Comments on: Testing Companies are Stealing Our Internet.

By: Kathleen Jasper

Kathleen Jasper — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 20:19:09 +0000

Suzan, I completely agree. Today I encountered over assessed students who are completely faceless and lifeless. I asked them what they liked about school and they had a hard time coming up with anything. The solution is to refuse to administer these tests. Yes it’s the law, but if all the educators refuse to give these exams, laws will have to be changed.

By: Suzan Harden

Suzan Harden — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 19:52:21 +0000

Besides the fact that students are not necessarily good at taking tests on-line, there are other issues involved with students spending so much time in front of a computer module. What is one of the common complaints employers have about the younger generation? That their interpersonal skills are lacking because they spend so much time in “faceless” communication. When you don’t have to see a person’s reaction to your comment, it is easier to be harsh and critical. The number of bullying incidences that are initiated through social media is testament to this. When you are in front of a terminal, no one sees if your hair isn’t combed and your teeth aren’t brushed. The fact that you are slouching in a seat with rumpled clothing does not allow you to see the lack of a good first impression in the other person’s eyes. Students are not developing important skills in reading non-verbal communication because they aren’t seeing people!

So what are schools doing? We are reinforcing the entire mess by sitting students in rows facing computer screens for hours at a time, not interacting with people, with no compassion for the students for whom this is the least effective method of instruction, and forcing teachers to abandon the creativity which likely drove their career decision and recite by rote the curriculum developed by someone who has no or limited experience in a classroom.

It has been a concern of mine for some time that educators are not leading education. We are completely in reactive mode, not proactive mode. Hopefully, blogs like this will allow enough of us to find one another that we will be able to brainstorm solutions.

By: Kathleen Jasper

Kathleen Jasper — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 11:02:38 +0000

Rant on! You are so right when you say kids have a hard time navigating reading passages on the computer. They lose the info when they have to scroll back to find it. Most of them just give up and move on.
Webquests are a fantastic tool and it’s a shame our resources needed to build these activities have been hijacked by big business.

By: Annmarie Ferry

Annmarie Ferry — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 23:06:01 +0000

Many of our kids have difficulties testing on computers, especially when they have to scroll back through text to find the information they need to answer a question or make an inference by teasing out context clues like we teach them to do. Those with processing and short-term memory deficits suffer even more, but unless you have a vision problem, it is an act of God to get paper and pencil testing for even students with diagnosed learning disabilities. Teachers are evaluated for how effectively they integrate technology into instruction, including how students use it. But, we often have to rush through what could have been a very engaging and highly personal learning experience when we do projects for lack of time with the precious labs. For instance, I would absolutely love to teach my kids how to CREATE a webquest to complement a piece of literature with author bios, historical information, etc., but am resigned to have them go through someone else’s webquest to save time. How cool would it be for small groups to create webquests and then have the students navigate and evaluate each others’ work? But, that requires time, and testing (computer or otherwise) sucks up time for those authentic learning opportunities that are student-driven. Rant over.