Seesaw: Web Student Portfolio/ for an Entire Class!

Digital Portfolios are the rage these days as educators are trying to harness emerging technologies to try to engage students and have them build a historical record of products demonstrating progress. There are many products that can do this job out there (Google Slides and Docs are one of them). One product I had a lot of fun demoing recently is a luscious looking one called Seesaw (Chrome Store App).

With Seesaw you give students and authentic audience for their work (students, teachers, parents) with immediate feedback that is controlled by you! Students have the ability to post a number of different pieces of media (images, videos, audio, links, documents, drawings) to demonstrate work produced. You as the teacher control the flow of products so students can't just post something without some moderation.

The tools at your students' disposal to create a working portfolio. 

There's a social component to this as well. The interface works a lot like Instagram with the ability for students to "Like" and "Comment" on other students' work - again with your approval. Parents are also plugged into your class and can see the class feed and have the ability to like and comment on student work. So parents get a real time look at what their student is doing in your class.

And students get a chance to choose what goes into their portfolio to represent their best work to show student progress. Check out the video below of a (very precocious and future President of the United States) 10 year old student talk about how Seesaw works.

This tool isn't just for elementary students (although much more Primary schools utilize it more than Secondary schools do)...this is a powerful Freemium service that has the ability to really engage High School students and give parents a look at what their student is doing in your class.

If anyone wants to give it a try, I can help with the setup and implementation. There are a slew of tools you can use to identify your student's progress that I haven't got into on this post. And if there are any teachers using Seesaw already, I wanna hear about it! Below are some links that may be helpful to those that are interested in checking it out!

Seesaw Teacher Overview
5 Great Features of Seesaw