Computer Testing and Teachers.

My father teaches 7th grade core (English/Social Sciences) at a public school in Northern California. For several years I have watched him struggle to bring technology into the classroom. The technologies he does have access to has him projecting onto 13inch television screens or forces him to be fixed to a location that does not allow him to move around the room and interact with the kids. He rolls his eyes and audibly groans every time we see a commercial for laptops and tablets that seem to promise they can and will be useful to a child's education.

In most recent conversation with him, we were discussing the problems his school is currently encountering with their first attempt at computer-based testing. For the last few years his school has been without a computer lab at all due to the fact that the old computers were outdated and the district could not afford new ones. Less than a month before the mandatory testing, computers arrived and so did problems. The first issue stemmed from the fact that none of the staff were familiar with the Windows 8 operating systems. They had been provided no time and no training on the new technology. As opposed to the teachers instructing the students how to operate the computers, the kids were teaching the adults. 

Additionally, the testing software does not allow students for students to skip questions. In order to progress through the test, students must check an answer box. This goes against all test taking advice that has been given to me throughout my whole life where it has been advised to go through the test answering the easiest ones first and then returning to harder ones that will take more time. I just have to wonder how these children are actually benefitting from taking the test on a computer, as opposed to a good old fashioned pen and paper.