Seesaw - Notes from #EdCampR13 Session | #EdCamp

Students can post photos, audio, video, links, text, and and upload files to Seesaw.

Interesting use of Seesaw by teacher who is facilitating: Student filled out a behavior worksheet when she was off task. Then posted a pic of it to Seesaw and did an audio reflection on it. Parents can then see what happened and discuss at home later. (Personal thought: Would this make Seesaw less appealing to the students?)

Up to 10 family members can be given access to see students's work in Seesaw. In one case, a grandmother who lives out of state gets to see her grandchild's work and comments on it all the time. So cool!!! (Might want to let parents know they shouldn't invite someone who might be too judgmental.)

Types of Posts That Can be Made in Seesaw

One teacher shared that she teaches in a low SES area but has 100% participation from parents because they all have smartphones and can use the app! Parents can choose if they want to be notified by email or by an app notification when something is posted by their child. Parents only see their own students' work unless the teacher posts to the blog function. 

Students can comment on each others' work. The comment activity can be toggled on and off for specific activities in Seesaw. Great way to teach digital citizenship and appropriate online behavior. 

Can help students understand that this is their WOW work. Parents don't want to see pics of your shoes or the ceiling, etc.

In September, Seesaw just added the ability for teachers to create activities for students to do. Students complete in Seesaw. Example shown by facilitator was a template she made in Google Slides for demonstrating understanding of a multiplication problem. She downloaded as a PDF then uploaded to the Seesaw activity, and students were able to use the Seesaw tools to create.

Activities can be copied from class to class and even shared via link with another teacher!

Great for accountability! Can pull up activities and see who has completed them, then direct students accordingly.

Can download all activities as PDFs individually or the whole journal. Students could save the PDF to their Google Drive if you aren't using the paid version that allows the journal to follow the student from year to year.

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All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Please see specifics on my re-use policy before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

Excited to Join the Digital Citizenship Chat Team in 2014! #digcit

Digital citizenship is a topic that has become increasingly important in recent years as young people and adults alike negotiate what it means to be a participant in the largely public and searchable online world. Hardly a day goes by where we don't hear a story in the news about someone making a misstep in the digital realm that translates into consequences for them and those around them. These issues span a spectrum including cyberbullying, lack of professionalism leading to job loss, and online posts leading to indictment and incarceration.

What we don't hear enough about are the positive aspects of engaging online. Sharing ideas in areas of interest or expertise through blogging, creating a portfolio of our best work to show off to colleges and  prospective employers, and coming together to raise awareness of a cause are just a few of the ways people of any age can leave a positive impression of themselves as citizens online.

Digital citizenship has been a huge interest of mine for several years now because I think we can never discuss it enough or continue to grapple with topics related to our online conduct. Which is why I'm excited to have been invited to become part of the Digital Citizenship Chat team! On the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, you can find #Digcit chat on Twitter.

I was going to take time here to tell you all about it, but one of the advantages of being on a team is no one has to do all of the work alone. Below is a Smore digital poster designed by one of our team members to tell you all about the first 2014 chat taking place January 8th at 8 Eastern / 7 Central as well as introduce you to all of the team members. I hope to see you at one or more of the #Digcit chats in 2014!



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All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please see specifics on my re-use policy in the right-hand column of my blog before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

Dynamic Digital Portfolios #SXSWedu

Notes from SXSWedu 2011 breakout session...

Carol Teitelman
Region XIII Distance Learning

Link to Prezi from presentation: http://prezi.com/xty5ijclree_/dynamic-porfolios/

Dr. Helen Barrett
http://www.electronicportfolios.com/balance/index.html

Portfolios fall into two different types. (Epsilen allows you to do both at the same time.)

• Internal (learning or reflection)
• External (showcase or accountability)

Reflection a key part of keeping a portfolio. Why is this artifact in my portfolio and why do I want to keep it here?

The showcase aspect of a portfolio can be a PR tool for yourself and what is going on in your classroom. Share what your students are doing with the world.

Portfolio Tools

• Text
  Google docs
  Word processor
  Scan - lower grade kids still do hand-produced work
• Photos
  http://www.pixlr.com/ - Allows layered editing - can pull pictures from your computer or anywhere on the Internet - great opportunity to teach about copyright - teaching "how to" you can pull in any picture - going to repost you must pay attention to copyright
  http://www.pixenate.com/ - Has icons for tools so easier to use for nonreaders or struggling readers
  http://www.picnik.com/
  Digital Camera
  Scanner
• Video
  http://www.jaycut.com/
  http://animoto.com/education
  http://www.youtube.com/
  iMovie or Windows Movie Maker
• Sound
  http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
  http://www.free-sound-editor.com/

Mashups

• http://www.slidebomb.com/
• http://memolane.com/ - Just announced yesterday. Allows you to pull all of your content on the Internet into one place.
• http://www.speakingimage.com/

Examples

• Gallery of Teaching & Learning - http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/

Online Tools - How do we embed these in portfolios?

• www.intel.com/education/teachers
• http://www.classtools.com/ 

Portfolios need to be dynamic, living documents. The web is not a place to park stuff