"Value of Accessing"

In today's world of education, technology is widely used among teachers, administrators, parents and students. It is even incorporated into the TEKS curriculum, which is used at all Texas public schools. As a result, many assessments have been done and are in the process of being done on educators' technology leadership knowledge. Assessments are also being done to check student's technology skill levels. With assessment being done for something of this importance, the question arises, what is the value of assessments?

In my opinion, it is a simple answer, to help us improve what we do. An article released by Educause Center for Applied Research stated, "Assessment comes from Assidere, meaning to sit beside." It went on to explain how when someone sits beside you, that person become your partner and can work with you. That person can give their opinion and both parties can collectively work together towards improvement. Assessments points out areas of improvements. This is necessary to make sure everyone understands the foundations, before anything new is added. Furthermore, when giving students assessments, it allows the teacher to see what area needs to be more emphasized. Like I stated earlier, there is a level of proficiency for student technology comprehension that is expected by the State of Texas. These assessments are a good ways to measure student efficiency.

While I believe that assessments are vital, there is one con that comes across my mind which is accuracy. During week one of my Educational Technology Leadership course, a lot of technology assessments were done. They were all survey based. I answered truthfully, but a student who does not care may not do the same. There is no way of testing accuracy on assessments. Therefore, information being addresses may not be necessary or vice verse.