TECHNOLOGY AND ASSESSMENT IN INSTRUCTION

How might assessment best be used to achieve this promise? One way concerns the speed, or “pace,” at which students learn in classrooms. Classroom teachers regularly report on the differences in the time different students need to achieve instructional objectives. These reports are supported by empirical findings like the following:

That these differences exist should come as no surprise. As with Bloom's findings, what is surprising is their magnitude. Doubtless these differences are due in part to ability, but as Tobias (1982) and others have found, prior knowledge appears to be a major factor, one that quickly overtakes ability in accounting for the speed of learning.

These differences can be accommodated by instruction that takes into account both ability and prior knowledge. Such instruction can take advantage of what students know and concentrate on what they have yet to learn, but tailoring instruction in this way represents a difficult, almost impossible, challenge to classroom teachers working with 20-30 (or more) students. However, technology-based instruction has been tailoring or individualizing instruction practically from its beginning. The benefits of doing so are verified by empirical studies. “Meta-analyses” that compare the time students take to reach a threshold of achievement under technology-based and classroom instruction find an overall time savings of about 30 percent for technology-based instruction (National Research Council [NRC], 1997).

These savings matter. For instance, they could reduce by about a fourth the $4 billion the Department of Defense (DoD) spends annually on specialized skill training. These savings also matter in our K-12 classrooms. Aside from the obvious motivational issues of keeping students interested and involved in educational material, using their time well will profit both the students and any society that will eventually depend on their competency and achievement. The time-savings offered by technology-based instruction in K-12 education could be more significant and of greater value than those obtained in post-education training.

Often the assessments needed to support this approach are accomplished, even in technology-based instruction, by the use of explicit tests such as we find in Keller's Personalized