Beverly McBroom, RCOE, Appalachian State University
Block 436 has
a partnership with Beech Elementary and Bethel Elementary Schools.
These two schools are where we block students did our internships.
As a part of our assignments, we were to do a software evaluation.
The software was to be chosen from an inventory supplied by Block professors
through the class web page on the internet . The list of software
was taken from the actual programs each school used in the classrooms.
The software evaluation had several parts. Before going any further
on the assignment, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
(NCDPI) web site was to be accessed in order to determine what students
at each grade level should be learning according to the Computer Skills
Curriculum (10.1). Block students were
able to identify whether a certain software was appropriate (13.2).
By visiting the NCDPI page, one could conclude which software from the
inventory matched the content of the corresponding discipline (11.3).
We were to use the software, create a plan for our Portrait of a Learner
student to follow, share the plan with our peer and Curriculum & Instruction
professor in order to be critiqued, and finally have our Portrait of a
Learner student follow the plan. The evaluation also entailed the
comprehension by the learner. I was able to assess my Portrait student's
ability to do the math on the particular software I chose to evaluate,
according to her ability to solve problems I created which were appropriate
to both the Math and Computer Skills Curriculums(10.5).
As an evaluator, I was able to understand more about my Portrait student
through observing and assessing her follow the plan constructed for her.
One would also be able to see differences in learners by using the plan
on various students. One could easily adjust for different levels
of learning (13.1).
