A Review of Effective Collaboration and Assessment Tools

Collaboration and assessment tools are incredibly important in order to maintain a classroom that relies on each student’s input, while also being able to assess their skills and understanding simultaneously. These tools can be found online, and many of them are free to design and create tools customized to each individual classroom. Of the immense amount that can be found, I decided to choose three to be reviewed and rated on the Triple E Evaluation rubric. These three finalists were Poll Everywhere, Edmodo, and Twiddla.

I began with Poll Everywhere, which was pretty straightforward and easy to use. This tool can be used quite simply to poll students, and ultimately check for understanding or make anonymous class decisions. I created a quick, one question poll to get a sense of how this website works, and really got a sense of how easy this tool was to use. In this case, I created a poll to check my student’s understanding.

Once students respond, their responses will anonymously appear next to each selection.

Although Poll Everywhere is a good tool to formatively assess and check my students’ understanding, it is only useful for collaboration purposes if a class decision is to be made. That said, on the Triple E Evaluation rubric, this tool scored a 15 out of 18, losing points in the category titled “Extending the learning goals”. I gave Poll Everywhere lower scores in this area because it doesn’t do a great job of building onto other aspects of learning, nor does it give students much of an opportunity to extend themselves outside of the classroom. This tool is one that is mostly used by the instructor, and therefore limits the creative expression of my students to a simple selected answer choice. That said, I believe this tool can be affective when it is used to check for understanding or make a class decision, and not much else.

The second tool that I toyed around with was Edmodo. Having heard of this tool before, I was interested to see what it was really all about. Ultimately, Edmodo resembles an educational Facebook. Set up very similar, this tool allows teachers to create a page devoted to their class and post assignments, quizzes, polls, and general announcements for the class to view and respond to. This tool enhances student/teacher communication, and provides the teacher with the opportunity to easily assess and collaborate with his/her students. I created a mock Edmodo page to better experience this tool, and was able to get a good sense of the options available.

Edmodo’s home screen closely resembles Facebook’s home screen.

On the Triple E Evaluation rubric, Edmodo scored an easy 18/18. This tool is incredibly beneficial for collaboration and assessment in all aspects. It enhances teacher/student communication immensely, and provides a multitude of possibilities. Unlike Poll Everywhere, Edmodo can be used by students at anytime, and allows them access to class information whenever needed. That said, I will most definitely be utilizing this tool in my classroom to assess, poll and effectively inform my all of my future students.

The final tool I evaluated was Twiddla, which can most basically be described as an online whiteboard. Accessible to all my students, this tool allows my class to share ideas on one collaborative space, which appears as a blank whiteboard. Students can draw, type and insert tables and images onto a screen that the entire class shares, allowing for direct collaboration and gives the teacher the ability to monitor the entire assignment. That said, this tool can properly asses my students in that I will be able to watch them work in real time, providing insight on which students understand the material and which students still need help.

All students are able to view the same screen.

After a close review of this tool, I decided to score Twiddla a 17/18 on the Triple E Evaluation rubric. Although I believe that this tool can be an incredibly effective one for collaboration and assessment, I do believe it’s multitude of features and options could cause some students to get off task or become distracted. That said, the only point that was lost was in that category. Regardless, I do believe those tool provided many avenues for learning and allowed for the most creative expression than any of the previous tools, and could see myself using Twiddla in my future classroom.

All in all, each one of these tools can be of use to me with my future students. Although Edmodo is my favorite, I do believe that each tool could be helpful for me to assess and promote collaborative work in my future classroom, and I cannot wait to implement these tools into my own lesson plans.

A Review of Content Creation Tools

As an aspiring educator, I am continually searching for new tools and technologies that can be incorporated into my future classroom. For the purpose of this reflection, I’ve selected three different content creation tools to toy with and review. Of the three tools selected, each tool falls under a different category. From the presentation category, I selected Animoto; from the infographics category, I selected Infogram; and from the storytelling category, I selected Sutori. I also further assessed each of these tools by rating them on the Triple E Evaluation scale, and I will further discuss this as I reflect on each individual tool.

I began with Animoto, which is a tool for creating brief, video presentations. It was relatively easy to make an account and navigate the site, and therefore can be used by students as well as teachers. The video presentations that can be made are very visually appealing and have a multitude of customization options, however, these options are quite limited unless you a willing to pay for a subscription. That said, I attempted to create my own artifact using only the free options, to get an idea of how I can use this tool in my classroom without breaking the bank. Due to its easy to follow nature, I decided to create an artifact that could be created by one of my future students. With assistance where needed, I believe this tool can be used by 3rd/4th graders, and created a mock assignment through Animoto as an example. In this video, my future student (me) was instructed to create a video presentation that used sequencing to order the events in the fable “The Tortoise and the Hare”. Below is a screenshot of the screen students will see when creating their Animoto.

A screenshot depicting the “slides” of my mock video presentation.

It was quite simple to construct the video, and provided me with plenty of options to customize it however I’d like. That said, I was only able to make the video a maximum of thirty seconds long, and could only fit one short sentence of each “slide”. This limits the potential projects that Animoto could be used for, however, a short sequencing project seemed to work just fine. Besides these deficits, the video created was very visually appealing and professional looking nonetheless.

