Technology Tools for Assessment and Evaluation

The article first talks about NETS T standards and how they should be incorporated into curriculum. The authors of this article say it after demonstrating competency of those skills they are truly ready to integrate technology not the K-12 classroom. After conducting interviews on students, it was learned that students are not making the need connections between general method courses and the skills they learned in IT. It is then found that many students are confusing what should be clear terms and that the confusion of these terms is what is preventing students to effectively link IT and course curriculum. It is then understood that until terms like, assessment and evaluation are understood to its fullest, we can then link these major concepts to technology.

I totally agree with the authors of this article. Technology can be used in a variety or purposes and can be a very useful tool if employed correctly. Technology can be used in numerous ways for assessment and evaluation purposes, but they wont be effective tools if the reasons for using are not understood. One must know what assessment and eval7ation means before they can actually measure these two things. I think having technology classes as a part of our required courses to obtain our teaching certificates is a very good idea. These courses help us link the information were learning in our methods class with our new technology skills.

The I-Generation—From Toddlers to Teenagers

Jane Healy strongly encourages educators to really look at the reasons for having high technology in their classrooms. Healy feels that where teachers use technology such as a computer, teachers will see faster and higher results with the traditional way of "good teachers, small classes, and a challenging curriculum." From Healy's view she feels that teachers rely highly on technology in their classrooms but that the students aren’t learning and truly benefiting from these programs. She argues for example, that in some cases, who is really doing the thinking, the programmers or the child? She also argues that young children should not be introduced to the computer until they are much older, because they can ultimately be damaging to the child. During the conversation between Carol Tell and Jane Healy, Healy continues to rant on about why technology and computer use in the classroom should be limited.

I feel that although Healy made a few good points, she is being unreasonable about the use of technology in the classroom. I think that Healy is just having a hard time to accept that today’s generations are tech savvy and that today’s learning process has evolved. I think yes textbooks and good curriculum shouldn't be thrown out or overlooked, but I also don’t think we should disregard the computer and other high tech product use in our classrooms. I think in order to avoid a lot of Healy's concern we as teachers need to take one simple step, and that is just too critically analyze and examine the software and programs we use in our classrooms. As teachers we are educated enough to tell which software programs are garbage and which can be beneficial to our students learning. With this sorting process we can then guarantee that our money and our students time using these programs is not going to waste.

Oregon Trail Article

The Oregon Trail game is one that many students are familiar with. I myself remember using the CD-ROM game to teach me about the pioneers life and experiences on the Oregon Trail. And today teachers continue to use this game for educational purposes. The game combines many skills used in the daily classroom; reading, math, geography, history and science. The numerous choices you have throughout the course of the game alter your journey as you try to reach Oregon's territory. However Bill Bigelow, the author of the article says after experiencing the game for himself, “as much as the game teaches, it mis-teaches more.”
We can not assume, as teachers, that the content the game provides is accurately portraying the actual event in history. Although it is a fun way to learn history, the things the game teaches children are not accurate and we are misleading students. For example, Bigelow says that although you have the choice to be a female or male in the game, both genders in the simulation act as males, giving students an inaccurate account of women's role during the journey. I think that in some aspects this game can be beneficial but overall it should not be used in the classroom. Because the game is biased on so many levels, students are getting a “partial education.” Not learning every aspect of the Oregon Trail experience is cheating students of their education. I think if teachers really feel the need to use this particular CD-ROM to teach this historical event, then they should think about discussing the inaccuracies of the game as a class, so that students know that this is not a 100% accurate simulation of the pioneers experience on the Oregon Trail.