K12 SPOTLIGHT
Gearing Up for Assessments
Integrating the Right Technology for Student Success
Student assessments are one of the many tools used to measure the effectiveness of learning methodologies and to gain an understanding of students' progress and how best to support them.
They serve several purposes and largely fall into three categories:
Diagnostic
Formative
Summative
This eBook provides guidance on how technology can augment ways of assessing student learning and mastery and how the right technology setups can support improved performance during assessments.
Using the right classroom technology allows students to stay focused, comfortable, and confident during assessments, which can have a big impact on performance and help them meet their full potential.
JASON SCHMIDT, DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY
AT OSHKOSH AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT
The information provided also applies to students who may be learning in alternative environments other than a classroom setting. In all cases, assessments are meant to be unbiased indicators of a student's academic abilities. Though there are biases that can impact any type of assessment, one of the major biases to address is cognitive fatigue.
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What is Cognitive Fatigue?
Cognitive fatigue is an increasingly common phenomenon where brain overstimulation results in lower performance, motivation, and information processing,
especially in students.1 Some studies point to the particularly challenging impact of cognitive fatigue on younger students in elementary and junior high school from slowing motor skills to decreases in attention.2
Many teachers and schools opt to assess students at the beginning of the day to ensure this bias does not impact performance. There are many more factors that schools and educators can consider to reduce the risk of cognitive fatigue in students.
Students' working memory is not fully developed until age 19.3
