PREPARE FOR SUCCESS ON THE TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGE

Technology Requirements

The Technology Challenge is designed for organizations and participants who have made investments in hardware, software, bandwidth and training. Users should be aware that:

• PC or MAC platforms are acceptable (select the appropriate version).
• Internet Explorer must be used to access the Challenge.
• Existing adaptive hardware and software technologies are compatible with the Challenge.
• The Challenge has been designed for current or recent versions of Microsoft Office software applications. The older the version of software used, the more likely that Challenge questions will not function appropriately.
• The Challenge requires users to download attachments, including some with complex graphics. Internet connections used for the Challenge should be adequate.
• The Challenge is not for individuals who are completely unfamiliar with computer technology. Certain basic skills and level of understanding are assumed.
  

Tips and Hints

Many of the questions on The Technology Challenge are designed to ask what users can do — not just what they know. Challenge questions ask participants for answers that might seem to be trivial information or that seem to be unconnected to computer technology. For example, one question on the Challenge asks participants to find the number of words in Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The answer is unimportant, however, unless the user happens to know the number of words in the speech, he will have to:

• follow the link provided to a pre-determined website,
• find a copy of the Gettysburg Address,
• upload the document to a word processing application,
• do a word count,
• return to the Challenge browser window,
• and provide the right answer to the Challenge question.

The process used to obtain a seemingly frivolous answer involves a significant level of computer proficiency and those skills are demonstrated when the question is answered correctly.

Participants can take the Challenge on their own time from any computer that is capable of sustaining adequate Internet connections and supporting the required software. If users find that they are not as proficient in computer technology as they thought, they might want to find an appropriate training opportunity. Participants might also want to consider taking the Challenge in a more controlled environment with a coach/facilitator/teacher who can verify that they were the individuals who took the Challenge, and that they did not rely on someone else to take it for them. Printable Challenge certificates document whether users completed the Challenge in a proctored or non-proctored environment.

Classroom teachers for grades 7-12 can use the Challenge as a placement assessment, curriculum to teach key concepts, or as a pre- or post-instruction assessment.

Tips

When working with attachments within a Challenge, users should always close the attachment after answering the question. Many questions use the same attachments. If more than one of the same attachment is opened, the user's computer may revert to a previous attachment which may have been altered to answer a different question.

Attachments are opened within a web browser. To use toolbars that are typically found within a software application, users can click View, Toolbars and select the toolbars they would like to use.

If participants make changes to an attachment and find that the answer they have is not listed among the choices, they should close the attachment and reopen it and try again to make sure that they have the correct attachment.

Participants should not be afraid to use the Help menu within a software application to determine the right answer.

Getting the Best Score

Participants can get the best score by answering every question right every time. The more questions they answer correctly on the first try, the better their score. Each time a participant answers a question incorrectly, the question is returned to the customized database of questions, and he will need to answer it again. As users work toward completing all of the questions in each level of the Challenge, the program tracks their work, and determines whether they are Above Average, Average, or Below Average. This classification is determined by mathematical formulae integrated into the Challenge program.

If a participant gets a question that asks something that he doesn't know, he shouldn't guess at the answer. Guessing will lower the participant's score significantly. He can hit the ‘Work on Another Question’ button knowing that he will see this question again, or immediately research the answer before choosing a response. Participants can use software manuals, the software application’s Help feature, the Internet, or attend a training class between Technology Challenge login sessions. Subscription periods vary from a few days to several weeks, so participants should take advantage of the time to learn what they don’t know how to do, and get the answers right. Or they can take the Challenge once, learn more about the software, and come back and take the Challenge again to get a better score. Users should also read each answer carefully to choose the response that most accurately answers the question.

REMEMBER: The Challenge assesses what participants know how to do in computer technologies. In other words, it assesses specific skills, such as being able to use the word count feature in a word processing document. To do that, the Challenge may ask how many words are in the Gettysburg Address, but the actual number of words is unimportant. What IS important is that participants know how to find the number of words in any document. Therefore, as they seek the right answer, they should make sure to focus on the skill involved, not the actual word count, because the next time they see a similar question, the Challenge might ask them to find the word count in a poem by Emily Dickinson. And if the only thing they ’ve learned is the number of words in the Gettysburg Address, they will not be able to transfer the skill they should have learned to another question.

Disclaimer

Technology Challenge questions assume the manufacturers’ default settings for software applications. If the user has customized the program in certain ways (like changing default keystrokes), one or more of the questions on any given Challenge may not work correctly.

If the Challenge participant is working on a computer that has software that overrides certain keystrokes, one or more of the questions on any given Challenge may not work correctly.

If the participant is taking the Challenge through an online connection with stringent firewalls, one or more of the attachments may not open correctly or teachers may experience problems having multiple students log on to the Technology Challenge. To resolve this issue, teachers should ask the school IT department to 'white list' both www.technologychallenge.com and www.technologychallenge.org on the proxy server/firewall/web filtering appliances.