So far I have focused on using technology to record, share, and reflect on the learning journey. Today I was struck by how technology could be used to guide student learning and develop perseverance. Technology can help to track student progress, thinking, and failures. I attended a Makerspace workshop on Thursday evening and had the opportunity to explore Dot and Dash, Little Bits, Sphero, Osmo, and more. These various technologies had several things in common: they encouraged creativity and inquiry based learning. Many of the technologies allowed students to track their progress. Using these types of technologies lend itself to opportunities for formative assessment. This indirect connection between technology and formative assessment allows teachers greater opportunities to observe and assess student learning. While students work, play and explore with technology, teachers can be observing and assessing as well as taking photos and videos of students while they work. This can then allow teachers to upload these photos and videos and provide students opportunities to self-reflect on themselves learning. By reflecting on themselves learning, they might gain a new perspective on a problem they were working on that they didn’t recognize while they were engrossed in learning. Technology is now giving students access to new learning experiences such as coding which is offered through something like Dot and Dash. Technology provides students with new ways to visualize a problem as well as discover a new passion. This allows teachers to provide students with multi-modal learning experiences.
Monthly Archives: February 2016
Integrating Formative Assessment into the Classroom
Before we can ask the question, “How does technology enhance formative assessment?” we must first understand what formative assessment is and how to successfully and meaningfully integrate it into the classroom. This article helps guide teachers through integrating formative assessment into the classroom. Formative assessment helps teachers to understand their student’s strengths and weaknesses and help guide them throughout the learning journey. Dyer states: “Formative assessment is a proven tool for moving students forward, there are many techniques that make it flexible and accommodating for nearly any classroom environment and it’s not hard to implement (2015).” Dyer suggests five quick tips for integrating formative assessment into the daily classroom routine (2015):
1.Start small
2.Be transparent with how students are doing and why
3.Teach the students about formative assessment so they can use it too
4. Integrate it daily
5. Celebrate the shifts
Starting small allows the teacher to implement one or two strategies at a time and do those well. Once these formative assessment techniques become familiar to the students then the teacher can feel free to try new strategies. An important part of the success of formative assessment is letting the students know what and why you are doing it. By informing students of your practice they become comfortable with it and can become a part of formative assessment through techniques such a self-reflection. Students often do formative assessment such as reflecting in group discussions about what they liked or did well at in an activity. Students can also be taught formative assessment techniques such as editing peer work. They can and should be an important part of the process so long as they are taught how to do so. Celebrate and enjoy the positive changes that formative assessment makes in your classroom. Dyer describes the importance of celebrating stating: “Formative assessment is an ongoing process and should therefore be part of the daily routine. As students become learners, as learning becomes the habit, as mistakes and assessments are seen as additional opportunities to learn – celebrate (2015).” Once formative assessment becomes a part of the daily routine and students learn how to assess and grow in their learning, teachers can begin to consider how technology can enhance that process.
Dyer, K. (2015, May 1). Praise for Formative Assessment and Five Steps for Successful Classroom Integration. Retrieved from https://www.nwea.org/blog/2015/praise-formative-assessment- five-steps-successful-classroom-integration/
Changing the Face of Education through Technology
This article focuses on using technology to enhance personalized learning and assessment. According to the article technology will change how we organize our schools, what the role of the teacher is and how we assess. Education will not change by simply implementing technology. West states: “By itself, technology will not remake education. Meaningful change requires alterations in technology, organizational structure, instructional approach, and educational assessment. But if officials combine innovations in technology, organization, operations, and culture, they can overcome current barriers, produce better results, and reimagine the manner in which schools function (2011, p. 1).” When technology is implemented in a meaningful way through changing the structure of the classroom then personalized learning and assessment can be more meaningful. Technology creates opportunities for meaningful, nuanced, multi-faceted assessment (West, 2011). One way to integrate formative assessment into the classroom is through electronic clickers. This article discovered that the use of electronic clickers have proven to increase test scores. The clickers help to provide instantaneous feedback which is an important aspect of formative assessment. Technology can help transform the assessment process and improve learning and drive educational change (West, 2011). Technology gives teachers the opportunity to assess every part of the learning process. West states: “With digital technology, learning can be personalized to the individual and performance evaluated in real time (2011, p. 13).” By using technology for instantaneous feedback, teachers and students can discover which aspects of learning they are struggling with and which aspects they do well. The ability to assess various aspects of learning can also help students and teachers to push their learning forward in more focused ways.
West, D. M. (2011, October 6). Using Technology to Personalize Learning and Assess Students in Real-Time. Retrieved from http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2011/10/06-personalize-learning-west/1006_personalize_learning_west.pdf
Self-Reflection as Formative Assessment
Reflection can take many forms. We can reflect alone or with others, reflect on experiences or on work, reflect at the beginning and end of a process. Whatever the form, self-reflecting can be powerful. Kallick and Costa state: “Reflecting on work enhances its meaning. Reflecting on experiences encourages insight and complex learning (2008).” Self-reflection can be a back and forth process between student and teacher.
Through technology students can reflect through video, writing, or drawing. The Early Childhood Research and Practice has found that instant video revisiting, which allows students to immediately view videos of themselves working and reflect alongside their teacher, has helped support student learning (Beyne, 2015). Through writing, drawing, and video students can reflect quickly in real time providing an authentic look at their thoughts. Technology also allows students to go back and look at their self-reflections and make meaning from those comments.
In my own teaching practice I have engaged in the process of self-reflection. Recently my students wrote self-reflection comments on an ongoing art activity. They combined various forms of self-reflection techniques including writing and visual representation. They chose one example of their work to upload to Fresh Grade and were then required to write two self-reflective comments. They were required to write one positive comment and one comment of something they could improve on, was hard for them, or something they found hard.
I helped support my students self-reflection by brainstorming questions and comments they could reflect on. Kallick and Costa suggests that it is important for teachers to set the tone for reflecting (2008). They state: “Reflective teachers help students understand that the students will now look back rather than move forward. They will take a break from what they have been doing, step away from their work, and ask themselves, ‘What have I (or we) learned from doing this activity?’ (2008).” By brainstorming with the students first they were able to focus on looking back on the work they had done over the previous weeks.
I was pleased to discover that many of my students not only wrote more than two comments but also wrote very meaningful comments that gave me insight into their process, both the joys and the struggles. By having the students reflect using technology, I was able to respond to their reflections and self-reflect on my own practice. Fresh Grade allows teachers to respond to student’s reflections and in this case see the supporting work that the students are reflecting on. By reading my student’s comments I was also able to see which students loved the activity (most of them commented that they did!) and which ones struggled. I could see individual struggles as well as group struggles. I discovered that the majority of students found the same objective to be a challenge. I then reflected on whether this goal was too challenging or pushed them just enough.
Self-reflection is part of an ongoing process and formative assessment. Technology can play a great role in helping students to document that ongoing process. Not only can students go back and look at their work, they can look back on their self-reflections. The process of good self-reflection is just as important as the work they are self-reflecting on. Costa and Kallick state: “Reflection is the time to consider what was learned from the experience. Reflection is a time to describe what students saw in their own work that changed, needed to change, or might need to be described so another person might understand its meaning (2008).” Writing meaningful self-reflections is an important skill for students to learn.
Beyne, H. (2015). Using technology for self-reflection in the classroom. Retrieved from: http://glpd.greenlightlearningtools.com/blog/2015/02/12/using-technology-self-reflection-classroom/
Costa, A. L. & Kallick, B. (2008). Learning through reflection. In A. L. Costa & B. Kallick (Eds.), Learning and leading with habits of the mind: 16 essential characteristics for success. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.