The idea that we need to assess the literacy of our students and teachers in terms of technology has been popped up every so often. Most recently the conversation has emerged because the annual reports actually include a question from the state on what a district is doing regarding this item. There are online assessment tools out there. The NY State Education Site (I am from NY after all) has some information. I just watched a demo from one of our service agencies who developed a tool for technology literacy assessment.
These are all well developed tools. My question is to the larger question: What are we truly assessing and why are we assessing it? I have a hard time spending a lot of time assessing if my 8th graders (or 8th grade teachers) know how to bold text, or save a file or file down a spreadsheet. What I really want to know is what can they do with this...and can they figure out how do what they need to do? It seems we are not assessing what is really important.
I am a big fan of the ideas and stances over at Gen Yes. They suggest that "students can take on much of the responsibility of demonstrating they possess these skills. Students do this by creating two projects that show they meet national technology standards. Including students as peer mentors and evaluators further reinforces this student-centered model."
My final question is: WHY ARE WE FOCUSING ON WORD ANYWAY. Why aren't we assessing the use of movie software or social networking or internet safety or.....there are aspects that are so much more important skills/strategies to be focused on.
More exploration to come.....
J:)
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