5 Ways Students Can Share What They've Learned

-

There are so many amazing new ways students can share what they've learned and create incredible projects, videos, websites, and presentations to show what they've learned. This is a quick list of 5 I've used this year that my students and I really liked. I won't go into too much detail about each product, this more of a whirlwind tour then an in-depth tutorial. Enjoy! 


If you live anywhere on social media, even if you spent like 5 seconds on twitter this year, you probably already know about this one. It's not my favorite (and to be honest, my students don't LOVE it) but it has a ton of potential and has some really amazing features. 

How It Works: Students record up to 5 minute long videos reacting to a prompt. Students can comment and react to each other (but those features can be turned off) feels like instagram of videos but is self contained (you control who has access to the grid and can post.).

What I like about it: It feels like secured Snapchat and you can actually use snapchat to create your videos and then download to your phone and upload to the app. Students have an audience of their peers and grids can be shared with parents or the community to gain a larger audience for student work.



How it works: Free website builder that allows students to embed Google Drive files, PDFs, images, and videos. Totally customizable! 

What I like about it: EVERYTHING! Students can created engaging and easy to manage digital portfolios. I LOVE that students can post google docs directly to their site and create endless pages of their work. It is easy to learn and navigate and the audience can be limitless with this website maker. 



How it works: Free video creating software BUT it works more like Powerpoint than iMovie. It is more about adding pictures and slides and then adding narration over them. GREAT for students taking pictures of their work and then explaining that work! Students can also upload short video clips as well. 

What I like about it: This is another one where I love just about everything about it. There is a free app students can get on their phones and it allows students to blend their voice with text and pictures in a simple but often times elegant way. 


How it works: Think if it as digital post it notes but 1000 times more awesome. Students can share videos, links, documents they have created, and images to one easy to share webpage. Students can create these pages collaboratively or on their own.  

What I like about it: I actually like Padlet more for the research and planning stage then as a way to show a final product. It works really well to have students turn in assignments on a padlet and then give each other feedback. 


How it works: Works just like Powerpoint except you don't need to download anything. The embedded tools for videos and links are more seamless and more powerful.. It is also easier for multiple students to work on a Google Slide at one time using the Sharing feature. 

What I like about it: This is another one where I struggle to tell you what I like because I like everything. Embed gifs, youtube videos, make digital posters, create choose your own adventure activities, hyperdocs, or just create a good old fashioned presentation deck that you can literally share with the click of a button. While Microsoft has OneDrive, it does not compare to the immediate sharing features available on google products. OH! I almost forget, Google Slides is also amazing for collaboration! When multiple students work on one deck you can see the edits in real time! 


There are more amazing tools out there to get students sharing and even with the tools listed above but hopefully you found some new ideas or were reminded of a tool you used before. 

Now, I want to hear from you, what are your favorite ways for students to share what they've learned. Let me know in the comments! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you so much for commenting! You can also reach out to me on twitter: @mrsbyarshistory

Popular posts from this blog

Hacking the System: Using a 4 Point Scale with a Traditional Online Gradebook

-
Image
When I first started down the road of "how do I make sure my grading system supports learning and is not just a tool for communication" I found my biggest challenge was not creating lessons or building proficiency scales, it wasn't student buy-in or parent buy-in, it wasn't admin support or all the things you would think would stand in the way of such a foundational shift in practices. No, it was something entirely out of my control, the biggest challenge was trying to figure out how to get the digital grade book I had to use per my contract to play nice with a 0-4 scale.  Why a 0-4 Scale? The 100 point scale is a dream killer and it is full of opportunities for our own bias to trickle into the grading process. Maybe Johnny and Sally did the same level of mastery but Johnny had an attitude when completing it, how likely is it that Sally will get an 85% and Johnny will get an 80% while those few points might seem like nothing, that can add up. The bias...
Read more

Why I Am Leaving Canvas LMS for Google Classroom

-
Image
I consider myself a team player. A few years ago when our district announced that the Learning Management System they were supporting was going to be Canvas LMS I stopped using Schoology and started learning as much as I could about Canvas LMS. Right away I could see the potential, there was a ton of back end data that Canvas was collecting, it was designed with mastery and personalized learning in mind, and you could complete customizations of your pages with just a tiny bit of knowledge of basic HTML. So I committed to using Canvas as my class website and used it to host all the blended assignments I was creating. I spent hours reading the incredible Canvas LMS community learning all the things it could do that could potentially make my teaching more engaging, more personalized, and more about meeting the needs of my students.  You see, Canvas does have some remarkable features - you can create quizzes that pull from a question bank so no two students have the same qu...
Read more

Formative Assessment Isn't What You Think

-
Image
When planning for a Standards-Based classroom you follow a clear series of steps : 1. Pick your priority standards and rewrite them in student-friendly learning objectives. 2. Unpack those standards to really understand what they are asking students to know and do. 3. Build rubrics or proficiency scales to help make the learning objective accessible for students and to create a clear understanding of how mastery will be measured. 4. Build your assessments using those rubrics. 5. Create your learning path from introducing the learning objective to assessing the standard that includes a lot of feedback and formative assessment. 6. Make a plan for intervention and support. One of the most daunting elements of a Standards-Based classroom is the idea that feedback needs to happen consistently for students to be able to improve on the learning objective. We know a grade on its own is not enough to help students learn from their mistakes or to understand where they need to impro...
Read more