Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

The argument AGAINST testing students in school is strong only because the testing model is the same as the teaching model: large groups of kids sitting at desks at the same time, grouped by age. Absolutely outdated, ridiculous & perverse. However, student testing is the secret of Charter Schools & alternative learning methods: as long as a student reaches the equivalency standards set by an accreditation body, it doesn't make any difference how that student learned the information.

Computer-based-self-paced learning benefits the most from flexible testing methods because tests can be taken as often as needed, and tailored exactly to what the student is having difficulty with. Self-paced testing could be provided throughout the instruction, almost hidden and certainly not a cause for anxiety. Testing doesn't have to be multiple-choice questions, and many things that are important to mental & social maturity can't be tested that way anyway. Subtle tests embedded into video games would be more entertainment than chore: compute the trajectory, know what components make up a planet's atmosphere, understand how politics underlies society. There's absolutely no reason there can't be as much learning in a game as there is play. Additionally, many more refreshers could be insinuated into the student's learning curriculum if a computer was analyzing what made the student perform best. Frankly, the only commonality among all the educating possibilities is testing.