Powerpont for assesment

 I have been on a treasure hunt  for a assessment tool for my  Tamilunltd site.  My first challenge is  trying to figure out how to apply formative and Summative assessment  of traditional language such as Tamil. The only assessment that the language is known is the three hour long written exams. I have watched my children  do better than me in language skills. I know  the assessments are big part of developing their skills.  They created videos worked on their vocabulary in Qia  take quizzes in quiz-let for Spanish and French. So I thought it will be easy to create an assessment.
I was so wrong.
 Why?
None of this site, is able to  display language Tamil properly. So  I was back to square one  for finding a tool  that I can use.
 I found other authoring tools like HTML5, Adobe Captivate, Smart builder  and story line. I was playing around them a lot, and In my mind  the basic structure of these applications  looked like power point. So I went in to Google presentation tool. I know Google presentation is already online so I should not have any problem.
Once again It was the wrong turn, because  Google presentation is a similar in power point in so many similar ways. I was not happy with its delivery. Also  I have to create my questions in Google forms. and l  have to the link that from  in my presentation slides. More over there is no way to make the both document to look  the way I want.
The more I tried I more frustrated and angry I became at Microsoft for not recognizing  PowerPoint  for  its power.

 

Some powerful features

 Making flash cards are easy

Making quizzes are easy

Making simple games is easy

Mind map is  easy with smart arts. Creating simple shapes is easy/ 

One can create PDF  for supporting materials

Inserting audio is easy

Inserting video is easy

Creating a video for you tube is easy

Watch this 

So what was missing?

Some powerful features for assessments. Of course one can  create quizzes and games But can the learners evaluate themselves. Can they give simple answers to questions? Can they share their power point online?    All of these methods were possible if the instructor learnt visual basic skills. For me I know little bit Visual basic but just did not have time to dive deeper?

What is the solution?

plug ins and  add ins:

This link takes  us to the some powerful addins  an educator can use. This Link from University of Minnesota helps the instructor   to  use power point as an assessment tool.   Here is another case where power point is used for assessment.