At a recent staff mtg I distributed our provincial report card drafts that are scheduled to be implemented next year province wide in Manitoba.
The next agenda item was a division wide electronic grade book that our school division was asking individual schools to consider piloting.
Only 2 people on our k-8 staff are currenty using an electronic grade book (1 teacher ease 1 e-class) to help them with assessing their students.
Considering that we are striving towards non toxic grading practices as suggested in communicating student learning and more specifically not averaging marks and rather using the most recent evidence of student's learning to assign summative grades......
Has anyone read a blogpost elsewhere of any of the following titles or something similar?
Electronic grade books no longer appropriate assessment practice?
Averaging marks unfair to students?
Technology mismatch: wrong tool for the job?
I wanted to say "you shouldn't use an electronic grade book to assess our students!"
Am I wrong?
You can do the math a million ways to arrive at whatever percent you want - time spent calculating and recalculating grades is time taken away from meaningful engagement with kids and their learning activities.
ReplyDeleteUnderstanding the purpose for the technology is important - as a measure of student achievement, a gradebook is far less useful than a reflective portfolio. As a communication device for parents there is, perhaps, more value, understanding that the grid shows only what is done, what is incomplete, and a general indication of performance on individual assignments.
Tools like Edmodo are tremendously useful for organizing students and communicating to parents provided parents understand the meaning behind the marks in the gradebook. Nice thing is that it is free, flexible and easy to use. I'm not a big fan of division deployed "solutions" - money could be far better spent on PD for educators on the freely available tools they choose to use.
By the way - my school piloted the new report this year. Give me a shout - would be nice to catch up after all these years!
ReplyDeletecheers
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