Technology & Assessment: Infographics

On the surface, Infographics appear to be a bit of a fad these days. Cute, colorful, visual representations of information and statistics intended to amuse, titillate, and capture the attention of their 21st century audience. But there is more to infographics than meets the eye, and this presents some interesting possibilities from an assessment point of view.

Infographics as Visual Language

Italian designer, Fancesco Franchi, sees infographics as a narrative language -- as "representation plus interpretation to develop an idea". The designer interprets content and adds his/her interpretation in order to make the content meaningful for the audience. Using this medium, the story doesn't need to be linear or one-dimensional (like a Powerpoint presentation), but can provide multiple entry points for the viewer to engage with the content and make his or her own meaning. This requires something much deeper and more complex than just adding clever graphics to some information!

Making Student Thinking Visible

As a classroom teacher, I can appreciate that this type of "new language" requires time, practice and feedback to master, but I can also see the tremendous potential it contains for seeing the complex thinking processes of my students.  And while I may struggle to fully comprehend how or why a student represented something in an infographic in a particular way, it certainly opens the door for conversations about the thinking that took place. As such, infographics can be a rich tool for making student thinking visible and engaging in metacognitive conversations!


Tools and Other Resources for Creating Infographics

Eight Types of Infographics Teachers Should Know About - Interesting and comprehensive article by Educational Technology & Mobile Learning

Teaching With Infographics: Places to Start - NY Times, August 23, 2010

Easel.ly - Read a review of this product on the Lethbridge College Learning Connections website

Piktochart - Read a review of this product by Common Sense Media's website: Graphite

Visme (formerly EWC Presenter) - Read a review of this product on the Teacher's First website

Infogr.am - Read a review of this product on the Lifehacker website

Technology & Assessment: ePortfolios

There are many different types of portfolios: classroom writing folders, an artist's portfolio, a teacher's education portfolio, photo albums, etc. and most, perhaps all, of us have used or kept a portfolio at one time or another.   

All portfolios are meant to “tell a story”, which makes me think that keeping a portfolio has less to do with the physical object (noun) and more to do with the process of communicating something about us/our journey to a particular audience. An ePortfolio, consequently, should be less like a digital file cabinet and more like a multi-format showcase of student learning. Rick Stiggins, in Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing it Right -- Using it Well, asserts that "the desire to capture and communicate the depth of student learning has been at the heart of portfolio use for years", and I believe this should remain front and centre in ePortfolio use as well. 

Stiggins* goes on to state that:

A report card summarizes the story of achievement in one word at the same level of detail that a topic summarizes the story of a book: prejudice is a topic of "To Kill a Mockingbird", but that one word does not begin to tell the story.

An ePortfolio can provide a rich assessment measure because of its ability to tell so much more of "the story".

From Portfolio to ePortfolio: New Tools...Same Processes

The flat, thin case of the traditional portfolio has been replaced with a wide assortment of modern, digital equivalents that can be accessed on all sorts of devices including mobiles. These new tools can be used to:

• collect work
• reflect on learning in multiple formats (including multi-media)
• showcase work online to multiple audiences
• provide a platform for dialogue about learning artifacts or to engage in reflections
• to provide feedback/self-reflect in order to improve learning

Multiple Purposes:

There are many purposes for keeping an ePortfolio:

• to show growth or change over time
• to help develop process skills such as self-evaluation and goal setting
• to identify strengths and weaknesses
• to track the development of one or more products or performances

Because the range of purposes is so diverse, an ePortfolio can fit nicely into a class or school assessment plan. An ePortfolio can "fill in the blanks" left by other tools commonly used to "tell the learning story" or to capture learning that is not easily captured in other, more traditional assessments.

There is a powerful motivational and metacognitive component to ePortfolios as well. As Paris and Ayers** observe:

The overarching purpose of portfolios is to create a sense of personal ownership over one's accomplishments [learning], because ownership engenders feelings of pride, responsibility, and dedication.

Telling THEIR Stories

Creating an ePortfolio can be a powerful learning experience when the subject of the portfolio (the student) is the author of the portfolio. When students take part in creating a portfolio, they:

• take notice of their learning
• track their learning
• celebrate their learning
• build an understanding of who they are as learners
• nurture a sense of self-accomplishment

Beneficial and Abundant Tools

ePortfolio's offer many benefits to both teachers and students in the classroom, and there is no shortage of digital tools available. Here are some links to web 2.0 tools and various apps that you might use with students to create ePortfolios:

Web 2.0 Tools:

• Kidblog
• Evernote
• Google Apps (Docs, Sites, Blogger...)
• Onedrive
• Lucidpress
• Moovly
• Glogster
• Thinglink
• RCampus
• Mahara
• Moodle
• Exabis (Moodle Plug-In)

Apps - iOS/Android/Windows 8:

• Shaddow Puppet
• iXplain
• Screenchomp
• Voicethread (also Web 2.0)
• Storycreator

Any other ePortfolio tech tools you'd like to recommend? Add them to the comments below!

