NCLB and Ed Tech

Hi Again,

I probably should have been aware of this, but I wasn't. Did you know that there are likely to be NCLB testing programs for school technology? This should be a hoot!

On the edTech Insider Tom Hoffmann writes, "How would we test this stuff? You'd either end up with paper tests that are a sham, or expensive online versions. Either way, the emphasis won't fall on the complex, higher level skills we're actually interested in, but will inevitably end up being reductive and rote. You can argue that the tests will be great, but they won't be. And then we'd get a whole crop of expensive software to drill you for the new exams, probably created by the same people who are selling you the tests. "

BruceFulton (a poster on the demi-blog) reminds us that we were asleep at the wheel but telling us, "It’s too late to close that barn door, Tom, NCLB already has a technology literacy requirement (in title IId), and ED already expects that schools will be testing it at some point in the near future. 2006 had been targeted, but science testing starts this year, so perhaps it has been put off. Not surprisingly, ISTE and Microsoft announced in 2004 that they were teaming up to develop the test states will use to assess technology (see their press release at HERE, although to be honest, I haven’t heard much about it lately."

I haven't always been aligned with Tom's thinking, but on this topic he is right on the money.

I'll send an SOS to the world!

Sing along with that last line like the Police would have in the song "Message in a Bottle")

Jim :-)