Assessment using ICT

It should come as no surprise that the wide scale use of Information and Communicatiion Technologies to support teaching and learning is now being integrated into the how classroom assessment is conducted. At its core, assessment provides students with the opportunity to display their understanding of unit curriculum and provide teachers with a product to evaluate the students’ comprehension of key knowledge and concepts as well as gage their learning progress (Heywood, 2000). 

ICTs can be used in assessments as a communication tool that can be evaluated or to facilitate formative learning that is linked to assessable learning outcomes (Kent & Campbell 2013).

The mind map above demonstrates the two ways that ICT can be used to Asses students. Some of the Web 2.0 application that can be used for the assessment of communication and progress in the classroom include wikis, Twitter and Facebook. As Wikis are constantly under revision, its very functionality enables a teacher to review the history and see which components have been completed and by who. In a collaborative classroom where group contribution and effort can be unequal, the review option that Wikis provide permit individual contributions to be assessed accurately (Kent & Campbell 2013). Similarly, the hash tag function of Twitter can be used by students so teachers are able to track group discussions on a particular topic. On Twitter, students could be marked for the quality of their tweets (they need to be concise and succinct in 140 characters), how they interact with other Twitter users regarding the same subject matter and also how they engage in conversation. Finally, Facebook can be used as a communicational outlet that facilitates group collaboration on a subject-specific Facebook page as well as group sharing, assignment delivery and announcements on assessment.

Secondly ICT is used as a tool for formative assessment. Formative assessment provides ongoing feedback to teachers and students. The assessment provides information on progress, and identifies and addresses areas that require further development (Education Queensland, 2012). An example of this could be a blog similar to this one where students create their own content based on their understanding of certain concepts. The ability to publish posts at regular intervals allows teachers to observe student process. The blogging process can also become collaborative where other students can give constructive feedback that stimulates learning through the introspective reflection of the student. More ideas for how blogs (such as EduBlog featured below) can be seen in the following video:

 
In reflecting on the use of ICTs in the classroom, it is important to recognise that ICT assessment is called so because students communicate their knowledge and understanding of particular units of the curriculum through the use of the technology. ICT and assessment does not encompass exams that are merely completed online as it is too simplistic and could be done without a computer anyway (McFarlane, 2001). I believe that using ICT in assessment would be most successful through its use as a formative tool for assessment as it can successfully mark student progress, is highly stimulating and easy to access. The success of such assessment also relies on careful planning that enables a student to clearly understand their learning goals, and the use of a rubric similar to the one below could help the blog planning process.

example rubric

References

Heywood, J. (2000) Assessment in Higher Education: Student Learning, Teaching, Programmes and Institutions. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Kent, P & Campbell, C. (2013) Macmillan Masterclass: Assessment for Teaching Today. Australia: Macmillan Education Australia

McFarlane, A. (2001). Perspectives on the Relationships Between ICT and Assessment. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning , 17^th edn. 227-234.

YouTube Clip

‪ymj1321, (2010) 10 Different Ways to use your EduBlogs in the classroom. YouTube Clip, Retrieved May 20, 2013 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqQ03JWETd8

Images

Blogs vs. Wiki Venn Diagram [image] n.d Retrived May 20 from http://tgianno22.wikispaces.com/Blogs+vs+Wikis