Tech & The Test

I've been thinking about this for a while...
It seems to me that there are two looming agendas these days in Education-at least these two are looming large in my experience: Tech & The Test.

While technology can be harnessed to provide repetitive practice and maintain precise records of performance through various applications, I think it's getting more press for it's ability to send students off on their own learning paths that seem to resist standardized testing and assessment frameworks.

I know that as I spend time with three Middle Schools here in NYC, I'm very popular for the tech support I can provide at times, but it's harder to make inroads into teachers' approaches to curriculum in ways that mean "change".

I think teachers would take these new tools and run with them if they weren't so anxious about upcoming testing schedules.

At times it seems that these two agendas are essentially at odds.

Technology creates student driven investigations and teachers function more as guides or facilitators. The scope of information online can be so enormous and creates explorations that can be quite divergent and expansive.

Testing on the other hand is about answers and is inherently convergent-certainly not expansive.

Can these two happily coexist?

I'd like to hear others' opinions on this...

(3/6/06)Post script on this: I just read an entry from Will Richardson's Blog that hovers around just these issues. Though the title is "The Future of Blogs", at its heart it addresses the questions I've been thinking about.
(3/7/06) Another post script: Wesley Fryer has something to say in his "Kids want engaged learning". Take a look.
(3/12/06) Okay-Last Postscript, I Promise! But David Warlick just put up an entry that speaks to this issue as well.....a little synergy....a little serendipity....or maybe an issue that's going to gain prominence in the months/years ahead?...you be the judge of David's ideas.