Saturday, December 31, 2016

Half and Half: Managing Technology Use During Math Assessments


I'm just saying....this is new for me.  I have tried it once and would love some feedback on this idea.  

Splitting up the time a student is able to use technology on an assessment is not new.  You have seen it before where you give the first part of the assessment as "No-Technology" or "No Calculator" and the second part of the assessment as "Technology Allowed".   So this idea of giving the whole assessment at once and then splitting up the time half and half for "No Technology" and "Technology Allowed" is new for me.  It accomplished a few goals that I had for it.  Let me tell you how I worked it and then you can give me some feedback on what you think.

1.  Give the whole assessment to the students at the beginning of the class.  (You are not giving a part of the test to be no-technology and part of the test to be technology allowed)  
2.  Do not allow technology for the first half of the assessment.  
3.  Then allow the students to take out their technology to finish their assessment.  

Here are the positives.
1.  Students are usually looking at a problem twice.  
2.  Students are making predictions about the problems without technology and then confirming their predictions with technology.
3.  It affirms the use of mental math.
4.  It forced students to make a plan instead of just guessing with technology.

Negatives
1.  It takes away a really useful mathematical tool for part of the assessment.
2.  Students are a fearful to be without their technology
3.  The traditional problem solving approach is thwarted by not having all the math tools available.

Please give your thoughts and ideas in the comment section.