Module 7 Blog Post

This week’s readings pointed out many helpful ideas about assessment.  I really appreciated four main purposes for

assessment as stated by Marazano (2006).  The first two points, dealing with validity, were that “feedback from

classroom assessments should give students a clear picture of their progress on learning goals and how they might

improve” and that “feedback on classroom assessments should encourage students to improve” (Bauer, 2014, p. 132). 

The second two principles, dealing with formative assessment, were that “classroom assessment should be formative in

nature” and that “formative classroom assessments should be frequent” (Bauer, 2014, p. 132).  It seems that if a teacher

follows all of these principles for assessment, then students would be able to achieve the most learning.  

Technology can help to assist with all aspects of assessment.  Google Forms can help to create online assessments that

give students immediate feedback.  This immediate feedback can help students to improve and gives students “a clear

picture of their progress” (Bauer, 2014, p. 132).  Student response systems can help to easily give formative assessment. 

The ease of administering this type of assessment also helps teachers to be able to give formative assessment more

frequently.  

Technology can also help teachers to develop assessments.  Notation software can easily be used to incorporate notation

into a word document or Google Doc of an assessment.  There are many websites available that help a teacher to create a

rubric.  Lastly, recording software can be used in turning in sound clips of students playing for authentic assessments

(Bauer, 2014).  

Not only can technology help with assessments in the classroom, but it can also help with productivity for the educator. 

Google Drive is a great tool to help a teacher organize materials for the classroom as well as to collaborate with other

educators for various tasks.  Office 365 is another tool to use in the classroom that is very similar to Google Drive.  Google

Calendar is another extremely beneficial piece of technology that can help a teacher to keep a sometimes very complex

schedule very organized and well-communicated to students and parents.  

Bauer, W.I., (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.