Rubrics, Clicker Tools, and Inspiration

A rubric is a great tool that is used for assessing a complex performance. Over the past few years technology-based tools for rubric creation have become available. There are two types of rubrics that are available online: rubric banks and rubric generation tools. "Online rubric banks offer already created rubrics for a wide array of learning tasks. One impediment to using rubrics is that tasks of creating a high-quality rubric in not trivial in any circumstances and even less so when one is creating a rubric for a complex learning task." (Jonassesn, Pg. 227) These types of rubrics help eliminate such a time consuming process, although the teacher most verify the rubric to make sure it is precise. A rubric generator helps the user generate their own rubric. As a user, you can customize the rubric to your liking and it eliminates some of the concerns with the rubric bank. I would use a rubric in my classroom when I would assess a homework assignment, project, or any other task that would need a detailed evaluation. This helps the parent and student understand the teachers grading system.

Clicker assessment tools are being used in classrooms from elementary through college level classes. A clicker looks like a television remote control with several buttons on it. These buttons have numbers or letters on them. "You use them with your class by distributing them to your students to allow them to respond to questions not by raising their hands but by selecting buttons , and the results can appear on a screen in the front of the class." (Jonassen, pg. 232) Ways I would use the clicker assessment tool in my class would be for a quick pop quiz, immediate feedback on a topic, predict an outcome of a story, or even for a true/false question.

Inspiration is a very neat tool that can be used for visual mapping, outlining, writing, and making presentations. It's main purpose is for visual thinking. " These tools enable learners to identify the important ideas or concepts in a knowledge domain and interrelate those ideas in multidimensional networks of concepts by labeling the relationships between those ideas." (Jonassen, pg. 63) I would use this tool in my classroom to outline stories we were reading so my students could visually see how the story goes. If we were reading a challenging story this could help them understand the main objectives.

Jonassen, David. Howland, Jane. Marra, Rose M. Crismond, David. Meaningful Learning with Technology. Pearson Education, Inc. 2008