Technology Assessment

Recently, my superintendent asked me to create a way to assess how well our school is preparing our students in the areas of technology and literacy. In NJ, many schools are using a defined set of common core standards in the areas of technology, research, and writing to assess this. In order to better assess our instruction and the students’ readiness, as well as to allow it to better inform our instruction I built the tool you see in video below.

I am releasing this in hopes that other districts may have use of it. It is a tool that breaks down the standards in 5 strands:

• Basic Technology Skills
• Communication and Publication
• Research and Digital Literacy
• Safety, Legality, and Environment
• Design

Each of these strands are comprised of a set of standards. The teacher or teachers, ideally in conference with the student, would document how well the student is progressing towards mastering each standard via descriptions, as well as links to evidence, whether that is an online document, picture, video, or something else the student has done or created.

This data can then be exported or revised at any time. It is my hope that this data, since it is created by both the teacher and student, will be much more relevant than a multiple choice test.

Currently, I just finished the 8th grade version. I will likely expand it to other grades (probably beginning with 12th and 4th/5th) if there is interest.

If you or your district are interested in piloting this solution, please leave a comment or send me an email.