15 Digital tools for student reflection on learning
More and more we are attempting to engage students in documenting their own learning. Taking responsibility for their input, effort and progress, setting targets and tracking their outcomes are important aspects of sharing power with students in a constructivist classroom and keeping the locus of control with the learner.
Quality reflection occurs when rich learning tasks lead to rich learning. Learning something new, for a real purpose, is fertile territory for reflection.
Teaching students how to use digital tools provides a range of options for reflection and documentation. Variety is the spice of life for all of us. Keeping ‘reflection’ novel, creative and fun will add to engagement and improve the quality of thinking undertaken.
Don’t forget pencil and paper reflection too. It can be photographed and uploaded to their blogs as well!
Remember too that teaching a small group of students how to use a tool, and having them teach others, or tasking a couple of students to take the tutorials for a tool, and then teach the rest of the class, is a time effective approach, and also provides a rich learning experience for their reflection on their skills as teachers/support for their peers.
TOOL 1 - eBooks
PLATFORM - Book Creator, Creative Book Builder, My Story and others
DESCRIPTION — Creative Book Builder can be uploaded into most cloud storage (including Google Drive) or generate a QR code. Book Creator exports as an ePub, PDF or Video.
COMMENTS — Students document their learning process, taking a photo at each stage and turn it into a book on completion.
Students create an e-Book for a learning area, like numeracy, and document target progress over time, creating a book page each time they work on their target.
Embed the QR code in a blog post to share.
TOOL 2 — iMovie
PLATFORM — All iOS devices and tutorials on: https://www.apple.com/support/mac-apps/imovie/
DESCRIPTION — It’s never been easier to make it in the movies. Just choose the clips you want to use. Insert titles, add effects, and create a full soundtrack with powerful tools that are as easy as drag and drop.
COMMENTS -At a recent conference we made paper planes and took snippets of video and photos of the steps as we made them. Used the camera in app for speed of use. Near the end of the ‘lesson’ we were given 10 minutes to create a 60–90 second video of the process. (Used Clock on the iPad to countdown the 10 minutes) Voice over included reflection on how it could be done better next time. Year 2–6, students are able to refine their movie making skills to a point where they only need 5 minutes at the end of a lesson or unit to edit, tidy up, animate, voice over and be ready to present their video record of their learning. These movies can be uploaded to YouTube and shared on blogs.
TOOL 3 — Explain Everything
PLATFORM — All devices http://explaineverything.com
DESCRIPTION -Explain Everything provides teachers and students an opportunity to share thinking, reflect upon knowledge building, and assess both products and processes of learning. Explain Everything adds the opportunity to collaborate in real time.
COMMENTS — Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard tool with real-time collaboration that lets you animate, record, annotate, collaborate, and explore ideas, knowledge and understanding.
Explain Everything provides teachers and students an opportunity to share thinking, reflect upon knowledge building, and assess both products and processes of learning.
TOOL 4 — ADOBE SPARK
PLATFORM — All devices https://spark.adobe.com
DESCRIPTION — A tool for creating visual content, to communicate effectively. Great one-stop-spot with three options.
COMMENTS — Three options:
Spark Post — for social media posts originally, the capacity to simply add text and filters to images makes this simple to use. As with other tools, images of work in progress can be annotated.
Spark Page — can create web stories by turning images and text into magazine style communication tools.
Spark Video — record voice, add images, icons and soundtrack.
TOOL 5 — SEESAW
PLATFORM — All — Digital Portfolio tool http://web.seesaw.me
DESCRIPTION — Student driven portfolio tool. Similar capabilities to other tools, and all in one solution. Students can curate and communicate their projects, creations and ideas with this tool.
COMMENTS — Seesaw empowers students of any age to independently document what they are learning at school.
Students capture learning with photos and videos of their work, or by adding digital creations. Everything gets organized in one place and is accessible to teachers from any device.
Student work can be shared with classmates, parents, or published to a class blog. Seesaw gives students a real audience for their work and offers parents a personalized window into their child’s learning.
TOOL 6 — MIX 53
PLATFORM — All iOS devices https://mix.fiftythree.com/
DESCRIPTION — Learn, sketch, play, write design or think. Creative processes using re-mixing in multimedia.
