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Assessment tools give us opportunities to identify areas of practice that are strengths, weaknesses, unknown territory, and interesting foci for professional development activities. Such tools can take many forms and cover content and skills in academic content areas, instructional strategies, technology use, etc. They may be tools actually designed for needs assessment such as a locally developed technology skills survey or for looking at a particular teaching approach such as the Indicators for Engaged Learning or something that is adapted from a list such as Characteristics of Powerful Learning in the book Powerful Learning by Ron Brandt. Student academic standards and professional standards can also be used.
The use of several
different instruments allows teachers to examine instructional practices
and engaged learning environments as well as technology skills and application.
Then, through dialogue with peers, educators expand their own core beliefs
about teaching and 
learning and the role technology should play. This
encourages more critical and comprehensive thinking than simply focusing
on teacher technology skills. Teachers will be able to identify professional
development needs and activities related to improving student learning
(and their own learning) through specific applications of technology in
academic skill and content areas.
While many assessment tools are used for pre- and post- assessments or for benchmarking progress, their most powerful use is to provide grounding for reflective practice. Assessment tools are also extremely effective "conversation starters" or "issues for dialogue." Instruments can help us build on strengths, gauge progress and identify what we don't know or what we need to work on. They can also cause us to consider what we believe to be truly important, i.e., "Do I really believe that relevancy is key to learning? Will the use of spreadsheets really enhance learning in my subject area? Can I envision an authentic learning situation which would be improved by interactive video?"
Decide on two or three tools that will give needed information as well as stimulate thinking and conversation. Ask teachers to complete them individually either during a group meeting or on their own by a certain date. Have them respond to reflection prompts in their learning journals. Then ask them to share items of their choice with a partner, small group, or the large group as a starting point for discussion.