Personally, I'm going to check out all thirty-three, but if you're new to the idea of using technology for formative assessment, pick three and try them out. Baby steps!
Yesterday, I wrote a piece about three quick and easy formative assessment tools you could start using in your classroom right away. Incidentally, I now truly believe there are no coincidences, because look at what popped up in my Twitter feed today: 33 Digital Tools for Advancing Formative Assessment in the Classroom. At first glance, the list appears overwhelming; however, each tool discussed provides a quick overview of how you could replace your current non-tech formative assessments with a tech-based option.
Personally, I'm going to check out all thirty-three, but if you're new to the idea of using technology for formative assessment, pick three and try them out. Baby steps!
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I am a HUGE fan of QR codes in the classroom, not only because the possibilities are endless in terms of applying these codes to every level of the Bloom's Taxonomy model, but because they make learning fun. Plus, they're one of the easiest ways to integrate technology into your lessons--especially if you're more of a digital immigrant than you'd like to admit! My go-to QR code generator has always been QRStuff, but I've discovered some new sites that have really piqued my interest: 1. QR Treasure Hunt Generator This site is the only site you'll need to create your own QR Code Treasure Hunt for any subject. Type your questions and answers, generate a QR code with the tool provided, and display the codes around your classroom and even your school. 2. Goo.gl This is Google's version of a URL shortening tool (like bitly and ow.ly). Use goo.gl to shorten a website link and a QR code automatically gets created for you! To find the QR code, click the "details" link after you make your abbreviated URL. You'll also learn how many times your link has been used. This would be useful to count the number of students who've followed the link or QR code. 3. QR Voice QR Voice lets you to create QR codes that play an audio message when scanned. Record a message or type it in 100 characters or less. I'd like to try this with student feedback! How are you using QR codes in the classroom? If you haven't yet explored the possibilities but want to try it out, I'd recommend beginners start here and those who are more experienced with QR codes check out this site. For fun, scan the QR code in the photo and see where it takes you! Formative and summative assessments have been one of the major tenets of the Common Core roll-out. Formative assessment is a process by which teachers evaluate students' needs while students are learning. This feedback allows teachers to adjust their teaching methods to meet student learning goals. Summative assessment evaluates student learning at the end of an instructional unit. This allows teachers to know if students have met the curricular standards or benchmarks. Listed below are some examples of formative and summative assessments.
These examples are pretty standard and are often used, as they should be. With regard to formative assessment, however, there are some useful tech tools out there that make learning more fun and engaging for students--and easier on teachers! After reading this recent blog post from one of my favorite sites, I decided to try them out, and here are my three free favorites:
1. Socrative Socrative describes itself as a "smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets." Teachers log in via their own device, select an activity, and direct the students to login and respond in real-time. Many of the activities and games are pre-designed, saving teachers much-needed time. Socrative activities include the following:
2. Kahoot Kahoot is a game-based classroom response system where teachers can create quizzes, discussions, and surveys and project these items on the classroom screen. Students join in through their personal or school devices and "play against each other aiming to top the on-screen leaderboard" while the teacher has the ability to "facilitate and discuss the content." Kahoot's drag and drop feature makes content creation easy. In addition, students can create their own quizzes and then "think up and answer their own questions through thorough research and the collation and/or self creation of imagery and video." 3. Collaborize Classroom Collaborize Classroom is an online collaborative education platform that allows students and teachers to "transcend the boundaries of their physical classroom to engage in an online collaborative learning environment." With this tool, students can
If you want to get started, but feel overwhelmed by the technology, I'd suggest you start with Socrative and allow yourself and your students time to get comfortable with the platform. I'm definitely looking forward to getting started myself! Good luck, and let me know how it goes with your class! Q: Stephanie, I love the work you're doing! How do you build your lesson plans/curriculum units? (@marnimand) This recent inquiry by a new Twitter contact got me thinking about why and how I do what I do. Which is funny, because I never really gave it much thought before. In the fast-paced world of EdTech, as soon as you've mastered the latest tool, something better comes along to top it. For example, I thought my students were on the cutting edge when we created our own wikis a few years back. Now, we create our own websites. Units I've created in 2008 are outdated now. That's why--like software--I'm always "upgrading." I suppose I'm what you'd call a backwards planner, although the technical term is backwards designer. Backward