COMMENTS — Students can creatively present a collage of images that document their learning process and lead to a colourful stimulation for reflection. Saved as an image, the collage can be uploaded to Blogger or other blogging platforms.
TOOL 7 — PIC COLLAGE
PLATFORM — All iOS devices http://pic-collage.com
DESCRIPTION — Create, Connect. Collage. Use photos, stickers, frames and text to create collages.
COMMENTS — Students can creatively present a collage of images that document their learning process and lead to a colourful stimulation for reflection.
Saved as an image, the collage can be uploaded to Blogger or other blogging platforms.
TOOL 8 — FOTOBABBLE
PLATFORM — iPhone, iPad http://www.fotobabble.com/
DESCRIPTION — Photo and audio powered social media. A simple app, students take a photo of their learning and add an audio track to the image. Use Camera Roll or take a photo in the app.
COMMENTS — Taking a photo of some evidence related to a target (whiteboard of maths responses, a piece of writing showing a literacy target), students can then add voice over. Simple to use, retakes are possible.
TOOL 9 — NUTSHELL (By Prezi — integrates easily)
PLATFORM — Any — http://nutshell.prezi.com/
DESCRIPTION — Instant movies with text and animations. Take three pictures. Add some captions. Choose your graphics. And let Nutshell Camera turn it all into a short animated video you can share instantly on social media like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or embed in a Prezi.
COMMENTS — Students take 3 photos related to their learning (eg. The target a task description and the product), add graphics, labels and animations and it is turned into a short movie.
Played within the app it will do an endless loop.
The option to copy the link will enable it to be embedded in most student blogs.
TOOL 10 — VOICE THREAD
PLATFORM — All — http://voicethread.com
DESCRIPTION — VoiceThread using voice, video or text. Compatible with all systems, desktop or mobile, but needs up-to-date Adobe Flash. Likes Chrome. Range of security options, including Private or specific sharing.
COMMENTS — Students can record, add images and caption their videos, to tell their stories and communicate their learning, ideas and reflections.
TOOL 11 — PADLET
PLATFORM — Any device / platform — https://padlet.com
DESCRIPTION — The equivalent of popping a postit note on a wall, Padlet allows collaborative participation in a shared space.
You can also download a Chrome extension to add to your toolbar for easy access and adding items to padlets.
COMMENTS — Teachers use Padlet for a variety of reasons. Not only can students collaborate on walls in real time; students can also work on their own walls individually. This, coupled with the ability to upload just about any type of media onto a wall, means that Padlet can be used for almost any lesson.
Students can document their learning by uploading how-to videos, creating newspapers, solving math problems, and taking pictures for ice-breaker activities.
They can reflect on their learning, during the process or at its completion, adding notes to the walls they have created.
Padlets may then be turned into picture files and blogged for sharing.
TOOL 12 — LINO
PLATFORM — All — http://en.linoit.com
DESCRIPTION — An alternative to Padlet, free board for collaborative sharing of notes and images.
COMMENTS — Alternative presentation space for projects, posters, ideas.
TOOL 13 — VIDEO NOTES
PLATFORM — Google Drive linked — http://www.videonot.es
DESCRIPTION — Synchronise notes with video viewing.
COMMENTS — Great for peer assessment of video communication of learning. Clicking on a note takes the viewer directly to the relevant video section. Teachers can easily see student feedback against the video.
TOOL 14 — TOZZL
PLATFORM — All — http://tozzl.com
DESCRIPTION — Digital pinboard that integrates media (such as YouTube videos, files and images) and Twitter feeds.
No registration required to use this tool.
COMMENTS — Similar to other digital spaces for communication of student learning, ideas, reflection.
TOOL 15 — ANSWER GARDEN
PLATFORM — iPad — https://answergarden.ch
DESCRIPTION — A Brainstorming tool. AnswerGarden is a social response app for creatives, conferences and classrooms. Also see http://bit.ly/answergarden-app for a version without ads.
Integrates Twitter feed too.
COMMENTS — Similar in function to Padlet — ask a question for students to respond to. As with word clouds, the more popular the answer, the bigger the display on the screen.
Great for class wide reflection prompts; gathering opinions, understanding what students already know or have learned, and setting class goals.
It’s able to be exported easily and generates it’s own QR code for students to easily access.
