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: Using Mobile Devices to Gather Evidence of Learning

Good assessment begins with good planning. 

When I reflect on my practice as a classroom teacher, often the assessment struggles I encountered were the result of my own failure to plan sufficiently. When I wasn't totally clear about the achievement criteria for _(insert assignment name/project here)_, invariably my students weren't clear either.  When I didn't consider the strengths and learning needs of my students, all too often individuals "fell through the cracks" or the quality of their work suffered. If I didn't plan from the outset how we would gather evidence of learning, no one knew where they were going or what was expected of them until the very last minute -- often with catastrophic results.  So in retrospect, I guess the bottom line is that when I put the cart before the horse (activities ahead of solid planning), the goal was unclear and most of the time, this meant it was missed by students completely. (Being clear about the criteria for any assignment is a critical step and the topic is worthy of its own blog post -- stay tuned for a more comprehensive look at criteria in an upcoming post!)

Photo shared with permission

However, assuming that the criteria is clear to both teacher and student, today teachers have more options for HOW they will gather evidence of learning than ever before -- if they plan for it! While ALL interaction with students yields some sort of assessment evidence, the four main types of evidence we can use to determine if students have met the learning goal(s) are:

• Products or Performances
• Observations
• Conversations
• Student self-reflections

Almost all mobile devices these days have certain "affordances" -- strengths or features -- that make them well suited for gathering a wide range of evidence of learning in the classroom. These common affordances are: (1) they are readily available (and often student owned); (2) they can take high quality digital photographs; (3) they have the ability to record audio; (4) they provide easy-to-use video recording; and (5) they are portable (mobile).

Here are a few ideas, organized according to evidence type, that teachers and students can use to gather (and share) evidence of learning:

Products or Performances: 
Student might:
- Create a video of him/herself rehearsing a presentation, and comparing their performance to the success criteria (rubric descriptors) to determine areas for improvement/next steps (formative)

- Create a video of him/herself and receive peer feedback from a classmate (using same process as above) (formative)

- Take a photograph of a visual he/she created and compare it to exemplars or assess it against the rubric criteria; student would make changes if necessary (formative)

Teacher might:
- Photograph each student’s product (work) and provide feedback on their analysis as well as recommend revisions as needed (either in a face to face conference, with "2 stars and a wish", Screen Chomp…) (formative)

- Videotape the final presentation and use it to make a judgement against the rubric criteria (summative)

Observations:

Student might:
- Take a photograph of each step in the building process during a science project (gathering materials, brainstorming/planning diagram, blueprint, construction of model, testing…) and create a digital story evaluating the final product (alternative to written self-reflection sheet) (summative)

Teacher might:
- Create a video of each student during the construction phase and perhaps ask students to show how their model reflects the blueprint they’ve created (formative or summative)

Conversations:

Student might:
- Record (audio or video) a conversation with their teacher about the work and use the feedback to adjust the strategy/revise their work (formative)

Teacher might:
- Record (audio or video) a conversation with students to gain clarity/more insight into their thinking process for the purpose of identifying misconceptions and providing further instruction

** CLICK HERE for video exemplar of a student explaining his personal addition strategies to his teacher

Student self-reflection:

Student might:
- Self-reflect orally using prompts (provided by the teacher) and record reflection (audio or video); share with a classmate and have him/her check work for accuracy  (formative)
- Choose an area they struggled with (identified on a written self-reflection sheet) and create a video discussing what they are having difficulty with. Submit to teacher for feedback. (formative or summative)

Teacher might:
- Capture video evidence of students reflecting on their difficulties completing a task, and then use this information to plan supports to help students
- Keep copies of video evidence and share this at parent-teacher conferences (provide parents with resources to help their child with an area of difficulty…)

Final thought: Together we are stronger than we are alone...

Do you have any other ideas to share about how you might use mobile devices to capture evidence of learning? Please post your thoughts/ideas below!