Assessments & Data Analysis
Program Goals:
· Students will be current in teaching and learning processes and practices.
· Students will be knowledgeable of current, technology-based educational tools
and products.
Program Competency:
· The educator is skilled in the design and implementation of a variety of
assessment strategies, including performance and product based assessments
that are often more relevant in the technology rich classroom.
· The educator is skilled at identifying opportunities within the curriculum for
improved student learning through technology and is capable of designing
technology enriched learning activities that support the curriculum.
· The educator is able to use technology to participate in increased levels of
professional collaboration.
I have made mention on my leadership page that I felt standardized testing and technology-based learning were at odds with each other, but I am not implying we should completely eliminate standardized testing. I do believe in a standards based curriculum where standardized testing is one component in the evaluation process of the course. Using standardized testing such as Achievement Series, allows me systematically track the students’ comprehension levels of the course content and monitor or adjust my teaching style. The benefit to using Achievement Series, which is a web based assessment product, is that it compiles student data relative to the content standards being assessed. There is a large sample of test bank questions in the areas of mathematics and science, which were developed by South Dakota teachers all codified by our state standards. In addition to the test bank provided, users can import additional questions through software applications such as Exam View or manually create their own. One disadvantage I have discovered with using Achievement Series is that it fails to provide students with appropriate feedback.
LT-716 Systematic Design of Instruction, Dr. Versteeg, spring 2010
In this class I designed an instructional plan to train Madison Centrals’ math department on how to implement Achievement Series into their curriculum in an effort to align the scope and sequence of our math curriculum district wide with the state standards. Along with the project plan I have created the actual content of the training, which is in a pdf document. I feel there is great value in my plan and am hopeful that our administration will sketch out professional development time for our math department to explore this opportunity.
LT-741 Introduction to Distance Education, Dr. Molstad-Gorder, spring 2009
Although I teach in a face-to-face environment this course provided great examples supported by research on alternative assessment measures. Assessment should be student directed consisting of: discussion boards, on-line quizzes, collaborative projects, real world problems/case studies, and essays. Students should have a clear understanding of how their work will be evaluated so clearly defining expectations with a rubric can aid in the success of implementing alternative assessments. The following work sample is research on the topic of Student Centered Assessments.
LT-785 Research Methods in Educational Technology, Dr. Wiken, fall 2009
I am a numbers guy so part of this course came very easy to me. I have always loved the phrase, “numbers don’t lie, people do”, so any time we as educators can use statistical measures to support our findings we should rely on them more than we do opinions. I grew up learning how to calculate variance, standard deviation, and other statistical measures by hand. In Calculus III at DSU we starting using software (can’t remember the program) to make calculations but it wasn’t very user friendly. I use Excel and the graphing calculators for statistics but neither was as easy to use as Mini Tab. The following work sample addresses the question - "How has or will technology improve integration and learning in math and science in the K-12 schools?" Additional work samples are provided showing my interactions with Mini Tab.
Statistics work samples:
