EDUC 7726 Assessing Technology and Digital Competency

It is always a great opportunity to work with my fellow classmates on group projects.  This week for our EDUC 7726 course, I had the opportunity to work with Amy, Gail and Tim to create a Prezi on assessing technology and digital competencies.  Throughout our IT&DML courses, we have constantly read and researched the multitude of requirements and standards that our students will be asked to complete during their schooling.  These skills are not only necessary for our students, but also for the teachers to become proficient in, so that they can teach the students how to be successful digital citizens.

The first area that our group looked at was the definition of technology skills and digital competencies.  For this portion of our presentation we focused on two areas.  The first area focused on the ORMS Model which identifies that students should be successful in completing Online Reading Comprehension, Online Collaborative Inquiry, and Online Content Creation.  For the second focus of defining the terms we looked at the Common Core standards that were related to technology.  We looked at what our students would be asked in reference to technology in order to meet the standards of the Common Core.  I was especially interested in this portion of the research because everyday I am learning something new about the Common Core that I can implement into my classroom.

For the second part of our presentation, our group looked at describing and evaluating strategies that teachers would use to assess students' digital proficiencies.  It is one thing for us as teachers to instruct our students on technology skills and digital competencies, but in order to ensure they meet the standards that are set we need to make sure we are using adequate assessments to determine if they are meeting the objectives.  The following is a link to our Prezi: Assessment of Digital Literacy and Technology Skills.  You will see on the last few slides that there are a variety of items that teachers should look at when assessing their students' technology and digital competencies.  I found the checklist particularly interesting because students could use it when completing a project to make sure they are meeting all of the requirements for when they conduct online research.

One thing that I think we all have to keep in mind when we are addressing the issue of defining and assessing our students' technology skills, is that we will need to keep updated with changes and additional skills that our students will be required to know.  These changes will be a result of the continuous advancement of technology that our students, who are 21st century learners, will experience throughout their education.

I would like to thank my fellow classmates who worked with me on this presentation.  It is such a rewarding experience to work with different individuals on group projects.  The expertise and knowledge that they demonstrated assisted with the successful completion of the assignment.  Thank you again!