Choose a website for teachers or a piece of assessment software marketed for school use and evaluate according to the Technology Guidelines in the text. Each student will prepare a PPT presentation to share key point with classmates. (F.7, F.1,3a; F.4, F.6, 3b)
F1Demonstrate ability to choose valid tools that are developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate; use the tools correctly; make appropriate referrals; and interpret assessment results, with the goal of obtaining valid, useful information to inform practice and decision making.
o 3b: Knowing about and using observation, documentation, and other appropriate assessment tools and approaches, including the use of technology in documentation, assessment and data collection
F7 Apply understanding of assessment concepts toward selection of appropriate formal assessment measures, critiquing the limitations of inappropriate measures, and discussing assessment issues as part of interdisciplinary teams.
F4 Demonstrate understanding of the influences of environmental factors, cultural/linguistic differences, and diverse ways of learning on assessment outcomes.
• F6 Articulate an understanding of the distinctions and definitions of assessment concepts (e.g., screening, diagnostic assessment, standardized, testing, accountability assessment).
o 3b: Understanding the goals, benefits, and uses of assessment-including its use in development of appropriate goals, curriculum, and teaching strategies for young children.
Keep in Mind we are Early Childhood Educators Birth through Grade 3
Choosing Technology and Software to Support Assessment *
When you choose software to support your assessment program, you will find a wide variety of available programs. Choices include the following:
• Links to state and national association goals and benchmarks, Head Start Child Outcomes Framework, Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium • Record-keeping capacity
• Lesson plan suggestions
• Specially formulated “tests†for students
• Report-generation capacity
• Web-based format with access by multiple stakeholders
The programs are available electronically, specially formulated for your program, and are released commercially every day. So you will need to keep in mind several principles when evaluating programs that might meet your needs. The evaluation process will call on your knowledge of child development, instructional methodology, and assessment. You are in effect choosing an electronic tool to facilitate your work with young children. Some of the relevant issues and questions to think about follow. The first step in the process of decision making is the evaluation of your hardware. Most sophisticated assessment systems using CD-ROM technology will require not only storage for the electronic files but also a good amount of memory for on-screen viewing and processing of your data collection. The electronic files may be stored in a database on a server within the school or district or on a server with the company that owns the software. If you use external storage of student records, lesson plans, or whatever, you will want to have enough storage on the server that houses it so you can effectively sort data and use it in planning for your students. If stored elsewhere, you will want to know about the developer’s reputation for security of data, including backup systems and encrypting of text. If you are using a personal digital assistant (PDA), smartphone, or tablet with software, you will need to think about the ease of syncing the information with a data storage system. More and more, assessment systems use web-based technology. For these programs, you will want to have at minimum a hardwired 1 MBPS broadband connection. Once you have evaluated your hardware, you will want to think about the content of the software programs. Many software programs require you have other current software, such as Java or Adobe Acro-bat or Flash, installed on your computer. You will need to think about the program from the perspective of each of the stakeholders in the system: child, family, administrator, community, and of course, you—the teacher. These perspectives overlap, but the primary interests of the various stakeholders follow. Child and family perspective
• Does the program provide appropriate safeguards for confidentiality?
• Is the material free from obvious cultural bias?
• Can the materials be used in multiple languages?
https://www.istation.com/
Istation is the assessment software I would like to have the power point presented on.