Friday, February 19, 2016

Check Please!

As I was training students this week on how to use a new productivity tool, I could not help but notice a few of them having a great time violently shuffling their mouse back and forth in a way that made the screen flicker.  They, of course, thought it was hilarious and so did those around them.  I then found myself saying out loud what I was thinking in my head: "Is this the first time you have ever used a computer?"  Over the years, I have developed a pretty effective filter regarding what I say versus what I was thinking, but this one slipped and I felt really bad about it.  I was sure to attend to those students very closely during the remainder of the lesson and actually used them as leaders later on.

That rhetorical question that I asked, however, led me to think deeper.  While this was obviously not the first time that these students had used a computer, it was quite possibly one of the first times that they were provided with an opportunity to use computers at school for something creative, instead of taking a test or playing games.  We can't expect all students to know what the expectations for use are until we give clear direction, hold them accountable, and, most importantly, provide ample and consistent opportunities to utilize these devices in a creative setting!  Like many school districts already have or will do, ours is preparing to significantly expand student access to technology.  Using devices will be less of an "event" and become much more commonplace.   Teachers and students will be given the opportunity to use technology for teaching, learning, creating, collaborating, problem solving, and yes, assessments.  Our team wants to be sure that all teachers and students get the support that they need to continuously expand their experiences in ways that make educational sense.

With that in mind, the video that we wanted to share this week focuses on making checks for understanding fun, easy, "gamified," and informative.  These tools, Kahoot, Quizizz, and Plickers allow teachers to easily create (or borrow) questions of varying types and administer them in ways that use technology to collect and track the information that it provides.  This gives the students the feedback on their progress as well provides the teacher with valuable and timely data to guide planning, reteaching, and intervention.  If you would like some help getting signed up, navigating, or using any of these engaging assessment resources, please let us know!






Kevin Schamel
Twitter: @schamelearning

Kirsten Phillips
Twitter: @kear734

#RCSeLearn

www.werrichmond.com/elearning




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