Education Week Issue 25 - Technology Counts 2014 - 24

Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development
/// TESTING STUDENTS' PROBLEM-SOLVING ABILITY
A leading global assessment used to compare the reading, mathematics,
and science skills of students in 70 countries will use digital simulations
to measure students' problem-solving ability-both alone and with others-beginning in 2015.
In science, students taking the Program for International Student Assessment, or pisa, next year will encounter "experimental situations" in
which they must manipulate multiple variables in order to perform a
real-world task, such as figuring out how to make the most efficient zeer
pot (a clay refrigerator that doesn't require electricity.)
Pisa will also include in 2015 a new exam solely dedicated to measuring students' collaborative problem-solving ability. In one sample item,
the challenge is to keep a tankful of tropical fish alive. In order to succeed, students will need to interact with a computer avatar via a chat
window to uncover necessary information, devise and implement a plan
of action, and communicate the results of their experiment.
"Simulations test students' thinking skills and creativity in far
greater ways than we can do with pencil and paper," said Michael Davidson, the head of the early-childhood education and schools division
of the Paris-based oecd, which administers pisa. "If countries agree
that these are skills 15-year-olds should have, then having a summative assessment like pisa to determine if those skills are present is
useful." n

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 22

of the assessments division at the
National Center for Education Statistics, which this spring is field-testing
its new simulation-heavy technology,
engineering, and literacy assessment
with 20,000 U.S. 8th graders.
But while the tel exam-like the Program for International Student Assessment, or pisa, which will begin incorporating digital simulations in 2015-is a
summative test that aims to provide an
overview of student performance, the
real power of simulations lies inside
the classroom, said Christopher Dede,
a professor of learning technologies in
Harvard University's Graduate School
of Education.
"If we can develop better formative
assessments that provide diagnostic
information that is used to go back
and change the course of instruction,"
Mr. Dede said, "we can have a much
greater impact."
Some groups are working on exactly
that goal: Pearson, which is based in
London and has U.S. headquarters in
New York City, is playing a key support
role in the development and rollout of
SimCityedu, a classroom adaptation of
the classic urban-planning computer
game. And Phet, a research and development laboratory at the University
of Colorado at Boulder, is currently
expanding the formative-assessment
tools built into its 128 digital math and
science simulations.
Barriers remain: It takes about six
months and $50,000 to build a single
Phet simulation, for example, and
parents and privacy advocates are
likely to worry about how all the student data that simulations generate is
secured. On a practical level, the nation's schools are likely to be occupied
for the foreseeable future with the
challenge of moving even more traditional assessments online.
"I don't think this is going to change
the face of education in a two- or
three- or even a five-year period," said
Mr. Barber of Pearson. "But I think in
10 years, it will be transformative." n
24

EDUCATION WEEK

A popular simulation from PhET lets
science students manipulate the
structure of atoms.

Pearson
/// OCEANS OF DATA
Pearson has long been a titan in the standardized-testing
industry, but officials from the London- and New York Citybased company say they're most excited about the potential of digital games and simulations to provide formative
support inside classrooms.
"I think [simulations] have a place in summative assessments, but you have to take their
limitations into account," said Kristen DiCerbo, a
senior research scientist for the company.
Ms. DiCerbo has worked extensively with GlassLab-a team of researchers, designers, developers,
and learning scientists making games for assessment, in which Pearson is a participant-on the
development of the recently released SimCityedu.
A classroom adaptation of the classic urban-planning computer game, SimCityedu-which Ms.
DiCerbo describes as more game than simulation
due to the level of design, narrative, and just plain
fun that is built in-aims to promote and assess
students' "systems thinking," or grasp of multiple
overlapping cause-and-effect relationships.
As students try to reduce pollution while also
improving the economy in a virtual city, their
every digital action is tracked: 3,000 points of data or
more in a 10-minute play cycle.
Ms. DiCerbo leads the effort to mine that information,
searching for patterns that suggest evidence of learning.
How to safely secure all that student data remains a sensitive issue, and there have been surprises-what to make,
for example, of the 5 percent to 10 percent of players who
decide the most efficient way to meet SimCityedu's goals is
simply to bulldoze big sections of the city. n

>> MARCH 13, 2014

Beginning in
2015, students
taking a new
PISA exam will
collaborate
with a computer
avatar to keep
a tank of virtual
tropical fish
alive.

PhET Interactive Simulations Project
/// IMPROVING SCIENCE EDUCATION
For some, digital simulations are less about determining students' proficiency than about helping them learn.
"Our simulations are providing dynamic feedback so students
can build an understanding of cause-and-effect relationships, develop mental models, ask questions, generate
evidence, and engage in the scientific process
at the same time they're learning core content ideas," said Kathy Perkins, the director of
Phet, based at the University of Colorado at
Boulder.
Since 2004, the Phet team has created 128
interactive digital simulations in physics, biology, chemistry, earth science, and math. All
told, Ms. Perkins said, the simulations have
been used more than 45 million times, primarily in middle and high schools.
In one popular example, students can drag
and drop protons, neutrons, and electrons into
a simulated atom.
Using the Phet simulations for formative assessment requires a lot from teachers, who generally must infer for
themselves how students are interacting with the tools, have the
skills to get students talking about what they're learning, and know
how to adjust classroom instruction based on the resulting insights.
To ease that burden, Phet is working to expand its professional-development resources for teachers and working with external partners such as Pearson and the Princeton, N.J.-based
Educational Testing Service to think about new tools and functions that can be added to the simulations.
"We want to create tools that the broader education community
can use and leverage," Ms. Perkins said. n

Students can show their "systems thinking"
skills by reducing pollution while improving
the economy in the virtual city in
SimCityEDU, a new classroom
assessment tool from GlassLab.
By Benjamin

Herold

Education Week Issue 25 - Technology Counts 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week Issue 25 - Technology Counts 2014