Technology Challenge, Louisiana High School Technology Challenge

The Technology Challenge

Your Team Coach has reserved a location for your team to meet during the morning of the Technology Challenge at a location in your high school with computers that have reliable Internet access. The Team Coach will receive directions by email to access the Technology Challenge file(s) on "Moodle". The directions will help you to log on to your password-protected team Moodle site. (Moodle is used by the University of Louisiana at Monroe to teach online courses.)

Once your team is logged in, you will be able to "download" or copy files to your location; there is even a practice area for that purpose. When your team has completed the tasks on the day of the Technology Challenge, "upload" or copy the completed files to your moodle account. Each team will need to complete uploading all files by 11:59 AM; there is a very stiff penalty for late completion.

Scoring Rubric
Q. What "grading rubric" do judges use to evaluate the various tasks?
A. The many judges see the directions for each task and use the following rubric to determine a score from 10 to 20 points.

We ask judges to start every evaluation of each task at 15 points, using the scoring rubric shown directly below. Depending on what judges perceive to be important, the score goes up or down. Each of your team's 3 tasks is judged by 2 or more judges. The results are averaged in a spreadsheet; the average of the evaluations from all judges are "rounded up" to the nearest tenth of a point. In the event of ties, the quality of writing determines the winners.

Scoring rubric used to judge tasks.

Entries are anonymous. All files from teams are identified by an assigned team number.
Each team selects 3 tasks to complete. (Only the first 3 tasks your team completes are judged.)
Positive qualities, as determined by each judge, can increase a score by 1 to 2 points.
Negative qualities, as determined by each judge, can decrease a score by 1 to 2 points.
Each judge determines a score from 10 to 20 points. Judges' scores are averaged.

Approximately 10 or more judges evaluate your 4 files (Internet Search & 3 Tasks). While the rubric is subjective, the process of using averaged results from many judges tends to "even out" individual discrepancies. If there are ties at the 1/10th of a point accuracy for averaged scores, the top finishers are rechecked by 3 more judges for an evaluation of the quality of writing.

On the day of the Challenge, by 8 AM, be prepared to access your team moodle account using the directions your Team Coach received with login and password information. The Technology Challenge consists of 2 parts: Internet Search (40 points) and 3 Chosen Tasks (20 points each). A perfect score for the Technology Challenge is 100 points.

Teamwork is very important to complete tasks on time. Recommendation: Work together to divide up the tasks during the first minutes, using different computers. It might be a good idea for groups of 2 or 3 to work together on specific tasks. Upload your files to your team's moodle account well before the deadline. The moodle account will provide the results of the competition, as described in the calendar. The top finishers will be announced on this website, on the main page.

Q. Generally what do judges seem to think is most important?
A. Grammar and spelling are important. Many university faculty feel strongly about the importance of communicating clearly with complete sentences. Even if technology applications are impressive, judges appear to value good writing skills as equally important.

Q. How important is teamwork?
A. Teamwork makes a huge difference. In past years, Winning team coaches consistently have informed us that it is extremely important for a team to work well together.

Q. What should I, the Team Coach, do during the Challenge?
A. Team coaches:

should provide minimal technical assistance
should not touch a mouse or keyboard
refrain from providing suggestions or guidance during the Challenge
avoid "looking over students' shoulders"
should, as much as possible, allow the team to complete the activities, without assistance
arrange, if possible, a "pizza party" for the students, using funds from the school

Ideally, a Team Coach should allow the team of students the valuable opportunity to do all of the activities by themselves, without assistance.

Finally
In the interest of fairness, there is no advantage in completing more than 3 chosen tasks; if your team submits more than 3 chosen tasks, only the first 3 tasks will be judged.