[K12OSN] State Testing

[William Fragakis]

This is my beef with Renaissance Learning web version- they use Flash 
for the simplest of tests. Then the browser goes into conniptions if it 
doesn't properly list the Adobe Reader plugin. The test doesn't do 
anything special and they use a pdf when they could simply generate 
print-friendly html.

I think, though, the biggest reason to keep to proprietary 
architectures is the "Wizard of Oz" effect. As long as schools believe 
that the big wizard is behind the scenes pulling levers, they'll pay 
big bucks for the testing suites not realizing that the actual 
diminuitive wizard is using some .net apparatus when php session 
cookies could do the same thing for a whole lot less money. Or worse, 
realizing that they could write the stuff themselves.

I suspect that within 5-10 yrs, we'll see OSS alternatives to much of 
this in the way that Wikipedia has overwhelmed Britannica.

regards,
William

>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> What I don't understand is why we can't use something similar to 
> Moodle to
> deliver tests?  Worried about server overload?  Assign one server to 
> "x"
> schools.....or schedule the test so everyone isn't taking it at once.
> There are a myriad of things that could be done in that manner.  PHP,
> Perl, MySQL....have any of these testing folks ever heard of this 
> stuff?
> !!!   (Can anyone tell I'm pissed?)
>
> *Stepping off soapbox*
>
>