The web-based Technology Readiness Tool is a project that allows schools to survey their current state of technology. By 2014-25 school year, school who have adopted the Common Core must be ready to do online assessments. But do they have enough computers (laptops, netbooks, iPads) with the right operating system and right software?
The first step to making sure the assessments can be done on time is to take on one of the largest scale technology projects in the history of education: make sure every school has the appropriate technology.
Most states will use assessments being developed either the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium or the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), although some states have joined both. Assessments from both consortia will be administered using technology, and both will make use of new testing options such as simulations, video, and audio.
Information collected on the survey include school district operating systems, the types of technological devices they have, the ratio of students to those devices, available bandwidth, wireless access, network speed, and other categories. The testing consortia will use the information to design testing. But the results of the survey can and will be used to encourage funding for state and local computer upgrades.
Author, blogger and writing teacher Darcy Pattison writes about publishing, fiction and the Common Core. Published in eight languages, Pattison has written how-to-write books, picture books for children, teacher resource books and middle grade novels.
