Palm Handheld Devices
http://thejournal.com/articles/17865
We talked about this site in one of my classes discussing assessment. Essentially, teachers have now found a quick way to assess students and get immediate results by using palm handheld devices. Teachers test the students individidually and point to or write on the palm device. The scores are quickly computed and allow for immediate feedback. These devices allow teachers to set benchmarks along the way and ajust instruction as they see fit, responding to the formative assessments tabulated by computerization. Larry Berger, a CEO of the Wireless Generation, says, "When you get data to teachers in real-time, the entire learning process becomes more responsive in a way that motivates kids to get to the next goal. "
I have trouble seeing applications for this type of assessment in my secondary English classroom. I can see applications for this in elementary schools as a quick way to gauge if students are understanding fundamentals like spelling or computation. At the secondary level, assignments get a bit more complex and most of the assessment in many classrooms is writing samples. With writing as subjective as it is, a teacher needs to work on the papers by hand, seeing where the student went awry, etc. This is not even mentioning the cost of such devices, which is astronomical, and the cost to fix them if broken. Other teachers can spend half a semester's paycheck on these handheld devices, but I'll stick to grading with my red pen I think.
We talked about this site in one of my classes discussing assessment. Essentially, teachers have now found a quick way to assess students and get immediate results by using palm handheld devices. Teachers test the students individidually and point to or write on the palm device. The scores are quickly computed and allow for immediate feedback. These devices allow teachers to set benchmarks along the way and ajust instruction as they see fit, responding to the formative assessments tabulated by computerization. Larry Berger, a CEO of the Wireless Generation, says, "When you get data to teachers in real-time, the entire learning process becomes more responsive in a way that motivates kids to get to the next goal. "
I have trouble seeing applications for this type of assessment in my secondary English classroom. I can see applications for this in elementary schools as a quick way to gauge if students are understanding fundamentals like spelling or computation. At the secondary level, assignments get a bit more complex and most of the assessment in many classrooms is writing samples. With writing as subjective as it is, a teacher needs to work on the papers by hand, seeing where the student went awry, etc. This is not even mentioning the cost of such devices, which is astronomical, and the cost to fix them if broken. Other teachers can spend half a semester's paycheck on these handheld devices, but I'll stick to grading with my red pen I think.
posted by Moe at
12:51 PM
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