Formative+Assessment

= = = Automated Response Systems ("Clickers") =

A classroom response system (CRS) consists of automated remote controls that feed student input into a computer-based system, allowing the teacher and students to participate in a question and answer assessment that provides hard, recorded data. This data is gathered quickly, and provides nearly immediate guidance for teachers based on student understanding and achievement.

In addition to marketed “clicker systems”, as they are known within the education world, from companies like Promethean and eInstruction, free versions exist as well.

The website [|__www.polleverywhere.com__] allows teachers to take advantage of free tools such as cell phones, computers, and software like Twitter to gauge student responses. While the website does not offer the tracking of individual students, low-cost often outweighs the limitations of the system.

 An analysis of cost versus results is a discussion that districts and departments alike must have on an individual basis in order to determine what is best for the learners in question.

Beatty and Gerace identified four principles for successfully implementing technology-enhanced formative assessment (2009). These principles include:
 * 1) Motivate and focus student learning with question- driven instruction.
 * 2) Develop students’ understanding and scientific fluency with dialogical discourse.
 * 3) Inform and adjust teaching and learning decisions with formative assessment.
 * 4) Help students develop metacognitive skills and coop- erate in the learning process with meta-level communication (2009).

Formative assessment, whether formal or informal, technology-based or traditional, gives educators a snapshot of student knowledge that is crucial to planning and instruction.

== "ASSISTments" is a free web-based platform that allows teachers to write individual assessments for their students. The word “ASSISTment” blends tutoring “assistance” with “assessment” reporting to teachers, and the application supports all subjects. In particular, this software has a vast repository of mathematics content, including questions and associated hints, solutions, web-based videos, and more (Heffernan, 2010).

Essentially, ASSISTments is a system that allows teachers to deliver content to students and then delivers student responses back to the teacher in the form of reports, all while giving instant feedback to the students the moment they submit the answer. Most educators would agree that time spent testing less time for instruction. ASSISTments solves this problem by tutoring students on items they get wrong, thus providing integrated assisting of students while they are being assessed. Teachers can use this detailed assessment data to adjust their classroom instruction and pacing.

In order to get started a teacher must:
 * 1) create an account
 * 2) add a class
 * 3) load content for the class

Then, students must:
 * 1) create an account
 * 2) enroll in their teacher's class
 * 3) get to work

For a detailed look at how the system works, watch the following tutorial:

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=Edublogs.com=

Edublogs.com is an online educational blogging site that allows teachers to create individual blogs for their students. The teacher maintains control over the blogs and can edit or delete content as needed. For a class with the ability to use computers on a regular basis, Edublogs are a great way for teachers to facilitate discussions between students and allow students to voice their own opinions on topics being discussed in class. Students also have the ability to access blogs from any computer, this allows students to extend upon their blogs from home and, if a teacher is in a neighborhood where all students have internet access, homework can be assigned through blogs.

Edublogs.com is also very easy to set up for students and very easy to operate. The controls work much the same as Microsoft Word so students who have used that software will pick up on Edublogs easily. Additionally, since many students do not have email addresses at home or through their school, Edublogs is very user friendly in that students are not forced to use an email address to register their own blog. Teachers can keep track of all students user names and passwords and can quickly delete inappropriate comments or help students find their passwords. This basic service is free.There are versions you can pay for if you are interested in a campus or district version, but the basic blog is free and can be found at[| http://edublogs.org/.]


 * Blogging allows students to:**
 * Form thought out opinions on subjects
 * Reflect on other students work and comment
 * Have a voice, shy students will not be afraid to speak up
 * Teaches students to be respectful about others opinions online

Resources Beatty, I., & Gerace, W. (2009). Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment: A Research-Based Pedagogy for Teaching Science with Classroom Response Technology. Journal of Science and Educational Technology, 18, 146-162.

Heffernan, S. (2010). Electronically retrieved on September 5, 2011, from []