Tuesday, June 30, 2020

TIME Feature Everything You Need to Know About the New SAT

The SAT has been in the news a lot this month. On June 2nd, the Redesigned SAT was released to the public in full form, and Compass was given the first opportunity to write about it for a national audience.   Our article that ran in  Time  can be found here. The article discusses some of the reasons for the redesign and how many of the changes will make the SAT and the ACT look and feel more similar to one another than ever before. In recent years, it’s been common for students to carefully analyze the distinct differences between their two college admission test choices to see if one test better fits them. Factors like pacing, question types, section lengths, scoring methods, and differing content emphases often tip students one direction or the other. Soon, those differences will be less perceptible and may matter less. Click to enlarge the rSAT  Comparison Table below: rSAT Comparison Table Can You Tell the Difference? The College Board will eventually provide concordance to pre-existing tests and it must leave the door open for re-centering: an essential mapping of previous scores to new scores so that colleges can fairly compare applicants who submit different tests. Colleges understandably disfavor sweeping changes to their longitudinal data sets, so it’s safe to assume the shape of the bell curve of scores will remain intact. A concordance will match students who take both the new SAT and the ACT and calculate that relationship. So despite all of the changes related to testing, the handling of scores in the admission process should remain the same. In the meantime, class of 2017 families facing the fast-approaching SAT changes have been contemplating how to reconcile their personal timelines and decisions with those of the College Board. To many, this feels stressful. It doesn’t need to be that way. Now more than ever, Compass directors are here to help folks contextualize these changes, individualize their plans, and chart a simplified course for the year ahead.

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Barriers of application of technology in education - 1100 Words

Barriers of application of technology in education (Essay Sample) Content: Self-efficacy in Barriers of Application Technology in Education Name: Institution: Annotated Bibliography Wang, L., Ertmer, P., & Newby, T. (2004). Increasing preservice teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs for technology integration. Journal of research on technology in education, 36(3), 231-250. Retrieved 2nd September 2015 from  HYPERLINK "http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2004.10782414" http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2004.10782414 Wang, Ertmer, and Newby explain how the senior teachers have low self-efficacy towards using computers for teaching purposes and how that has been a barrier in integrating technology into education. The authors recommend that junior teachers should be encouraged to embrace computer teaching practice to raise their self-efficacy in future. The article is relevant to my study because it identifies low self-efficacy among senior teachers as a major barrier to technology integration. The only limitation with the article is that it does not quantify the percentage by which low self-efficacy among senior teachers has contributed to stagnation in techn ology integration process. Lee, M., & Tsai, C. (2008). Exploring teachers’ perceived self-efficacy and technological pedagogical content knowledge with respect to the educational use of the World Wide Web. Journal of research on technology in education, 38, 1-21. Retrieved 2nd September 2015 from  HYPERLINK "/stable/23372538?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents" /stable/23372538?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Lee and Tsai explain that teachers who have knowledge concerning web technology have high self-efficacy towards technology and promote technology integration by developing web- based curricula for teaching. The authors recommend the development of effective web-based curricula as the only way of integrating technology into the education system. I find the article relevant to my research since it recognizes lack of web-based knowledge as a cause of low self-efficacy among many teachers. The only limitation I find in the article is that it does not suggest how the development of web-based curricula should be monitored to ensure it achieves the desired results. Wu, Y., & Wang, L. (2015). The Exploration of Elementary School Teachers' Internet Self-Efficacy and Information Commitments: A Study in Taiwan. Journal of Educational Technology and Society, 18(1), 211-222. Retrieved 2nd September 2015 from  HYPERLINK "/journals/18_1/18.pdf" /journals/18_1/18.pdf Wu and Wang suggest that integrating technology with education can be achieved by training teachers to prepare lesson plans using computers. That would help teachers to gain high self-efficacy in technology and eventually motivate them to generate assignments automatically hence making the integration process easier. Computerized lesson planning eliminates barriers to technology integration and that makes the article relevant to my study. The limitation of the article is that it does not give a practical example of where lesson plans have been computerized hence it leaves me with the question as to w hether the suggestion from the authors is practical or not. Al-Awidi, H., & Alghazo, I. (2012). The effect of student teaching experience on preservice elementary teachers' self-efficacy beliefs for technology integration in the UAE. Educational Technology Research & Development Journal, 60(5), 923-941. Retrieved 1st September 2015 from  HYPERLINK "http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/80235342/effect-student-teaching-experience-preservice-elementary-teachers-self-efficacy-beliefs-technology-integration-uae" http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/80235342/effect-student-teaching-experience-preservice-elementary-teachers-self-efficacy-beliefs-technology-integration-uae Al-Awidi and Alghazo argue that getting knowledge about the computers and how they work is not enough. The authors recommend the computerization of all learning activities right away from teachers’ training centers. Computerized training and assessment of teachers would help them gain high self-effi cacy, and hence enable them to transfer the same concept to teaching classrooms. The limitation of the article is that it does not consider the emerging trends in technology such as social media. Many young people would easily misuse the computers and use them for social networking instead of studies something that would interfere with the education standards. Kao, C., Tsai, C., & Shih, M. (2014). Development of a Survey to Measure Self-efficacy and Attitudes toward Web-based Professional Development among Elementary School Teachers. Journal of Educational Technology and Society, 17(4), 302-315. Retrieved from  HYPERLINK "http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/99574675/development-survey-measure-self-efficacy-attitudes-toward-web-based-professional-development-among-elementary-school-teachers" http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/99574675/development-survey-measure-self-efficacy-attitudes-toward-web-based-professional-development-among-elementary-school-teachers Kao a nd Shih suggest that all the stakeholders should be prepared to make technology integration in education system successful. The authors suggest that teachers should be equipped with necessary skills and latest knowledge of technology such as e-learning to enable them have high self-efficacy and hence make implementation of the integration process easier. The article is relevant to my study because it focuses on raising self-efficacy of stakeholders to make the integration process smooth. The only limitation of the article is that it does not recognize the role of technology experts such as software de...