MAP Testing Technology Trouble

     I'm sure everyone knows all about MAP Testing, but I thought I would talk a little bit about it since my kiddos are taking it this week. My school has our students MAP test in the fall, winter, and spring. MAP testing is done on computers in the computer lab at my school. My students in the past have taken it on iPads, though. It ended up not going well due to technical glitches.

     For my kindergartner's MAP testing is the only standardized test they take and they need some important computer skills to be able to do it. I had not thought about the computer skills needed to complete the MAP test until they went to take it the first time. There is one teacher that teaches STEM and Computer, so the time is split between the two. At the beginning of the year, my kids started with STEM, so they had not practice computer skills before they took the MAP test. This became even more clear when they went in to take the test. 

     When my kids were sitting in the computer lab getting read to start their test, I had so many of them look at me and ask, "What is this?" while pointing to the desktop computer. Many of them only had iPads and tablets at home (if that), so they had never seen a desktop computer before. They had no idea how to use a mouse, so when I told them to hold on to it and use it to click on the screen, a few of them picked the mouse up and tried touching the computer screen with it. It made me want to laugh, but also cry a little. 

    Looking back, I wish I would have taken them into the computer lab before MAP testing and gave them the chance to get familiar with the desktop computers. They needed practice on how to use the keyboard, and how to use the mouse to click. On MAP, primary students can click on speakers that will read the question and answers to them. 

     My technology take-away from this experience, was that you cannot expect a student to use technology without first explicitly teaching them how to. For younger students, you cannot just throw them into technology without teaching them the basics first. The first bit of technology a kindergarten needs to learn is how to use the keyboard to log in to a computer and type and how to use the mouse to click.

     Now that my kids have learned the computer and taken MAP twice, I don't anticipate that I'll have that problem. If anyone knows of some apps or sites that teach keyboarding and/or how to use a mouse let me know! Also, if you have any funny technology stories I would love to hear!