Avoiding complications like test anxiety is one benefit of a method for evaluating difficult-to-capture abilities
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| Professor Valerie J. Shute |
If you are an educator who notes that some of your students rountinely suffer from text anxiety, there may be a possible alternate assessment option available: Video Games.
Valerie J. Shute, an associate professor of educational psychology and learning systems at Florida state University, recommends employing stealth assessment - the administering of tests without students' knowing via video games. Specifically, students playing video games will allow educators to watch students solve complex tasks while immersed in virtual worlds. Ms. Shute also hopes that stealth assessment might engage students unmoved by traditional teaching and testing. She states, "we have this whole group of kids who are not engaged with school, and appropriately so, because schools are so antiquated."
Aja,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this article. I love the idea of using video games to "blur the distinction between learning and assessment." I believe this professor is quite stealthy and we need more people developing video games as an alternate testing option. I, for one, would enjoy it.
Aja,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting article, especially since my undergrad is in education it's interesting to have video games incorporated when it's such a huge part of students lives outisde of the classroom and probably spend more time playing games then doing homework. Thanks for sharing it.
Hey Aja, thanks for posting this. Find new ways of assessment is critical in the education field. Not all people are good at taking test, so doing bad on a test does not mean that they do not know the material.
ReplyDeleteHi Sue:
ReplyDeleteI agree. I think stealth assessment is a great alternative option that teachers can use to determine the knowledge base of students in a particular contant area. I think that the work that Professor Shute is much needed indeed.
Hi Leah:
ReplyDeleteYes, researchers have shown that kids spend a lot of time on the internet and for many of the kids this involves playing online video games. I think if educators can effectively harness video games as an ongoing educational resource, this could make the world of difference to some kids in terms of their academic interest and engagement.
Hi Bart:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your return commentary and feedback. Yes, I think using video games as as an alternate form of assessment will help kids tremedously wh may not be good traditional test takers.
Last year it was noticed that my students needed more practice learning to tell time than our pacing would allow us to spend. With the help of our building's math specialist, my students had individual accounts on ThinkCentral where I was able to set up activities for them to practice telling time. At the end of the selected lessons, I threw in a test on the computer. I think the kids thought it was just another activity but I was able to get data about their proficiency with telling time from it. I was also able to gather data about how long students were using the program and how many times they played certain activities. It was a great way to get younger students to show what they know. I would just want to make sure that the games that are selected meet the learning objectives of the lesson.
ReplyDeleteHi Greg:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your very informative return comment posting. The computer time telling activities seem very helpful to your students. In addition, that fact that you were able to test, assess, and track the progress of your students via the computer data seem like an especially added bonus.
In general, have you found using ThinkCentral to be tremendously benefical to your student's academic progress?
Finally, I too agree that if an educator decides to incorporate games into his/her lesson plan, then the selected games should meet the learning objectives of the lesson.
I wish I used Think Central more than I do to be honest. If I had a couple more computer in my classroom it would be a lot easier to implement regularly. I do really like the site though.
ReplyDelete