Mario Chalmers, Moodle and Online Assessments

The NCAA tourney is over and my Jayhawks won it all. Thanks to Mario Chalmers I got my first good night of sleep in weeks. As I was drifting off my brain started thinking about school, but just for a moment of two.

Standardized test season is upon us. This year we are adding an online science assessment in addition to the usual pencil and paper varieties. I have a few thoughts on these new online assessments and wanted to share them with a larger audience to see what the response was.

(some low scores out of 40)

Last week I gave a short online Moodle-based test on material that was largely review. There was some stuff on phase change, pressure, and other weather related items. The scores were abysmal. I remembered something I heard from students last year after a Moodle test.

"I like Moodle tests...they are so easy. It is so easy to click when you don't know the answer...it doesn't feel like a real test."


Hmmm, I don't think students take a lot of online test so maybe it is more like a video game. Maybe the students think they are simply deciding how to cross a river in Oregon Trail. Should we caulk the wagons and float it or just pay for the ferry? In a game, it is an easy decision and there are no real-world consequences.

Tests are not necessarily the same because there are real-world consequences. I currently dedicate one block to helping my students to prepare for the high stakes standardized tests. Our school does a good job of organizing this and dividing up tasks. As more tests go online, I think that we'll have to rely on more on our anecdotal experiences and the growing research base to address how students approach online tests.

Will those online test taking skills need to be deliberately taught? Is it really any different than paper/pencil? Are the scores really lower or is it just easier to generate statistics? Are some students more disadvantaged because of tests going online?

Oregon Trail

At a staff development a few months back a very good point was made about the stigma of math in schools (life). Something along the lines of "grumble, grumble....but that is math....and I am not a "math" person...grumble, grumble" As someone who has struggled with math, checkbooks, budgets, gas mileage and measuring I was surprised to find myself entrenched behind the front lines and going to bat for them. How can kids like math if they are constantly hearing the grumbles about the woes of math and how everyone is so bad at it. I have to admit I have changed my tone. I don't have a lot of opportunities in my class, but I now approach density calculations with the same vigor as someone standing on a bridge with big banners supporting their candidate before an election.

What does this have to do with technology? Well, when I read this blog post (Edublog post of the year for 2007) it was clear there was a connection.

The Fischbowl: Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher? via kwout

If I could celebrate the genius of mathematics in my classroom there should be some other human out there that can turn on a LCD projector and begin throwing some wiz-bang at the kids. Seriously, that is where we need to start. Wikis, blogs, Moodle, Voicethread, iMovie, Garageband, Twitter, Ning and all that other stuff can come in due time but we ought to begin moving forward without grumbling. When I was roaming the halls of my elementary school we got to go to the "technology room" to play Oregon Trail to learn about MATH...sorta. That was 1985ish. Computers are not going away and we ought to saddle up and begin lumbering along. If we run into an obstacle, we'll caulk the wagons and float it.