modeled around behaviourist approaches. Technology assessments can provide instant feedback and reinforcements which are in alignment with behaviourist ideals. This type of feedback is something that in my experience, many students crave and look for. Many online assessment tools involve some sort of gamification or e-platform that usually involve behaviourist strategies. While there is certainly a place for these types of digital assessments in our classrooms it is important to not solely rely on assessments that support behaviourist methods and ideals.

    

    We can do this by ensuring that our assessments are varied, and this can certainly be done through assessment technologies. We just need to be creative with how and what we are assessing, whether that is using AI to generate rubrics or content specific to learner needs, to observing how students are interacting with others using different platforms to problem solve and navigate specific tasks. This can also be done through online portfolios and collections of student work. When students are also given options to explore a variety of platforms and genres, they can then make decisions to showcase certain work or pieces that demonstrate the highest level of understanding or work that they are proud of.