In having used one formative feedback tool for several years, Galileo by ATI, I must confess to having mixed feelings. As a quick intro, you can check out this site: http://www.ati-galileo.com/ati/ATIWebinars.html
Basically, the way my district has used Galileo is to assess students three times a year on math standards, then use the assessment data (which is organized by student and standard) to provide additional instruction to focused groups. Maybe I’ve been spent too much time lately reading online reviews of BBQ’s I’m considering buying, but I figured I’d give some pros and cons:
Pros: -detailed feedback by specific student and standard= you know who gets and doesn’t get what
-Has a question bank related to each standard to be used in retaching
Cons: -Awkward, sometimes difficult to use interface
-Interface makes some features less than easily accessible
-Assessments are designed to be given on laptops and students have had to deal with load times up to 10 minutes between answering individual questions
I’d be foolish to judge a whole class of program based on my and my colleagues’ experiences with this one example. While I must admit that I and most of my co-workers don’t particularly enjoy using Galileo, we definitely see the value in a program like it that was designed better. The obvious intended and potential strength of these programs is the customization and differentiation they provide.
However, what designers of these programs must consider is how much convenience is truly added. In its current state, Galileo can tell you who answered what type of question correctly, and provide you with a few examples of questions to provide additional practice. This is something that teachers can easily do with simpler programs and even with paper and pencil. Considering the difficulty teachers have reported sometimes in using the program, I’d contend that it really isn’t adding much convenience right now and definitely isn’t doing anything that we couldn’t or already were doing ourselves.
One can see, however, that there is great potential for these programs to provide a more user-friendly interface and to provide more detailed customization to meet individual learning needs.
learningontheroad 