PROJECT RESOURCES
Software Evaluation Guide:
Numerous teachers and technology leaders in Project TIME's consortium contributed to the development and field-testing of a guide designed for evaluating commercial instructional software. The purpose of the guide is to provide educators with a systematic method for assessing the value and utility of commercial software that is both aligned with state and district curriculum standards and supports teaching for meaningful learning in the core disciplines.
It is our belief that in order to be most effective, software must provide information and learning opportunities to students without being disruptive or confusing. The guide addresses these factors, as well as the presence in the software of meaningful learning principles that lead students to deep understanding of the content.
Click on the links below to download the appropriate resource.
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The Project TIME Software Evaluation Guide Team performed the following tasks to develop the four guides and score sheet available here:
- Exploration of research literature
- Development of rubrics based on this literature
- Review of the rubrics by content area specialists
- Conversion of the rubrics to a simpler, more user-friendly guide format
- Development of a scoring system
- Internal testing of the initial scoring system and draft guide for reliability
- Establishing and field testing critical parameters of validity and reliability for the guide with 21 consortium teachers with content area expertise
- Presenting a four-hour professional development workshop for teachers focused on ML/T and appropriate use of the guide
- Piloting the guide in social studies and science at the middle school and elementary levels and the mathematics and language arts in area high schools