-tictech message:
I think the reward and challenge of correct spelling is in the ability to
spell a word correctly when one doesn't have a computer available. Say in an
interview when your interviewer asks you to write a paragraph about the
difficulties of spelling.
I do believe that we do our students a disservice by not addressing spelling
and depending entirely on spellcheck. Using spellcheck in an effort to edit
(step 4 Writing Process)in an untimed project is probably a good thing.
Bruce Peterson
Meany MS
bfpeterson@seattleschools.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Graham Ford [mailto:fordgj@u.washington.edu]
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2003 6:18 PM
To: tictech@learningspace.org
Subject: Re: tictech: DWA comments
-tictech message:
I am all for using technology and testing students in "real world"
conditions. However I think one major sticking point relates to the
so-called digital divide. I worked last summer for Giant Campus and it
gave me the opportunity to work closely with wealthier children from
Bellevue, one kid was dropped off in a Ferrari. In the SPS, I work at
Highland Park Elementary in West Seattle. I have even toured a variety
of Washington D.C. schools and there is no school in Seattle that can
compare with some of the lack of access to technology I saw in some of
the D.C. schools. My own experiences have given me first-hand
knowledge of the incredible disparity that exists in the area of
computer literacy.
The use of the word "assessment" in the name of the DWA says a lot. It
is part of a greater scheme that is making public education an
increasingly more competitive environment, be it competition between
students for acceptance into programs or competition between schools
for funds. This is a writing test, and the dangerous side affect of
something such as a spellchecker is that the results are skewed towards
students with greater access to technology.
For educated adults using a spellchecker is trivial, just like using a
calculator. But how does it look from the perspective of a child?
What if we were to go to the other extreme, and compare it to taking a
college level standardized linear algebra test in which students are
allowed to use Matlab? We can say "in the real world mathematicians
use computers and software such as Mathematica, Matlab and Maple all
the time," but only some students would be proficient at programming in
Matlab. This is just another divide at a different level, where some
students would have used and mastered the software and some have not.
It's sad that we have to remove perfectly good tools from such tests,
but it would be unfair to further set back schools and students that
are already struggling.
Graham Ford
Network Administrator
Highland Park Elementary
fordgj@u.washington.edu
On Thursday, March 13, 2003, at 01:21 PM, Fisher, Devin wrote:
> -tictech message:
>
> I'm not a teacher, but I do understand some of the problems with how
> technology (everyone must remember paper and pencils are technology,
> albeit
(cut - ma)
-end tictech message. To join, leave, or visit
the message archive, go to tictech on the Web:
http://www.earthdaybags.org/tictech/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Mar 14 2003 - 10:30:39 PST