Instructional Technology 2

Instructional Technology
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(13 May, 2011)
Instructional Technology
1 In what ways can technology facilitate the ongoing effort to assess student learning?
Due to the increased enrolment of the students in the universities and the technology change that enhances distance learning, use of technology to facilitate assessment of student work is inevitable. This has ensured that the tradition assessment that has been about examination is facing a lot of challenge where recent changes in the nature of higher education requires change in the way student are assessed.
Due to the greater number of student where the teacher is incapable of assessing all their work technology will be of paramount use. Traditional assessment has turned to be very tedious where it has been taking all the teachers` time in marking, modularization, auditing and quality assessment (Knight, 1993). This calls for immediate change and thus technological assessment is the most favored due to its effectiveness.
Use of technology in assessment ensures that the student get the feedback from their teachers in time where they are capable of tackling their work appropriately. The accuracy of assessment is increased making it reflect the true picture of the student capability. It ensures quick delivery and saves the teacher from many backlogs that waste time. This ensures that the teacher will be able to focus more on offering quality education to the student through the feedback that he have at hand. It increases the level of judgment that the teacher has over the student work and in most cases improves the health of teachers as workload has increased the level of loss of eyesight with the traditional assessment method (Rowntree, 1987).
2. What is the difference between formative assessment and summative assessment and how can technology be used to facilitate both?
Formative and summative assessments are major toolkits of any teacher in the classroom. Therefore, it s important for to understand the differences. Formative assessment is used to determine how much a student has learned and how much they are supposed to learn. Formative assessment covers informal assignments, which include question and answer sessions or homework (Brook, & Ponicter, 1990). However summative assessment covers the amount knowledge that student should cover about a certain subject or unit. This method is more formal and it includes tests, quizzes essays and projects.