Design is a method of curriculum design in which you choose the end before you know where and how to start. In other words, you put the cart before the horse. Or, to put in cartographic terms, you're first choosing your destination and then mapping out your route. Personally, I'm a huge fan of project-based learning and performance tasks, so I almost always choose the end task first. Actually, I choose the EdTech tool first. Because I subscribe to a bunch of EdTech blogs, my inbox is daily inundated with the latest in technology tools. I can't try them all out at once, of course, so I put them in my digital sandbox for future reference. Hmmm...I realize I still haven't provided an answer to Marni's question, so here goes: A: Hi, Marni! Thanks for your kind words, and thanks for stopping by. To answer your question, here's how I build my units:
Also, I send out requests to other teachers in the building to see if anyone's amenable to developing a cross-curricular unit. For example, I wanted to try out easel.ly, so I approached the junior high math and language arts teachers and we devised a unit on creating infographics. As you can see, I try to keep it simple. Hope this helps! ---------- Marni's question got me thinking about how often I tend to encourage (well...more like nudge, prod, and annoy) my teacher friends to try out my new discoveries in their classrooms. Usually, I get a polite smile and nod, because, really...who has time to revamp the curriculum? I get it. I sincerely do. But here's my question to all of you teachers out there, and it echoes the title of this post: Is there an end product you've already designed that you could replace with a tech tool? Or at least integrate with a tech tool? It really is easy. I promise! ---------- Image by ConnectedPrincipals ThingLink does exactly what it sounds like it does: it links your stuff to, well...things on the web. Think of it as an interactive poster: you choose an image and create "hot spots" on the image that launch you to related information (e.g., websites, video, audio) about that topic. And did I mention it's free and user-friendly? Last year, I collaborated with the art teacher, who was (a) teaching a unit on Impressionism to the 5th graders, and (b) looking to incorporate technology as an extension of their learning. I was (a) looking to create a cross-curricular unit, and (b) eager to have a class play around with this new application I had discovered. And thus, our Impressionist ThingLink unit was born. We started simply. The kids each chose one of three artists whom they were studying in art class: Renoir, Cassatt, and Monet. After a brief introduction to age-appropriate keyword searching, students were directed to find websites with the following requirements: (1) biographical information about the artist; (2) 2-3 examples of the artist's work from a museum; (3) a video or audio spot that provided additional information about the artist; (4) any other cool stuff that an eleven year-old kid would enjoy. Here's an example I provided for the students to use as a model. Of course, the kids loved it--and asked if they could create their own on a topic of their choosing. I was already devising ways to utilize it with other subject areas. Before you get started, take a quick and closer look at ThingLink's features and to get some ideas. If your students don't have their own email accounts, teachers can set up classroom accounts here, and you can view these examples of ThingLinks that have already been created by students and teachers. Here are some quick and easy ways for you to get started in your own classroom: 1. Interactive Book Report Students download a Creative Commons image that represents the author/theme/protagonist of the book. They then add information specific to the usual book report. 2. Interactive Map Using a map as a base image, students add links to the history of the location, attractions, important historical events. 3. Multimedia Definitions Find an image with a vocabulary word specific to the subject area. Students add links to websites, photos, videos, and audio that demonstrate the meaning of the word. 4. Periodic Table For each element of the Periodic Table, students provide links to, again, websites, photos, and videos that further explain the element. 5. Study Guide Students download an image related to an upcoming quiz/test and provide links to sites related to vocabulary, concepts, historical dates, etc., to help them prepare. They're simultaneously learning while they create. ThingLink works on iPads and iPhones, too, if your school has a BYOD policy. What things can your students link? Please share your ideas! Image from ThingLink What attracts and "glues" kids to today's video and computer games is neither the violence, nor even the subject matter, but rather the learning the games provide. Kids like, and all humans love, to learn when it isn't forced on them." --Marc Prensky I am the mother of a digital native. A millennial. A member of the Net generation. Whatever you call him (and I've called him a lot of things--believe me), my eleven year-old isn't the same type of learner as I was when I was his age. Whereas I'd studiously and laboriously pore over my vocabulary flashcards, recopy my class notes, and just engage in some plain old-fashioned buckle-down-lock-myself-in-my-room-pace-recite-and-study for exams, my son resists and rejects my proven approach to learning. No matter how many frustrating and fruitless attempts I've made to get him to be more like me, somehow he just doesn't see the appeal of doing things my way. But can I blame him? Back in the early days of my career, like any eager and young teacher, I'd create study