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TITLE:
How Computer-based Technology Can Disrupt the Technology of Testing and Assessment

AUTHOR(S):
Michael Russell, Boston College

DOCUMENT TYPE: Article

(Commissioned by the National Research Council, November 2001)

ABSTRACT:
Over the past decade, the presence of and access to computer-based technology in K–12 schools has increased rapidly. In turn, computer-based technologies are changing the tools with which teachers teach and students learn. As computer-based tools continue to evolve and become more prevalent in K–12 classrooms, their use provides challenges to and opportunities for assessment. In some cases, the challenges result from pressure applied on testing programs as a result of classroom uses of technology. In other cases, the technology itself can increase the efficiency of testing. And in still other cases, computer-based technology provides opportunities to radically transform testing and assessment. In this paper, I briefly discuss how classroom uses of technology and the efficiency afforded by technology impact testing. The bulk of this paper, however, focuses on disruptive applications of computer-based technology to educational assessment.