BYOD Personalizing Assessment with Formative

There are a few different non-SMS tools that allow teachers to assess students' understanding or prior-knowledge.  One that I came across recently has an added feature of being able to assess and discourse in real time, rather than after students' finish their work.  Formative is similar to other tools in that a teacher can set up an account and post an assessment for students to take on their mobile devices (must have Internet access).  However, Formative goes one step beyond just watching live (via a teacher's computer) as students work on their assessment, the teacher can actually give real time feedback as they watch a student work.  For example, a student may be writing a response and the teacher can comment (just to that individual student) in the middle of the response to remember to include their punctuation marks.  Or a student could be drawing a picture and if it is a student that struggles with their fine motor skills, the teacher could send them a note of encouragement as they work.  In addition, the teacher can give grades (rubric scale points such as 0-10) to the student as they are working.

So what?
I use the Triple E Framework to measure technology in lesson planning, which focuses on ways to help students engage, enhance and extend learning goals.  What I like about Formative (besides the fact that it is free!) is that the focus is not on the final product or grade, rather it is on the process of learning (and the learning goals!).  It allows teachers to personalize (and perhaps differentiate) learning based on students needs in the moment.  They are able to co-use the software in a mindful way.  Research tells us that it is very important for children to be able to talk about what they are doing in software and how it connects to the learning goals with others (more learning gains this way).  The teacher can make sure the students are staying focused on the learning goals through the messaging system back and forth.  In addition, the grading system allows for learning from failure and mistakes, and allows opportunity for students to correct their mistakes without fear or penalty.

Note to Formative:  I would also like to see this extended to parents, so they too can see their children's work in real time and comment.

Mobile Apps for Classroom Management and Assessment

One area of education technology that we do not focus on enough is the ability for technology to aid teachers in assessing and tracking management in the classroom.  Over the last few years a great number of mobile apps have emerged to aid in the process of tracking student management and making it transparent.  Below I will review a few of the FREE options I have come to appreciate.

Class Charts
When you sign up for class charts, it immediately asks if you want to collaborate with other teachers in your building.  For teachers in grades 6-12 where the students often share multiple teachers throughout the day, the collaboration feature is very handy.  This allows the teachers to see the children's behavior with other teachers and to see if there are certain patterns to the positive or negative behaviors.  The image that you work from is a seating chart for your classroom, and each student's image or an avatar represents them.

On the image are the "behavior" points accumulated, the reading level of students, their income background as well as any other statistical data that might help (you can add your own categories such as cultural background or hobbys) give you or another teacher a more holistic view of where the child is coming from and where they are currently at.  While there are ready-made behaviors, you can also add your own.  In addition, you can add notes to the behavior's accumulated easily so that the children, their parents or other teachers know why the points were added or taken away.  This would work well with a PBIS type approach to behavior management.  The system has very detailed graphical data reports that can be shared with students or parents.  There is also a nice system for a parent code.  Class Charts works with any Internet enabled device (iPad, iPod, Smartphone..etc).


Class Dojo

Class Dojo is similar to Class Charts.  It allows you to create a free account and set up all your students with avatars or pictures.  It does not use a seating chart approach, but lists the students in alphabetical order.  You can award positive or negative behavior points.  In addition to individual student behavior charts, it gives graphical statistics on the "class average" for behavior, which would be nice if you are doing a class award for a certain

behavior.  Also there are other features such as tracking attendance and customizing the behavior type options.  Class Dojo runs on any mobile device with Internet access.


TeacherKit

A great free app that tracks and manages student's behavior.
In addition to focusing on behavior it also works as a learning management system (LMS), where it includes grades, attendance and evaluation of activities.  You can use your mobile device to assign behaviors and see over time how the behavior correlates with the classroom grades.  It includes seating charts and customizable behavior options.  There are also graphical reports for students and parents to view.