My Digital Sandbox...

Sandboxes are great places to play and create.  If you don’t like what you have created, then you can destroy the creation and start over...and it is all in great fun.  As we all know, what we create in sandboxes can fall in an instant or survive with some guarded effort.  A sandbox is a great metaphor for what I have learned about digital assessments in this class AND what I will do with digital assessments in my own classes.

As all teachers know, what works in one class might not work in your other classes!  I think this also goes for assessments.  There have been times in my classes that I gave an assessment and it worked really well one year, so I decided to use it the next year and it totally flopped.  Assessments in this case are like building sand castles.  There are so many things that can and will go wrong.  What I have learned is that there isn’t a “one size fits all”  type of assessment.  Like the sand castle once you think you have built a solid one, something or someone comes along and steps on it and you have to start over. For me the initial shock of losing what you thought was the perfect product is discouraging, but then I reflect and realize that no matter what type of assessment I have, there is always room for improvement.  

This class has made me step back and really look at HOW I am using my digital assessments. When I create a “test,” I need to create  for all types of learning and I need to create ways for students to improve.  I think digital assessments are perfect for this. I have to admit the reason I started digital assessments was to cut down my grading time! It is awful to admit, but having a site like Quia or the test part of Schoology do part of my grading has been awesome, but now I need to look at the content.  I realize I need to revamp a lot of my assessments.  So in a sense this is like the rain washing all my “sandcastles” away in my sandbox.  I still have the base (the grains of sand), but now I need to really reflect on how to build my castles back up using my new knowledge on assessments.  I need to take those granules of sand and create assessments that will fit all my learners.  I also have come to a realization that some students need to relearn and practice so building those assessments are just as important as the graded assessments.  Students need to do this on their own time or spare time in class.  This is what I have been doing with my grammar assessments.  I have now created a solid foundation of what I want these non-graded assessments to look like, now I just need to keep it up and create them for all my classes.