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Kevin Gutierrez
EDU-225
April 4, 2016
Professor Clutter

Assessment Technology
Technology has been known to have a lot of good benefits. One of these benefits include
the assessment of students. As if technology does not contribute enough, it does in such a positive
way. Both the teacher and student are helped by technology when it comes to assessments.
Teachers are more likely to progress in their work since technology helps them track the progress
of each student. Students are given the assessment online in which can ignite their creative minds.
Many questions rise when it comes to assessing students with technology but at the end of the
day, technology truly does make a big contributing to the success of everyone.
Technology makes a huge impact when it comes to assessing students. Many students may
get tired of the normal pencil and paper way of completing assessments. Technology provides a
variety of ways to take an assessment such as videos, hypertext, hypermedia, multimedia, and real
life stimulations (Bull, 1993). An example of assessing using technology would be asking the
students to create a short video of some sort (Bull, 1993). Guidelines would be created that
students need to complete. This opens up the opportunity for students to get as creative as they
want to. It is known that students take away more from a 15 minute video than a 15 minute oral
presentation (Bull, 1993). Students can also gain more knowledge and skills when they need to
make a presentation rather than write a report (Bull, 1993).
There are two forms of assessments which are formative and summative assessment.
Formative assessment is a more relaxed but still effective way of assessing our students. In this

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type of assessment, students can expect observations, feedback, and a variety of journaling
(Johnson&Jenkins, 2009). This assessment is used by teachers to gather information on what
works and does not work to modify their teaching styles. A great way that technology can help
teachers collect data for formative assessment is using a line graph. This tool would help teachers
collect data to record progressive. Some examples of formative assessment include a poll
everywhere question, a discussion question (DQ), and a kwl chart.
Summative assessment is a more serious form of assessment. This type of assessment is
used to measure what a student learned over a long period of time. Big end of the year projects or
unit tests are a good form of assessment (Johnson&Jenkins, 2009). This type of test reflects what
a student learned from the overall instruction given. Standardize test or the Aims test is another
form of summative assessment (Johnson&Jenkins, 2009). This type of test reflects how many
students are achieving at a state level. Technology can also be used as summative assessments. A
power point or short video about the instruction on the past year is a great way to get the
students engaged.
When it comes to using technology to assess, there are many pros and cons that follow.
Virtual learning environments such as a blackboard, gives teachers the ability to clearly present
information for their assessments (UniversityofReading, n.d.). Another pro for technology is the
flexibility it gives teachers. Teachers can reuse the same assessment year after year reducing the
workload. Technology also allows the students to be very flexible. They can create a video or type
up a paper and submit it at their convenience (UniversityofReading, n.d.). Some of the cons
include the finances and staff time needed to create the assessments (UniversityofReading, n.d.).
Schools would need the funding required to use technology to assess and not every teacher is
trained with all technology. It may make students feel isolated as well (UniversityofReading, n.d.).

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Reducing the face to face interactions with teachers can make the students feel like they are not
receiving the attention needed.
Teachers should be very familiar with using technology and connecting it to the ISTE
standards. Educators should able to facilitate experiences that advance students learning and a
creativity in a virtual environment (ISTE, 2016). They should be able to design and develop
assessment to maximize content and meet the identified standards (ISTE, 2016). Being able to
show knowledge in the global and digital society is also a very important for teachers to know.
These are just a few reasons as to why it is important to connect the ISTE standards and
assessments. Students depend on technology to be assessed successfully and if they follow the
ISTE standards, they will succeed in being successful.
If used effectively, technology can really impact the students success in a positive manner.
Many believe that using technology to assess students is a bad idea, but the positives outweigh the
negative. Teachers should consider using both pencil and paper and technology to assess their
students. It is very helpful to assess students in various ways to keep their minds sharp.
Technology will continue making a difference in the world of education.

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References
Bull, J. (1993, December). Using Technology to Assess Student Learning. Retrieved from
http://www.caacentre.ac.uk/dldocs/alter.pdf
ISTE. (2016). Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/istestandards/standards-for-teachers
Johnson, E., & Jenkins, J. (2009, December 23). Formative and Summative Assessment.
Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/formative-and-summativeassessment/
UniversityofReading. (n.d.). Accessibility navigation. Retrieved from
https://www.reading.ac.uk/engageinassessment/using-technology/eia-pros-and-cons-ofusing-technology.aspx