I spent a day in a local middle school last week and saw a class in the computer lab looking as if they were playing 3D games. The were doing the typical stuff kids do on PC games: zooming through rooms in 3D as avatars and trying to destroy enemies as they go. They were totally engrossed. The math teacher, who was walking around the lab helping individual students, explained to me that to advance in the game, they had to solve math problems and that they played both against each other and against players all over the world. The students often helped each other both in and out of the game.
I started thinking about assessments, test administration and test taking. Students are taking more and more tests in school and often those tests become a primary method of determining the progress of a student. Students who learn both in a virtual and the real world are assessed in both environments. The teacher can go online in the aforementioned game and see the progress of a student. The student has a stake in his/her own progress as the game progresses. A student who is considered a “bad” test taker often has high anxiety when the a high stakes test comes around. But if the same student is assessed more frequently and in ways that are less nerve-raking, a teacher may see their true ability and weaknesses.Not unlike sports,  there is a certain tension during  games. Usually, since it is an enjoyable activity, that tension is not debilitating. A combination of online educational games, with project based learning (and an occasional high-stakes test) appears to me to be a more equitable method of assessing our students.

Dimension U

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