• Technology Assessment of Teachers and Students
  I believe assessment to be a “good thing.” Formative and summative assessments can be a critical aspect of any program, not only to set a base-line of performance level, but to also implement attainable goals over a specified period of time. This applies seamlessly to teacher and student proficiencies in technology. To achieve the greatest impact/results, we must assess where the teachers and students are with respect to technology skill levels and standards that have been designed to establish clear expectations of a shared vision of the stakeholders. Once an initial assessment has been administered, the data can be used to scaffold teachers and students to reach the indicated goals in the standards.
  Within any system there are pros and cons. Assessment of teachers and students technology skill levels is no different. The benefits that can result from this assessment would include the following:
  · Ability to Establish a Base-line of Performance (What do they know?)
  · Ability to Set Realistic Goals Based on Base-line Performance (How far can we take them this year?)
  · Ability to Address Specific Areas of Concern Determined from the Assessment (Where are they struggling?)
  · Ability to Identify Specific Areas of Strengths and Weaknesses
  
  Some disadvantages of assessing teacher and student technology skill level would include the following:
  Inability to Identify Causes of Deficiencies
  Accuracy of Participant Responses
  May Lead to Unrealistic Expectations