Friday, September 25, 2009

Assessment Made Easy, By Andrew A. Zucker

In the article they talk about a school in Denver Colorado. At this school children can use a laptop every day or how ever many times a week a teacher would like to use them. The teachers have the children take their test and quizzes on them and they get the feed back right after the test is submitted. This helps the children know what they have done wrong, and they don’t have to wait a week to find out their test scores. This program also lets the teacher know the problems the kids over all did bad on and they can go over them right after the test. It also allows the teachers to have the students write short answer or essays. But it only gives the scores for the multiple choice, true and false, and matching. Of course any grading that the teacher does not have to do is a great help. It gives the teacher more time to work with the students. And it allows students to get comfortable with using technology. All the teachers at this high school have been able to adapt the use of the laptops to their classrooms to make a difference in these children’s lives.

Now your probably wondering how a school can get laptops for all of their students. The school was given a million dollars worth of laptop through a drawing from the company HP. It is incredible what has happened at this school. Ever since all the students have the access to the one to one laptops, as students graduate they all have been emitted to a four-year university. This is something that has never been done or heard of.

I have to say that it is amazing that something likes this has happened. I could not even imagine being able to have ever student in the school have a laptop that could be used at any time. This must be the best thing that could happen to these children. Of course there is always the down side to this, technology does not always work and something could happen to the computers. One thing that I was wondering is, what happens if a laptop does not work? Does the school have to pay to fix it, or does the company come out and fix. What kind of warranty do all the laptops have. I know that it would be expensive if the school had to switch them out if they don’t work. But what a benefit it would be to be able to have that technology at your fingertips. If something likes this would happen in any district of southern California test scores would go up and the students would be able to have a better education. When having to adapt this to a classroom, the article covers all the way that any teacher could use the laptops to their advantages. I have to say that this is something that would keep the kids interested in school and help better their education. I hope that one day all students have the opportunity that this school has. 

3 comments:

  1. What an amazing opportunity this school has been given! I could imagine all the beneifits this brings to the students. I'm curious to fin out what type of programing the teachers are using for the online quizzes and how the reulsts get forwarded to the teachers - because even if schools didn't have access to a laptop per student - the program for the quiz taking could still be utilized in a computure lab setting. Sounds like a great articel, and could you imagine how nice it would be to have a laptop per student? and what kind of time it would save you in grading... Good job!

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  2. I think this is a great tool in the classroom! In the third grade classroom that I work in, the students are all placed in different reading level groups based on an assessment they took in the beginning of school. They all read books in their level, and after each book they take a quick comprehensive test on the classroom computer. After they pass five tests, they get to move up to the next level. These tests are a great way to test the students and doesn't take time away from the teacher. If the teacher had to monitor or give these tests individually for each student, they would be loosing valuable time for teaching the whole class.

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  3. What a great opportunity for these students! Can you imagine if every school was granted a laptop per student. I love this idea of having kids take all of their tests and quizzes on a computer with immediate feedback. This allows students to become familiar and comfortable working with technology. I remember being so excited to go to the computer lab...kids are intrigued by technology and thus are more engaged in doing work of any kind. Great article and hopefully when I become a teacher,I am one of the lucky teachers granted that wonderful opportunity!

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