Class #47--8th Age Technology

Monday, April 11, 2011, 2011, 10:45 A.M. 8th Age Technology Class. Class #47 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. On this beautiful (and unseasonably warm) Monday morning, the girls enter the main Lower School computer lab and settle down quickly. Mrs. McGraw does not waste any time jumping into the lesson. She explains that the class will be using hand-held SMART response devices, also called senteos, to take a technology quiz. The senteos are designed for what is known as a formative assessment, which can provide powerful information about how much students know at a particular point in time before the final (or “summative”) assessment is given. Faculty can then alter their instruction accordingly. For example, if ten out of fifteen students in a math class miss both “percent” questions on a senteo quiz, the teacher knows she has to review that topic again. In tech class this morning, Mrs. McGraw asks eleven questions about computer and software functionality. The questions are projected on the board and read aloud; the girls answer anonymously using their senteo. Some questions are as follows: how many times do you need to click a piece of clip art in order to insert it into a Microsoft Word document ? True or false--you should always “x-out” of all programs before shutting down out of your computer? At the end of the quiz, Mrs. McGraw—and the girls—can see how the class fared in terms of correct responses to each question. Under Mrs. McGraw’s expert tutelage, the girls did very well. It is hard to believe they have so many technological skills at the young age of 8. Bravo to Mrs. McGraw and her class!