Journal #3: Assessment Made Easy

Zucker, Andrew. (2009, 6/7). Assessment Made Easy. Learning & Leading With Technology, retrieved July 24, 2009, from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20090607/

The article Assessment Made Easy details the advantages of having a laptop computer for every student in a particular school. The focus of this article is a charter school in Denver, CO, that was given a $1 million grant from Hewlitt Packard to initiate the program. One of the most helpful things about having a laptop to every student is that assessment is easier and far more effective. According to the article, students have access to their scores almost instantaneously. In schools where work is handed in on paper and then graded and then returned, students will often go days without knowing how they scored on a particular assignment. Not only do students receive their scores much faster then the traditional method, the teachers are freed from grading work that a machine can grade, allowing them much more time to grade subjective work such as essays. However, essays can also be graded with the use of technology. One teacher reported that she can display an electronic essay for the whole class to see, and mark it up it front of them with the use of a tablet and stylus. While doing this, the teacher can explain to the class how she is grading an editing the essay. The school has so far produced very positive results, it was stated that every graduating senior had been accepted to a four year university (18). The article did say that laptops were not the only reason the school had such a high success rate. Technology alone cannot substitute good teachers and good administration.

How well had the school done before every student was issued a laptop?
The article did not give any facts relating to this question, but it is one that I would like to know the answer. I thought that one of the most compelling statements in the whole article is the one in which it was confessed that the laptops are not the only reason for the school's success. I wish there was some way to document or graph exactly how much of the school's success is attributable to the laptops. Today it is common to hear schools and teachers make the claim that if only they had more money to work with or if only they had more technology. This article certainly makes a case for those statements, but it would be nice to see exactly how much of a role technology plays in the overall performance of the students.

Are students losing the art of the hand-written word?
With these students spending so much time on laptops, I would imagine that certain elements of the hand-written word are disappearing. Not just the obvious, which would be penmanship, but spelling and grammar. I believe that penmanship is basically a forgotten art; handwriting today does not look nearly as neat as it did fifty years ago, in general. That is not so much what I'm getting at though. I would be more concerned with the fact that students use grammar and spell checker programs to the point where they are concerned with neither. If they were to misspell a word or misuse a semicolon, computers will automatically fix it for them, and the student has learned nothing in the process. As much as I believe that technology is an integral part of education and that it should be used as much as possible, I do think students should spend some time writing assignments out by hand.