In education, an assessment usually means a test—and a test usually isn’t fun, but that’s about to change. Just as technology has altered the way we think about the classroom, it’s also changed how educators conduct assessments. Teachers don’t need to pass out paper and number two pencils anymore. And they don’t have to grade a stack of papers to figure out which students are on track. They can simply deliver a quick assessment in class that looks more like a game than a test. At TCEA 2015, Instructional Technology teachers at Northwest Independent School District (ISD), Brittany Horn and Melissa Griffith, explore this idea in their session “Reimagine Assessment In the Digital Age.”

“When you hear the word assessment a certain image pops into your head. You think of a test or having to grade something when, really, a formative assessment doesn’t have to look like that at all. This whole session was put together to show participants what assessment can be. It can be fun. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a test,” Horn says.

In the Northwest ISD, teachers use tools like Kahoot, Plickers and Google Forms to create alternative assessments that are fun for students, not intimidating. Using Kahoot, for example, teachers can design an interactive quiz that allows students to harness their personal devices to answer questions. The quiz is set up as a competition and students race against one another to get the right answer. The winners are displayed on the screen at the front of the classroom.

“It’s just fun. It’s not a gotcha. It’s not a pass or fail. There is a time for that, but this is just a fun environment for them to learn as they go rather than feel scared to answer and speak out,” Horn says.

What students perceive as a game is actually a powerful assessment tool that allows teachers to gauge where their students are at in the moment. They don’t have to wait to grade a test. An assessment conducted via a tool like Kahoot can be thrown in at any time during the school day.

During Horn’s presentation at TCEA 2015, she and Griffith plan to showcase specific tools teachers can use in their classrooms for assessment. Some of the tools you may not have heard of. Others, like Google Forms, are instantly recognizable. Horn says teachers in her district use Google Forms to create a digital version of the “I used to think_____, but now I know_____ assessment. For example, I used to think the world was flat, but now I know it’s round.

“We also take Google Forms up a notch and have teachers create a quiz where the students go to a different page based on their answer,” Horn says. ‘If they get it right, they fast track through towards the end so you make it a competition for the your kids. If they get it wrong it then takes them to a page where they have to practice more on those questions.”

While it’s helpful for students to have some sort of personal or school provided device, it’s not necessary. Schools that are not BYOD or 1:1 still have options like the tool Plickers, which only requires a teacher to have a device. Student have papers with QR codes. Teachers simply scan the QR code the student holds up to see if they chose the right answer. Plickers is a tool that is relatively new to Horn, but one that she is excited to share at TCEA.

“What teacher doesn’t want to walk away and be able to make assesment fun,” Horn says.

That’s exactly what attendees of “Reimagine Assessment In the Digital Age,” can expect. Teachers will walk away with a number of ideas and knowledge of specific assessment tools they can take back to their classrooms.

“Reimagine Assessment In the Digital Age,” will be held Monday February 2nd at 3:pm in room 10B.