In search of ways to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), thousands of educators came to the 23rd annual Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC) Feb. 4-6 in Orlando. What they found was an evolution in thinking--from one-size-fits-all technology solutions to customizable, online services tailored to individual student needs.

Despite a bleak fiscal landscape, attendance at this year's event was estimated at more than 12,000 educators, vendors, and other stakeholders, all told an increase of some 20 percent over the previous year, according to conference producers. Attendees who eventually made their way out of the sun and into the exhibit hall at the Orange County Convention Center got to test-drive new technology solutions from more than 500 educational vendors, take part in any of 200 sessions, and network with colleagues during any of the 67 hands-on workshops.

While such products as the Tablet PC and personal digital assistant (PDA) arrived on the ed-tech scene with great corporate fanfare, it is the less publicized, internet-based applications used to create personalized assessments and individualized learning experiences that might provide the clearest indication of what the future holds for technology in America's schools.

Online assessment

Scantron Corp., the company whose name for years has been synonymous with the bubble-style scoring sheets used on most high-stakes tests, is touting one such program. The company's ParSYSTEM 6.0 product suite consists of several components designed to help educators pinpoint the strengths and weakness of individual students.

Scantron administers online assessments to students and then uses its technology to break out data on such assessments at state, district, class, or individual levels. The results, which are password-protected, can be accessed by teachers and administrators in real time, then used to decide which subject areas teachers need to emphasize in class or even to students individually. The scores come complete with graphs and charts to illustrate where each student, class, or school stands in relationship to others.

According to Bill Tudor, Scantron's executive vice president, the technology will be particularly useful as schools search for ways to meet the new standards of accountability put in place by NCLB. "The No Child Left Behind Act mandates that schools measure each student's grade level progress, and in a large district the sheer volume of student data associated with this kind of testing can pose an enormous management challenge," he said.

In a demonstration for eSchool News, Tudor showed how the technology was able to aggregate data to illustrate achievement gaps between different demographic and socioeconomic groups, letting educators know immediately how much work needs to be done in what subject areas, and making sure each school and every student is performing at satisfactory levels under the new law.