Written by Guest Writer – Maree Shields
Over the last 12 years of my teaching career, I have been teaching the Movement and Physical Activity strand of the HPE curriculum, as a specialist teacher.
Over this time, with the introduction of newer technologies to our school, the way I assess student progress, and have evidence to back it up, has changed. My main tool has changed from a class list with items to check off or mark when the students have completed them, to the use of an Apple iPad, with the iDoceo (app) and Seesaw (digital portfolio). Sounds complicated but it really isn’t.
Starting with iDoceo (iPad app)
iDoceo is an iPad paid app that replaces your hard copy teacher focus book. It’s an electronic grade book that you can insert, videos, images, voice recordings, anecdotal notes, ticks, crosses, smiley/sad faces marks the roll & creates rubrics.
It does more, but let’s continue on… After teaching a particular skill, and giving the students ample time to practise and refine that skill, I will use the iDoceo app to record the students performing the skill. Depending on what the activity is, I will have the students working in small groups and either practising the skill at the same time, or working at tabloid activities, while I record each student either individually or working with one or two others. The iDoceo app allows you to record videos and, depending on how you set up your device, have them saved to the iPads camera roll, directly to Google Drive, or simply in the iDoceo app itself. Doing this means that you have that evidence saved against a students name in your gradebooks, and gives the ability to add a comment, a rubric to score performance against, and grade the students performance, all in one place.
Moving Evidence onto Seesaw
Seesaw is a digital portfolio tool that is accessible by parents, students and teachers.
Once the video is recorded, it can then be exported from iDoceo to Seesaw. Each student at my school has a Seesaw digital portfolio allowing parents and teachers to see the learning that is happening. This means the video I have captured for my own assessment purposes can be shared via Seesaw instantly. A double win.
The video or photo taken is accompanied by the learning intention for the skill and the success criteria the students were asked to follow. By adding this with the video, the students’ parents then have a better idea of the skills and activities that have been assessed to determine the students’ marks on their reports. Students and parents are able to view and comment on the students’ progress within the app.
Assessment uploaded to Seesaw
Using this technology has not altered the organisation of the lessons I teach, but has made me more confident in my assessment abilities, as I have the evidence right there, and I can ask my colleagues to watch the videos too, if I have any doubts, rather than relying on my memories of the students doing the skill.