Wickline,+S.

Assessing 21st Century Students Using 21st Century Methods The schools of today are rapidly evolving. What, was once the norm of education is now becoming obsolete. Assessing students’ academic performance has always been on the forefront of educational reforms. What do the students need to know? How do we gain data proving their understanding of the skills needed to move on to the next levels of learning? These questions and others like them have fueled the change students and educators have seen over the years. The classroom has gone from rote, lecture learning to hands-on approaches, to the now prevalent use of various technological devices. As the ways students are taught changes so do the ways in which they must be assessed. Assessments that are pencil and paper are still holding their own in the academic world, but the growth of utilizing various forms of technology based assessments is now becoming common practice. Three leading companies in the technology revolution, Cisco, Intel and Microsoft, have funded a research study, the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills Project (ATC21S), to develop the best ways to utilize technology for assessing students. The researchers have started pilot programs to study the effects of this type of assessment on student performance over the traditional paper-based testing methods. The research that has been completed so far has shown that technology based assessments assess how students think and solve problems; it captures the processes by which a student arrives at an answer and allows for a more personalized assessment for each student (ATC21S, 2010). Using technology to assess student performance allows for immediate feedback for the students, educators and parents. In a society were almost everything is just a button away this type of immediate feedback is desired. Why should teachers wait to find time to dauntingly grade each paper by hand or should the student have to wait a week to find out if they understood the information they had just been taught.

**Joan**: It has occurred to me that companies (such as the one's you mention above) lament that those entering the workforce lack 21st century skills and blame education, but I think they are to blame too. Instead of creating and marketing virtual worlds and other software for the adult consumers, //first//, they should use educational settings to invent and test new technologies. Then education can be involved from the start, instead of lagging behind the rest of the industries.

[|ATC21S]

[|ATC21S site]

Another company that is on the fore front of researching assessing with technology is Becta. According to their most recent publication the most challenging reason for not using technology as a regular assessment tool is that teachers are not aware of the positive role technology can play in increasing the impact on students learning and that they are unsure of how to incorporate the technology into lessons, let alone using them as an assessment tool (Becta, ). A study that they completed showed that only four in ten teachers use technology to create or administer assessments (Becta, ).

**Joan**: I find this interesting. I would think that the positive role technology can play and ideas for incorporating it would be apparent. Of course, my family was one of the original PC users in the 70s, I had my own computer at college in the 80s, owned my first cell phone in 1994 and I teach in a computer lab now so I shouldn't make assumptions. I don't believe there is a lack of opportunity for training. I think it is more of a time issue with teachers. Implementing technology requires a major overhaul of lessons and not enough time is given to teachers to plan and practice.

As far as assessments go, there needs to be more education based simulation programs created and advertised. I am discouraged by all the catalogs I receive at work that are still trying to sell me textbooks, worksheets, posters, and VHS/DVDs. Even the CD-ROMs are simply a PowerPoint with worksheet masters. I want simulation programs and online video downloads. There is not enough educational software available to implement online assessments that meet state standards.

Although the research is starting to prove the benefits of using technology to assess students’ performance, it is hard to know what type to use and how to begin to positively implement it with them. The technology used can be as simple as designing a more individualized paper test, using a project based approach with rubrics, creating an e-portfolio or using a pre-designed program that assesses and then analyzes the students’ performance based on their individual skill level. According to a recent article, in the Journal of Research on Technology in Education, this is a very exciting time for the field of assessment development (JRTE, 2010). They have concluded that there three main reasons why this is true. First, it has been shown that assessment plays multiple roles in the educational process, the most valuable being the formative functioning of assisting students learning (JRTE, 2010). Second, cognitive research and theory have shown how students learn key principles of a curriculum, how they develop knowledge structures and how to analyze and understand the complex aspects of student performance (JRTE, 2010). Finally, technology allows presenting and assessing information and concept on a more individualized level feasibly, allowing various learning styles and levels to be met (JRTE, 2010).

[|Empowering Students with Technology]

Conclusion: After all the research and reading, and what the other group members have contributed to the topic of assessing with technology, I think this is the only way for educators to progress. Every child learns at a different level, and in a society where more time is spent relying on technological devices, reaching them where they are is pivotal. In the video about the Assessing and Teaching 21st Century skills Project they demonstrate how essential technology is when assessing students. They are proving that reaching each student on their individual level is critical and by using the various resources that are available this is becoming an obtainable goal. As a classroom teacher, I always strive to reach each student on their skill level. In a realistic setting, this can be daunting. Finding the time to make assessments that allow each student to show their understanding and mastery of a skill can become difficult. Using technology to assist in this process will ensure that we, as educators, are giving each of our students the 21st Century Skills they need to become successful 21st Century Learners.

 References Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills. Retrieved from Cisco website []

Landauer, T.K., Lochbaum,K.E, & Dooley, S. (2009). A new formative assessment technology for reading and writing. Theory Into Practice, 48, 44-52. doi:10.1080/00405840802577593

Pellegrino,J.W. & Quellmalz, E.S. (2010). Perspectives on the integration of technology amd assessment. Journal of Research on Technology Education, 43(2), 119-134.

Ripley, M. (2009). Messages from the evidence: Assessment using technology. Retrieved from Becta website []