For last week’s blog I decided to
use Scantrons as the technology I thought was interesting and wanted to learn
more about. After much consideration, I believe Scantron machines are both
useful, but are also sometimes more trouble than they are worth.
From
a teacher’s standpoint, Scantrons are great. They can grade tests for you, and
it takes only a few minutes. That means that because they do not have to take
the time to grade tests, they can dedicate more time to coming up with
intriguing lessons. Also, it is great for the students, because they take a
test and can have the grade by the end of the day (depending on the teacher.)
For this, these machines are great.
However,
they can also be a huge hassle. Students have to use pencil to take the test,
so if they forget they automatically cannot take the test (unless the teacher
is nice enough to provide a pencil.) Also, it is hard to keep track of what
bubble you are actually on, so if you miss one question you can throw off all
your answers for the entire test. In terms of teaching English, Scantrons are
not always practical. Even though you can give multiple-choice tests once in a
while, the majority of the work should be assignments like essays and readings;
obviously Scantrons cannot grade those. And
even though Scantrons are machines, they can also be wrong. If a student fills
in a bubble wrong or not darkly enough, it could take points off as an unanswered
question.
Scantron
machines are a great help to many teachers; they make grading and testing
easier. However, it is not always practical to only have Scantron-based tests,
considering the many negatives that could occur. There are many positives and
negatives to these machines, and for now teachers will continue to use them.
Although Scantrons can be great, they can also be inhibiting for some students. When I was in school, I often got nervous when taking Scantron tests (since they were mostly used for standardized testing) and absolutely HATED multiple choice question tests. I think learning is best when the students are challenged to think critically.
ReplyDeleteBut, this isn't a post about the tests itself, it's a post about the Scantron machine. I do agree that there are many positives and negatives towards Scantrons; we just should know how to use them wisely and effectively!
Scan-trons are a great way to grade students for a short assignment. When you want to get results on a students progress quick, scan-trons is the best option. On the negative side, not all the answers may be registered because of certain issues. Students usually don't use a pencil and they used a pen instead. As a result the student may need to retake the test or quiz. Students can cheat and whispered one letter answers. Scan-trons do not promote students to think critical.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with you that in an English class Scan-Trons probably will not be used as often, because in order to really see if a child has evolved in an English class you need to have them write and think critically. Like Phillip Dias mentioned, these devices do not give opportunity to grade students on critical thinking. However, technology is so advanced that there are numerous ways you can use technology for assessment purposes. I know that some websites provide options for quiz creation. This is beneficial for teachers because they do not need to carry around a bunch of papers to grade. It is all electronic. Also students love using technology and computers, so why not have them take tests online? However, the scan-tron technology is widely used for standardized testing. But I believe that soon that will also change.
ReplyDeleteI am not a fan of scan-trons at all. For me they show no creativity and teachers only teach for the test when using a scan-tron. I would much rather see a multiple choice test, but the students have to write a response about why they chose the answer they did. This I believe promotes critical thinking skills instead of the student just memorizing the answers to get the test over and done with. Colleen is right when she says that students learn best when they are challenged and forced to think critically. Just using scan-trons does not accomplish this goal. If the students have to explain the reasoning behind why they chose the answer it promotes critical thinking. Even if the student gets the question wrong they still had to explain themselves about why they chose that answer.
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ReplyDeleteHello Kaitlyn, I think Scantrons could be a great tool sometimes the teacher needs to make use of his/her time efficiently and we should take advantage of all of the tools that could facilitate tasks to make good use of time. But as you mentioned above Scantrons are not always practical, they could definitely go wrong into so many different levels. For example if the student marks a bubble and doesn’t erase it correctly the machine may get a wrong answer for a correct one, also I think Scantrons may be a big task when considering inclusion in a classroom setting. I thought about other mediums with the same outcomes and that would be to use programs like Google forms where the teacher could ask the students to answer questions and immediately the teacher gets spreadsheets of the work done individually by student, or by class which becomes a great tool because you can look at the big picture and notice the patterns of which are the questions most likely to be answered incorrectly. Another resource would be the use of clickers and a smarboard, but then the problem is that if the student could forget a pencil to use a Scantron, then they may forget a clicker to reply as well. To wrap it up, indeed multiple choice questions would never give you a broaden understanding of what the student knows, but it approximates to it. That said, it doesn't mean that we need to exploit this source, but to use it when it is best suit.
DeleteI actually really love Scantrons, and I think they are a great way to grade multiple choice texts. Yes, you have to be careful when inputting access, but this can be said about any kind of technology. However, I do believe that multiple choice tests should not be used a lot in an English classroom, although they do have their place, so I wouldn't use Scantrons a lot anyways. One bad thing about Scantrons is that the very sight of them now comes with certain connotations; the very act of seeing a Scantron may cause nervousness and panic in some students as it may remind them of their inability to be successful at standardized tests. However, this is not really a fault in the technology itself but rather the way it has been used.
ReplyDeleteScantron is a tool that, like you said, both helps and hurts learning in the classroom. Though it is a way to quickly and accurately determine information recall, it doesn't allow for the kind of questions that measure deep learning. Though it works on vocabulary or other short, narrow quizzes, using scantrons for finals or big exams narrows the learning to information recall, not a demonstration of learning. Like all technology, it is both a blessing and a curse!
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