Week 10: Assessment & Digital Technologies

Week 10 Question.

What do you think is the biggest challenge for you when you are designing an assessment task that uses technology?

Response.

Neither required reading article really helped me with how I would design digital assessment tasks, so I wrote about why.

There is no such thing as the digital native. Students have not miraculously become excellent in collaboration or finding relevant sources just because they know how to use the Minecraft and Tik-Tok, often this is all they use it for.  It has given them the ability to comment on something without having to face consequences or back up their assertions.  Simply utilising digital technology in lessons and assessments will not make students critical users of technology.  Students need to be taught what a good source is and what effective use of technology is.  This takes time and money two things the public is constantly told the New South Wales Public School system does not have (notwithstanding recent budget increases) (Bousfield, 2019).  Creating a blog, as suggested by New South Wales Education Standards Authority (2024) will not teach “enhance students' analytical thinking capabilities” (NESA, 2024).  It will teach them how to use a particular piece of software; and if you can use one piece of software that is simply being able to use that particular software.  People seem to confuse this.  This writer agrees with Selwyn, (2016), just talking about it does not make it so, and implementing digital technology does not make society equitable.

Digital Technology is particularly useful for doing things quickly, like calculations or sending a message, or showing someone in the Zoom meeting with the French office of your firm, your idea for rebuilding the Sydney Opera House and discussing and modifying the plans in real time.  Getting used to utilising technology is good, as is using different types of technology, like 3D printing, and learning about safety online and should be encouraged. But just using it, like just talking about it, does not translate to using technology effectively (Selwyn, 2016).

Reading Wilson et al., (2016) advising educators that aesthetics is especially important for assessment (p. 86) is particularly galling, unless of course artistic prowess is what you are assessing the students on.  One person’s great aesthetic is another’s person’s bad wallpaper and often this depends on what you can afford.

Timmins et al., (2016) state that differentiation (p. 459) is one way digital technologies can help with assessment, and this is already being utilised by several teachers I have spoken to.  Artifical Intelligence is helping one teacher I know differentiate their lesson plans, although I have not yet seen it.  As for peer assessment or feedback (Timmins, 2016, p. 462), most fifteen year olds I'm acquainted with would prefer to keep their work between themselves and the teacher. 

Unfortunately, our obsession with assessment and ranking students and schools on league tables is sucking the creativity out of the students, as they become more anxious about passing their NAPLAN tests.  Students and teachers need the time to ‘play’ with different software packages and see what they can do, and there seems to be little time allocated to doing this.  The irony of course, is that creativity is one of the skills (Timmins et al., 2016, p. 457) educators are told we should be encouraging. 

e-portfolio task

Since I have not done my practicum, I am using an idea for a lesson from my work teaching swimming.  As students’ progress with swimming, their stroke gets better. In swimming small movements, such as head position or the placement the hand and position of the swimmer’s elbow, can take seconds off a swimmer’s time.  Often, seconds is all that is needed to win a race.  A great way to utilise digital technology for swimming, (and for PDHPE teachers, drama and dancing teachers) would be to video (or photograph) the students current work so that they can see what it is they are actually doing.  Often what students believe they are doing is not what they are actually doing.  This would even be helpful for when students have to give a speech or presentation, to give it wider application for use in other subjects. 

The above still shows the incorrect head position on the top of the picture, the swimmer at the bottom is using the correct head position.

The instructor takes a video of the swimmer, swimming with the fault and shows this to the swimmer.  This is the formative assessment, showing the swimmer their actual movement. 

The teacher then instructs the student on correct head placement and the swimmer then practices with the right head position.  The summative assessment is where the teacher videos or photographs the student doing their best freestyle swim, to assess if they have the correct movement.  This is one way of using digital technology for an educational purpose which cannot be shown any other way.