Embedded Files
Post date: Jan 31, 2017 4:34:40 PM
When my oldest daughter (now 9) was 5 years old she was very much into princesses, fairies, and anything mystical and Disney. She continues to be very imaginative and creative four years later.
One other characteristic of hers that hasn't changed is her unwillingness to admit when she's wrong (I'm sure that doesn't come from me). Anyway, one day she was playing with her princess and fairy toys and asked what the name of one of the fairies was. Being a big fan of fairies I immediately responded, "Tinkerbell!"
My daughter looked at me and said, "No Daddy, they're not all Tinkerbell. The bluish one."
I guess my knowledge of fairies was not what I thought. I then asked the true expert, my wife, who responded, "Silvermist."
My daughter was not convinced as she responded, "No, it's not."
My wife then went to Google to confirm her answer. Sure enough, Silvermist. "Honey, I just Googled the names of fairies and it is Silvermist. Here's a picture with her name if you want to check," she said innocently.
My daughter responded with unforeseen rage and vitriol, "You're wrong! The internet is wrong! The internet lies!" Throwing her fairy down she stormed to her room.
I'm sure we can all think of a time the internet has let us down or lied to us. As we enter into a new season of Computer-Based Testing those experiences probably surface often as we want to provide the best opportunity for success for our students. This probably causes fear and anxiety, making the path to CBT very difficult.
We are attempting to combat this by utilizing ProctorCaching. I've mentioned this term before but want to expand on it today. The ProctorCache is software loaded onto a computer in the Delaney Network Room. That computer downloads and stores test data, such as multimedia files or test questions, and then serves that data to individual test computers from within the local network. This is done rather than reaching out to the internet and downloading or uploading information each time it needs to display a new question or record a response. Exchanging information over the network is quicker than exchanging information through the internet. This enables faster test page loading times and more efficient test taking. Once the test has been completed the responses from the ProctorCache are sent for grading. Here is a rough design of how the data travels.
The reason you experience periods of slowness when accessing a website like DigitalReadworks, Google Classroom, or MobyMax is that the student computers are reaching directly out to the internet where there are other factors at play. The ProctorCache avoids that scenario.
While there are sure to be some technical difficulties that arise during the testing process we are working on the smoothest possible experience for our students. Please let me know if any additional questions remain.
Report abuse