Reflect on the Idea That Tests are the Only Objective Assessments of Student Learning

If one was asked, “Are tests the only objective assessment of student learning?” I would wholeheartedly disagree. The word “objective” is defined as “fair, impartial, equitable, nondiscriminatory, or unbiased”. Evaluating students only using test scores would not be described by any of the previous adjectives. All students do not learn on the same level, the same way or method, and definitely should not be assessed in that way.

At the beginning of each school year, teachers inform their students that his or her primary goals for the year are to learn and prepare to successfully pass the state’s standardized tests; High School teachers begin to prepare their students for comprehensive End of Course Exams. These formal, standardized tests are used to provide the state, school system, and school administration with students’ academic achievement or mastery. These results are not always as reliable or valid as they are perceived. One of the highest academic achievers may not respond to the testing format and appear to not be proficient based on these types of tests. While the student that ranks high on the standardized test, may not be able to verbally communicate or perform exactly what has been learned.

When planning lessons for all students, we must also think of ways to assess them that we will be fair, equitable, and nondiscriminatory. Some of these methods include questioning and learning logs to determine what information the students have gathered and using checklists and rubrics to allow for scaffolding and guiding the students as they move on to the next level of learning. Using other techniques like student profiles, anecdotal records and portfolios help to keep record of student learning over time. These profiles and portfolios might include samples of the students’ work like presentations, projects, or other visual representations of learning.

Using both formal and informal assessments allow you and the students to accurately estimate how well the student is learning a skill or concept, if the student needs additional instruction, guidance, or remediation. So, I can not agree that tests are the only objective assessment of student learning.

Technology-Infused Classroom

You walk into a classroom, but what you find is not a room with twenty or more small desks and one large teacher desk with two or three chalkboards. As you enter this room, you will find large tables, where three to four students are sitting, collaborating, and communicating on a digital project. There are two desktop computers at each of these tables, which are laden with relevant hardware and software to aid in meaningful, thought-provoking lessons and activities. In the back corner, you may find another large table with a laptop and printer setup, with a small storage unit below it to store accessories to the Whiteboard and Document Camera systems. There is a file cabinet, but it doesn’t house the regular paper files, because those are all found on the school’s network server. This cabinet actually contains flip cameras, digital cameras, and I Pods, as well as the accessories needed for them.  You look around further, and realize that you do not see any hard copy books, because they are found on the students’ Internet tablets. This is how I would describe the perfect technology-infused classroom. This room would be considered the epitome of all classrooms and allows for an exclusive learning environment for all students, no matter their intelligence or skill level.

Using these technology tools in my class would be a dream come true. The reality is that many school systems do not have the budgets to include these tools for all classrooms. But, implementing technology resources in the classroom can be done without many of these tools. Being an effective 21^st Century educator, I want the following things to be present in my classroom.

• Becoming more of a facilitator of learning, rather than a teacher presenting information for the student to recite back to me.
• Working along with my students to produce a class website, which would include all the daily events and assignments, blog discussions, educational web links, and even showcase the students’ best work, is also a goal of my future 21^st Century classroom.
• Using the Internet in more effective ways will allow me to I plan to use more project-based, collaborative methods to reach the goal of producing a life-long learner. This would include using websites like http://www.filamentality.com/ to create Web Quests for students to become more engaged in their own learning.
• Focusing not only on the state curriculum standards, but also on media and information literacy, to create more critical and analytical thinkers, especially when using various researching methods.
• Allowing the students to more responsible for their role as a student and the information that they produce.
• Planning more virtual field trips when the school budget doesn’t allow for the actual experience, as well as taking advantage of teleconferencing through Skype or Google Hangout to create a dialogue with experts in various areas of life, as well as students all over the world.

These are just a few ways that one can create an effective, student-centered learning environment. I have included three very interesting and influential videos that definitely describe what the 21^st Century Classroom should move toward in educating our children and the importance of the Technology-Infused classroom.

   

Leister, J. (2008, July 2). 3 phases of educational technology. [YouTube Video file]. 

     Retrieved from http://youtu.be/-Ir4-EFVhzI

Nesbitt, B. J. (2007, November 28). A vision of K-12 students today. [YouTube Video file]. 

     Retrieved from http://youtu.be/_A-ZVCjfWf8

Rhonnieful. (2009, October 29). Teaching in the 21^st century.  [YouTube Video file].  

    Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjgKzrkMetU&feature=colike

A Vision of K-12 Students Today