Value in Technology Assessments

I believe there is value in assessing educator's technology leadership knowledge and skills.  Taking all of the assessments that we had to take in week 1 was time consuming but it was helpful.  These assessments pointed out areas where I had strengths and more importantly areas where I had weaknesses and guided me toward professional devolopment to take to improve in these areas.

This same belief carries over into us assessing the knowledge of our students.  We would not expect our students to be able to accomplish something or even attempt a project until we were sure they had some understanding of what we expected and how to do it.  For example,  in my 8th grade science class we have a project where the students need to create a flyer advertising the latest atomic theory and create the atomic model that goes along with that theory.  I would not just assign the project without assessing the students skills about the technology needed to do the project and then offer a lesson on the program if needed so that they could be successful.

The pros for assessment are obvious.  The assessments offer educators feedback on their skills and let administrators know what professional development should be offered for their employees.

The cons of assessment are that it may make educators a little gun shy in trying new things if they think they will be assessed on everything they try and if they are unsure of how these assessment are going to be used.  Another drawback is that assessments seem to be written is a one size fits all model.  The same assessment is given to all educators whether they are kindergarten teachers that may just use storytelling technology or the high school web master teacher that should be using and teaching all of the web 2.0 tools.

This concludes my opinion on the value of assessing educator's technology leadership knowledge and skills.