guides and chapter outlines and test-preparation materials for my students in anticipation of upcoming exams. It was boring. They were bored. I was bored teaching it. I thought about ways I could spice it up--make it interesting. And one night, plopped in front of my favorite TV game show, I became inspired. That's how the next day's test review session was born: "Romeo & Juliet Jeopardy." It was a hit. They had fun. I had fun creating it and playing it with my freshmen. And guess what? Judging from the increased test scores that time around, it appears that most of them actually learned something. Today, there isn't a unit I teach that doesn't include some kind of game-based learning to it. Let's face facts: we can't keep teaching and treating digital natives as if they're us. We'll lose them. No, it's not our role as teachers to necessarily always entertain our students. To be the juggling clown in the front of the classroom. But we could meet them halfway. And on their turf. I've had to accept the cold, hard fact that my son is a gamer. Personally, it's sometimes a hard pill for me to swallow. It means he not only plays video games, but that he'd rather game than do anything else: create his own study guides, color-code his notes, and organize them into multi-tabbed binders. But there is a valid argument for playing to learn. I still demand that my son make flashcards for his science vocabulary, but now we make them on StudyBlue and turn it into a game. We review for math tests at Math Playground. And for his most recent language arts quiz, we drilled adjectives. Whatever the subject, we Google it for online games. The digital native and the digital immigrant have found some common ground when it comes to learning. I'm game if he is. ........................................................................................................................................................................................ In future posts, I'll discuss some of my favorite teacher game sites, but here's one that's proven to be a reliable standby for me. Is there something in your current curriculum you could turn into a game? “Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is most important.” -- Bill Gates I recently came across a thought-provoking post by Dana Huff about the qualities inherent in an exceptional Technology Integration Specialist (TIS) and it got me thinking about why more schools in the 21st century don't hire at least one TIS per district...if not one per building. I've been lucky. The teachers with whom I've worked have been (mostly) receptive to my (gentle?) push to integrate technology into their curriculums, even if they're not entirely sure how it all works. And parents are certainly supportive of this initiative. And students...well, the digital natives are getting restless. So guess what happens when students use technology better than teachers? Guess who gets left behind? Guess who becomes obsolete? Why are we still seeing so little tech innovation in our classrooms? Thus, my four arguments for the employment of school-based Technology Integration Specialists to assist classroom teachers: (1) Time is Not On My Side If you're a teacher, time is something of which you never seem to have enough. Lesson planning and grading take up the majority of your time, and what precious little time remains gets gobbled up by parent conferences/emails/telephone calls, department meetings, committees, club advising/coaching, after-school tutoring sessions, attendance taking, field trip money collecting, detention duty...blah, blah, blah. (Need I continue?) Finding time to explore unknown territories is a very rare occurrence for teachers today. A TIS has the time to explore, experiment, and advise teachers. (2) Some Digital Immigrants Need a Translator The more of a digital immigrant you are, the more likely it is you'll need guided assistance. I don't want to be accused of ageism here, but teachers who have been less exposed to technology are sometimes intimidated by it and often less inclined to use it. Those fresh out of college are, obviously, less intimidated. But still, a TIS can provide guidance and assistance to teachers who want to take the plunge. (3) The Times, They Are A' Changin' I once considered getting my Master's (or at least an Endorsement) in Educational Technology but found myself frequently advised against it on the following advice: most technology programs are outdated by the time they're designed. In fact, everything I've learned about technology in the classroom I've taught myself simply by sharing ideas with other EdTech specialists, subscribing to blogs, and attending workshops. With EdTech transforming daily, how can we reasonably expect teachers to keep up with it? Again, another job handled by the TIS. (4) Special Is as Special Does Before we blame teachers for failing to embrace the technology, think about this: Would you see an internist to cure your plantar fasciitis, or would you be best-served visiting a podiatrist? Specialists are highly skilled, specifically-trained people who we see when we need information that we can't get on our own. Doesn't the education of 21st-century tech-savvy students--students expected to compete in a global economy--command "special" treatment? Simply put, it is incumbent upon our schools to support our teachers to advance their own digital literacy. And it needs to be done soon. Before the natives realize they don't need us anymore. |
Stephanie DeMicheleEducational Consultant - Presenter - Instructional Coach Educational consultant + coach in Cleveland, Ohio sharing innovative technology ideas for educators.
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