____
*Stiggins, Richard J., Judith A. Arter, Jan Chappuis, and Stephen Chappuis. "Chapter 11: Portfolios." Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right -- Using It Well. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2007. 335. Print.
**Paris, S. and Ayres, L. (1994) Becoming Reflective Students and Teachers. American Psychological Association.

Technology & Assessment: Digital Feedback Tools

The Coaching (Assessment FOR Learning) section on the AAC Key Visual can help us understand the place for (and power of) feedback in the learning process. Feedback is the key component of formative assessment, and it's importance in the learning process cannot be overstated!

The Importance of Feedback for Students:

When students receive specific, descriptive, and timely feedback, they are able to close the gap between where they are trying to go (the learning target) and where they are currently. In other words, feedback at the right time and at the right level moves learning forward. 

Not all feedback is created equal, however. Quality feedback needs to be:

• focused on criteria
• frequent and timely
• collaborative, with the learners deeply involved in the process
• designed to improve student learning
• differentiated to support the learners at their level

Feedback is also tied to motivation, interest, and performance (not to mention ego), so educators need to understand it's effect and use it carefully. As Ruth Butler's article in the Journal of Educational Psychology (1987) observed, the only type of feedback that helps students to improve and to stay motivated, is comments; providing marks as feedback does not result in any gain in performance and only motivates the top students. Be aware of the purpose of the feedback you are providing, and the timing of it as well; ask yourself WHY am I giving this feedback, and WHAT will students do with it when they receive it. Students should be expected to make adjustments to their work based upon the feedback they receive, and they will need time to do so before a summative judgment is delivered.

So Where's the DIGITAL part of this blog post?!

Okay...so now that we've discussed the properties of quality feedback, let's take a look at some of the fantastic digital tools available for giving feedback:

1) Blogs: What I love about blogs is the ability to provide feedback that is visible to others besides the intended recipient. This benefits not only the recipient of the feedback, but other viewers as well. In a classroom context, this means that students who view the work/feedback of their peers also have an opportunity to internalize the success criteria themselves. My only caution here is that the context needs to be safe for this to take place, so ensure that the feedback is directly related to the criteria for the task, and is formative (not summative/no grade attached).

2) Google docs: When students share their work in Google docs, they can choose to allow collaborators to comment on that work.  Teachers or classmates can highlight portions of the text and insert typed comments. The recipient of the feedback can make adjustments to their work as needed and mark the comment as "resolved" when ready. The ability to collaborate in real time is a key feature of Google docs, allowing collaborators to provide feedback, make adjustments, ask clarifying questions, etc. to improve their work.

3) Kaizena (GAFE/Chrome app): Kaizena is a web app that allows you to leave audio comments on Google Docs. You enable this by creating a Kaizena profile, a place where your students or peers can go to request your feedback by selecting a document and placing it in one of the "boxes" you set up with your profile. Have a look at the Kaizena Blog for more details on how to enable sharing.

4) MS Word: MS Word has had the ability to provide typed comments for years, and this feature is still available for both Mac and PC. The PC version, however, also allows for audio comments -- a nice feature, especially for those times when a large amount of feedback might be needed. You can learn more about how to provide comments in Word on the Microsoft Support website.

5) Screenchomp: Screenchomp is a free iOS app created by Techsmith (makers of Jing, Camtasia, Snag It and other popular software tools) that allows the user to leave audio comments as well as text comments/drawings on uploaded student work. Watch this video to see Screenchomp in action.

A clear understanding and implementation of formative feedback can have a powerful effect on student learning. There are many digital tools available for providing feedback, but as is the case with most (all) things, the quality of the feedback – not the quantity – is critical.

Feedback resources:

• Susan Brookhart is this year's keynote speaker at the AAC Annual Fall Conference - Leadership Day, and author of the outstanding book, How To Give Effective Feedback to Your Students, available for purchase from ASCD.
• Grant Wiggins has a great article on Seven Keys to Effective Feedback in the September 2012 Educational Leadership magazine, which focused on Feedback for Learning.
• Bryan Goodwin and Kirsten Miller's article, Research Says/Good Feedback is Targeted, Specific, Timely (also published in the September 2012 Educational Leadership magazine) makes an interesting connection between how frequent feedback in video games is what sustains a child's interest.
• The Power of Feedback by John Hattie and Helen Timperley (Review of Educational Research, 2007 77:81)