I selected a “Woodlands” themed Animoto to match the environment described in the fable.

After creating this video and spending ample time on Animoto’s website, I decided that I would score it a 12/18, meaning it has average learning potential and its effectiveness depends on the instruction around it. Animoto’s score is mainly hindered by the limits that the free version puts on a project’s potential, as not much information can be fit in a thirty second video. Animoto’s material restriction keeps students from depicting any in depth understanding, and the concept of scaffolding (as a teacher) cannot be done due to this limit as well. That said, I wouldn’t recommend Animoto for use by teachers in a lesson plan, unless they are willing to spend money, and should only be used by students who do not need space or time in the video to be incredibly descriptive.

The next tool I evaluated was an infographic, Infogram to be exact. This tool allows users to create visual reports and graphs to be used for a multitude of lessons and assignments. Contrary to Animoto, the free version of Infogram still provides the user with a multitude of customization options and ways to present information. That said, this website was a bit more confusing that Animoto, and therefore may only be used my older students or those more experienced with classroom technology. While creating my artifact using this tool, I decided to stick with “The Tortoise and the Hare” lesson theme, but instead made an infographic that could be constructed as a class. That is, an Infogram that I could create while my students brainstorm ideas to add during a group discussion. In this case, I created an Infogram that compared the Tortoise and the Hare by listing their character traits.

In a class discussion, I would have more empty “bubbles” for student’s to brainstorm character traits.

My Infogram was very visually appealing and served its purpose as an easy character trait organizer, and the process wasn’t very time consuming. Although I wasn’t a fan of its sometimes confusing nature, I do believe it is worth it for Infogram’s endless customization opportunities. It allows the user to be creative with their assignment, or in this case their lesson. Below I attached a screenshot of the customization screen where the Infogram is constructed.

Many of the options have detailed settings that can be confusing to young students.

The Infogram was a tool that I thoroughly enjoyed creating, as it is one that provides a multitude of learning opportunities. It is for that reason, that I decided to rate Infogram a 15/18 on the Triple E Evaluation scale. Although confusing for younger students, Infogram has endless potential in creating anything an older student or teacher may need for an assignment or lesson plan. It has plenty of opportunities for effective learning due to its limitless design possibilities. For Infogram, points were deducted due to its semi-confusing nature, however, I would still recommend this tool as an effective one for use by students, teachers and administrators alike.

The last tool that I used was Sutori, which is a story-like presentation creator. I created a free account, and immediately noticed how much simpler this tool was compared to Infogram. It was very straight forward and made it easy for me to create new pieces of the story, insert multimedia and change the sequence if necessary. I again decided to stick to “The Tortoise and the Hare” theme and switched back into a students mindset, creating a Sutori that simply described the plot of the fable. It was very easy, took me a whopping ten minutes to complete, and therefore can be very useful for younger students. After I completed my artifact and selected the “present” button, I noticed that my completed Sutori very much resembled basic presentations, and that the only difference is the process by which they are constructed.

My finished Sutori very much resembled a typical presentation.

I was unpleasantly surprised by this, as I expected it to be a bit more unique and visually attractive. There were more customization options that could have been used to make the slides more appealing, however they wouldn’t change the overall bland power point format. Attached is the way my Sutori looked during the construction process, as it resembled a story-like timeline. Regardless, construction was easy and easily understandable for less experienced users.

My Sutori looked much different while I was constructing it.

Overall, Sutori is a good tool for use by students and teachers, but can be easily replaced by other basic presentation tools. Due to its lack of exceptionality, Sutori scored an average 11/18, as I rated it only a bit higher than a basic presentation. It has the potential to be an effective learning tool if advanced instruction is given to enhance the content of the Sutori, however the same could be done with another tool. Sutori’s only unique feature is its timeline like design, but can be useful for young, inexperienced technology users. For these reasons, Sutori is an adequate tool that I would recommend for students of all ages, and teachers in need of an easily constructed presentation.

All in all, I feel as if my search to find effective content tools was rather successful. All of the tools that I tested out could definitely be of use to me in my future classroom, whether it be for a lesson plan, or as an assignment for my students. My favorite content tool was easily Infogram, simply due to its ability to support my students’ creativity. Regardless, I am excited to see how these tools can be of use to me in my future classroom, and can’t wait to discover the new technologies that will continue to develop.

Why Did I Choose WordPress?

Upon selecting a platform on which to create my first professional blog, I decided I would need to find one that was very simple and easy to navigate, as I am still a beginner. After scanning through EduBlogs and Blogger, I was not impressed with the features they had to offer. I found them to be a little confusing for beginners, and am very picky about the appearance of the platforms. I disliked Edublogs‘ font and overall design, and was not a fan of the color scheme used by Blogger. I felt relieved when I finally scanned through WordPress and realized that it was exactly what I was looking for. My blog was very easy to create, and I loved the simple and professional design of this platform. WordPress also provides an abundance of customization options to ensure that my blog can be a complete reflection of myself, my style and my thoughts. Overall, I believe this was the best option for me, and I am very much looking forward to what becomes of my blog on this platform.