III. New Media as Assessment
New innovations can capture imaginations prompting a rush to adopt the latest advancements. Digital technologies are no exception. The educational potential of computers seems obvious and schools scrambled to introduce them in classroom settings. Yet in their haste to integrate computers to the curricula, they neglected to consider how the new technology could be used to improve instruction and refine assessment.32Sandholtz, 35.
Behind many governmental initiatives calling for assessment lay a desire for accountability. Authorities want to hold someone accountable if the student doesn’t learn. Traditional assessment focusing on content and factual knowledge recorded only the ability to regurgitate distinct bits of data. Bass and Rosenzweig suggest the development of assessment methods “designed to reflect deeper understanding of reading, interpreting and arguing processes.”33Randy Bass and Roy Rosenzweig, “Rewiring the History and Social Studies Classroom.” Section 4. 
The difficulty arises when we attempt to assure our students will achieve a “deeper understanding” of the topics under consideration. One way to accomplish this is to fundamentally change our focus away from assessment as a means to attribute accountability and toward assessment to improve teaching techniques. A continuous accumulation of feedback in the classroom would allow teachers to record how students are responding to instruction. In this environment, we would expect to find not only an improvement in instruction, but also the development of deeper cognitive processing by students.34L. Patricia Cross, “Classroom Research: Implementing the Scholarship [?] Teaching” Chap. 1 in Thomas Angelo, ed. Classroom Assessment and Research: An Update on Uses, Approaches and Research Findings (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Pub., 1998).
Research on classroom assessment suggests benefits to both the teacher and the students. Recent research on classroom assessment techniques found that the regular accumulation of feedback kept teachers more focused on their courses and attuned to the progress of students. One technique suggested by researchers called for students to take five minutes to write on index cards at the end of class indicating the most important concept they learned that day and the least effective part of class. Negative comments by not be the easiest feedback for faculty to receive on a regular basis, but the goal is to improve each class meeting.35Mimi Steadman, “Using Classroom Assessment to Change Both Teaching and Learning,” chap. 3 in Classroom Assessment and Research: An Update on Uses, Approaches, and Research Findings: New Directions For Teaching and Learning, No. 75, edited by Thomas Angelo (Jossey-Bass, 1998).
The involvement of students in the process of assessment should not be underestimated. When students become accustomed to the idea of regular student assessments they tend to focus on class material and become more engaged in the learning process.36Regina Eisenbach, Vicki Golich, and Renee Curry, “Classroom Assessment Across the Disciplines,” chap. 6 in Classroom Assessment and Research. The extra effort made by teachers and students to participate in classroom assessment pays off throughout the semester in the form of more a engaged student body.
One way to ascertain if technology provides any pedagogical advantage would be to teach the same course with and without a new media component. Teaching two sections of Western Civilization in one semester, T. Mills Kelly had the opportunity to compare how students responded to material presented in digital and non-digital formats. Kelly began by asking, “How does the introduction of hypermedia into a history course influence student learning in that course?”37“Western Civilization: A Course Portfolio” Created by T. Mills Kelly. Part of the AHA/AAHE Teaching Portfolio Project. Evaluations of the sections were based on a standard student evaluations, a survey of his own design, and finally from more reflective responses to a “free-form questionnaire.” Kelly found that those classes taught using the traditional materials and those using digital technologies produced a measurable difference. The use of technology in teaching “encourages students to spend more time on the topic before them,” and the convenience of sources seems to increase the amount of students’ recursive reading. Kelly foresees the ultimate demise of the survey course as currently taught, but the incorporation of digital media may breathe life into it for a few more years.38“Western Civilization: A Course Portfolio,” Conclusions section.
Randy Bass wrote, “If there is no single moment when you can assert that here is where teaching happens, or here is where learning takes place, then it is impossible to say in any isolated manner, here is where technology made the difference.” Digital media is not a panacea for the ills of education. Technology cannot replace good instruction but it may facilitate and enhance that instruction. As Bass suggests, the focus should remain on the basic assumptions of teaching.39Randy Bass, “Engines of Inquiry: Teaching, Technology, and Learner-Centered Approaches to Culture and History,” Crossroads Project, 2000.
Next Section: Defining and Designing Components of Effective History Web Sites
32 Sandholtz, 35.
33 Randy Bass and Roy Rosenzweig, “Rewiring the History and Social Studies Classroom.” Section 4.
34 L. Patricia Cross, “Classroom Research: Implementing the Scholarship [?] Teaching” Chap. 1 in Thomas Angelo, ed. Classroom Assessment and Research: An Update on Uses, Approaches and Research Findings (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Pub., 1998).
35 Mimi Steadman, “Using Classroom Assessment to Change Both Teaching and Learning,” chap. 3 in Classroom Assessment and Research: An Update on Uses, Approaches, and Research Findings: New Directions For Teaching and Learning, No. 75, edited by Thomas Angelo (Jossey-Bass, 1998).
36 Regina Eisenbach, Vicki Golich, and Renee Curry, “Classroom Assessment Across the Disciplines,” chap. 6 in Classroom Assessment and Research.
37 “Western Civilization: A Course Portfolio” Created by T. Mills Kelly. Part of the AHA/AAHE Teaching Portfolio Project.
38 “Western Civilization: A Course Portfolio,” Conclusions section.
39 Randy Bass, “Engines of Inquiry: Teaching, Technology, and Learner-Centered Approaches to Culture and History,” Crossroads Project, 2000.