This quote by Rabindranath Tagore comes to mind today while writing this blog on Assessments. One of my most dreaded experiences as a high school student was facing my final exams, particularly the dreaded Math assessment. The weeks leading up to the exams felt like a marathon of cramming every formula and concept, trying to stuff my brain with as much information as possible. And then, sitting through those grueling three-hour tests, feeling bogged, dizzy as I struggled to recall everything I had memorized. The anxiety was palpable, knowing that the results would determine so much of my academic future. It’s a feeling I’ll never forget, and even now, it sends chills down my spine just thinking about it……Lol. As a facilitator, I think the traditional summative assessments, like final exams, put students in a high-stakes environment where the performance is judged solely based on memorization and rote learning. For students like me, this approach can be stressful and demotivating. The fear of failure looms large, leading to anxiety and even physical symptoms like sleeplessness, nausea.
However, the 21st century transported us into the technologically advanced world of education. The emphasis on formative assessment, gamification in the Edtech world brought about empowering changes in the pedagogy of learning and evaluation. Unlike traditional assessments, which can feel like daunting obstacles, gamified learning environments are designed to be engaging, interactive, and enjoyable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WxvVgXC_NY
Assessment Technologies in Education: In the modern classroom, assessment technologies have become indispensable companions for educators seeking to enhance their teaching practices. The Learning Management systems have not only helped in connecting the teacher and learner but also lowered the administrative burden. The pandemic brought about more popularity for the applications like Google classroom, Zoom, MS teams, Kahoot, Mentimeters, Jamboarding etc. The learning theory of connectivism popularized these Edtech tools by emphasizing the significance of digital networks, collaboration, personalization, data-driven decision making, thereby integration the informal learning experiences with the learning process. These tools provide learners with opportunities to connect, collaborate, and engage with content in meaningful ways within digital learning environments. A few days back, my classmates in Edtech course, gave a group presentation on some wonderful assessment application like: Socrative, ZipGrade, and Mathletics. The tools were really impressive in what they could do with great effectiveness and efficiency!! The Zipgrade tool for assessment was impressive in how it eliminated extra work for teachers and gave instant feedback. And One of the most important aspects about feedback in classroom is that it should be timely, reinforcing and redirectional. This helps teacher focus more on instructional activities. I remember how our teachers would carry bundles of papers back home or from one class to another and check them whenever they had free time. On the other hand, Socrative offers interactive quizzes, fostering active engagement, facilitating personalized learning experiences alongwith real-time feedback. Similarly, Mathletics helps students to hone their mathematical skills through gamified learning modules and adaptive assessments, catering to diverse learning styles and abilities. These tools gamify the evaluation and therefore remove the fear associated with the process of evaluation. Positive reinforcement, such as badges or rewards for completing tasks, can motivate students to engage with the material and persist in their learning.
The Shift Towards Formative Assessment:
Assessments play a large part in the learning of students and our understanding as teachers. . If evaluation finds teaching learning process satisfactory, it motivates the teachers and students to work harder for better results. And while summative assessments are important, the true understanding of learning comes from the formative kind
The assessment tools also contribute to making evaluation more formative than summative. They take away the administrative burden unlike the traditional methods of evaluation, are quick in implementation, cater to Visual, auditory and kinesthetic students equally and so it becomes easier for the facilitator/teacher to plan formative assessment. I personally feel that formative assessment lowers the fear factor amongst students and learning happens in the absence of fear. Unlike the usual end-of-term exams where students compete for higher marks; the formative assessment is about continuous feedback in bits and pieces. If evaluation finds teaching learning process satisfactory, it motivates the teachers and students to work harder for better results. This move towards formative assessment promotes growth and empowerment in learners, rather than just focusing on grades and labeling students. It’s more about the journey of learning rather than the destination of a final grade.
The technology has not only empowered the teachers but also the students. Every individual in some way is the owner of one’s education, development and growth. The organization/schools no more completely control the education process (Rigby, 2015)
References
Rigby, C. S. (2015). Gamification and motivation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formative_assessment
